第29章

"But where is she? I wish to see her! Lead me!""It is a piece of insanity!" Spendius kept saying."She will call, her slaves will run up, and in spite of your strength you will die!"They reached thus the galley staircase.Matho raised his head, and thought that he could perceive far above a vague brightness, radiant and soft.Spendius sought to restrain him, but he dashed up the steps.

As he found himself again in places where he had already seen her, the interval of the days that had passed was obliterated from his memory.

But now had she been singing among the tables; she had disappeared, and he had since been continually ascending this staircase.The sky above his head was covered with fires; the sea filled the horizon; at each step he was surrounded by a still greater immensity, and he continued to climb upward with that strange facility which we experience in dreams.

The rustling of the veil as it brushed against the stones recalled his new power to him; but in the excess of his hope he could no longer tell what he was to do; this uncertainty alarmed him.

From time to time he would press his face against the quadrangular openings in the closed apartments, and he thought that in several of the latter he could see persons asleep.

The last story, which was narrower, formed a sort of dado on the summit of the terraces.Matho walked round it slowly.

A milky light filled the sheets of talc which closed the little apertures in the wall, and in their symmetrical arrangement they looked in the darkness like rows of delicate pearls.He recognised the red door with the black cross.The throbbing of his heart increased.

He would fain have fled.He pushed the door and it opened.

A galley-shaped lamp hung burning in the back part of the room, and three rays, emitted from its silver keel, trembled on the lofty wainscots, which were painted red with black bands.The ceiling was an assemblage of small beams, with amethysts and topazes amid their gilding in the knots of the wood.On both the great sides of the apartment there stretched a very low bed made with white leathern straps; while above, semi-circles like shells, opened in the thickness of the wall, suffered a garment to come out and hang down to the ground.

There was an oval basin with a step of onyx round it; delicate slippers of serpent skin were standing on the edge, together with an alabaster flagon.The trace of a wet footstep might be seen beyond.

Exquisite scents were evaporating.

Matho glided over the pavement, which was encrusted with gold, mother-of-pearl, and glass; and, in spite of the polished smoothness of the ground, it seemed to him that his feet sank as though he were walking on sand.

Behind the silver lamp he had perceived a large square of azure held in the air by four cords from above, and he advanced with loins bent and mouth open.

Flamingoes' wings, fitted on branches of black coral, lay about among purple cushions, tortoiseshell strigils, cedar boxes, and ivory spatulas.There were antelopes' horns with rings and bracelets strung upon them; and clay vases were cooling in the wind in the cleft of the wall with a lattice-work of reeds.Several times he struck his foot, for the ground had various levels of unequal height, which formed a succession of apartments, as it were, in the room.In the background there were silver balustrades surrounding a carpet strewn with painted flowers.At last he came to the hanging bed beside an ebony stool serving to get into it.

But the light ceased at the edge;--and the shadow, like a great curtain, revealed only a corner of the red mattress with the extremity of a little naked foot lying upon its ankle.Then Matho took up the lamp very gently.

She was sleeping with her cheek in one hand and with the other arm extended.Her ringlets were spread about her in such abundance that she appeared to be lying on black feathers, and her ample white tunic wound in soft draperies to her feet following the curves of her person.Her eyes were just visible beneath her half-closed eyelids.

The curtains, which stretched perpendicularly, enveloped her in a bluish atmosphere, and the motion of her breathing, communicating itself to the cords, seemed to rock her in the air.A long mosquito was buzzing.

Matho stood motionless holding the silver lamp at arm's length; but on a sudden the mosquito-net caught fire and disappeared, and Salammbo awoke.

The fire had gone out of itself.She did not speak.The lamp caused great luminous moires to flicker on the wainscots.

"What is it?" she said.

He replied:

"'Tis the veil of the goddess!"

"The veil of the goddess!" cried Salammbo, and supporting herself on both clenched hands she leaned shuddering out.He resumed:

"I have been in the depths of the sanctuary to seek it for you! Look!"The Zaimph shone a mass of rays.

"Do you remember it?" said Matho."You appeared at night in my dreams, but I did not guess the mute command of your eyes!" She put out one foot upon the ebony stool."Had I understood I should have hastened hither, I should have forsaken the army, I should not have left Carthage.To obey you I would go down through the caverns of Hadrumetum into the kingdom of the shades!--Forgive me! it was as though mountains were weighing upon my days; and yet something drew me on! I tried to come to you! Should I ever have dared this without the Gods!--Let us go! You must follow me! or, if you do not wish to do so, I will remain.What matters it to me!--Drown my soul in your breath!

Let my lips be crushed with kissing your hands!""Let me see it!" she said."Nearer! nearer!"Day was breaking, and the sheets of talc in the walls were filled with a vinous colour.Salammbo leaned fainting against the cushions of the bed.

"I love you!" cried Matho.

"Give it!" she stammered out, and they drew closer together.