“Cursed be the dog that injures the flock!  Gracious Tanith, to cripple slaves!  Ah! you ruin your master!  Let him be smothered in the dunghill.  And those that are missing?  Where are they?  Have you helped the soldiers to murder them?”

His face was so terrible that all the women fled.  The slaves drew back and formed a large circle around them; Giddenem was frantically kissing his sandals; Hamilcar stood upright with his arms raised above him.

But with his understanding as clear as in the sternest of his battles, he recalled a thousand odious things, ignominies from which he had turned aside; and in the gleaming of his wrath he could once more see all his disasters simultaneously as in the lightnings of a storm.  The governors of the country estates had fled through terror of the soldiers, perhaps through collusion with them; they were all deceiving him; he had restrained himself too long.

“Bring them here!” he cried; “and brand them on the forehead with red-hot irons as cowards!”

Then they brought and spread out in the middle of the garden, fetters, carcanets, knives, chains for those condemned to the mines, cippi for fastening the legs, numellae for confining the shoulders, and scorpions or whips with triple thongs terminating in brass claws.

All were placed facing the sun, in the direction of Moloch the Devourer, and were stretched on the ground on their stomachs or on their backs, those, however, who were sentenced to be flogged standing upright against the trees with two men beside them, one counting the blows and the other striking.

In striking he used both his arms, and the whistling thongs made the bark of the plane-trees fly.  The blood was scattered like rain upon the foliage, and red masses writhed with howls at the foot of the trees.  Those who were under the iron tore their faces with their nails.  The wooden screws could be heard creaking; dull knockings resounded; sometimes a sharp cry would suddenly pierce the air.  In the direction of the kitchens, men were brisking up burning coals with fans amid tattered garments and scattered hair, and a smell of burning flesh was perceptible.  Those who were under the scourge, swooning, but kept in their positions by the bonds on their arms, rolled their heads upon their shoulders and closed their eyes.  The others who were watching them began to shriek with terror, and the lions, remembering the feast perhaps, stretched themselves out yawning against the edge of the dens.

Then Salammbo was seen on the platform of her terrace.  She ran wildly about it from left to right.  Hamilcar perceived her.  It seemed to him that she was holding up her arms towards him to ask for pardon; with a gesture of horror he plunged into the elephants’ park.

These animals were the pride of the great Punic houses.  They had carried their ancestors, had triumphed in the wars, and they were reverenced as being the favourites of the Sun.