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Perhaps the Punic gods were mere demons, as they seemed to be, and Iddilcar knew it and relied for protection upon the mightier gods of Rome. In a sense, she reasoned on false premises, but her conclusion was, none the less, more accurate than would have been that of either Paullus or Sergius. For the time, at least, Iddilcar was entirely sincere.
Then, stooping quickly, he drew the long, dark robe of Iddilcar from where it lay entangled about the legs of the corpse.
Cunning beyond his race, learned in the strange learning of the East that had come to a few in Egypt and to fewer yet in Phoenicia, Iddilcar read the struggle that was taking place in the girl's mind. "What do I care for Hannibal!" he cried; "for the Great Council! for Carthage! I would give them all to you for one kiss.
The porter hardly deigned to swing the door for me." Marcia, knowing Iddilcar as she did, was prompt to take this speech in the light of an explanation of his eavesdropping; but the once sharp intelligence of Calavius had been too much deadened to search for secondary meanings. "I am an old man, priest," he said querulously. "Why should I leave stripes and crying behind me?"
Ah, protecting gods! what was true, and what but dreams? Her whole life was passing before her, phantasmagorial and unreal. Surely some one was present! She felt it. Had Iddilcar come already? The horror of the thought gave her courage, and, thrusting down the coverlid, she opened her eyes defiantly and tried to pierce the darkness.
Outside, a company of five men were gathered, all mounted. Two were apparently soldiers, a sort of guard; the rest were servants. Heavy looking packages were bound, behind them, on their horses' backs, doubtless the money which Iddilcar had gotten, while two extra animals, saddled and bridled, were held in waiting.
Come, what will you give me that I smother their wrath I, Iddilcar, your friend, whom you speak ill of behind his back whom you hate -yes, both of you;" and his eyes flashed at Marcia with a strange recklessness that she had never seen in them. Wondering and terrified, she listened to his outburst of rage, but Calavius heard it calmly, and answered, without troubling himself to probe its import.
Had she been Fabius, Paullus, or even Sergius, men who were already groping amid the Greek schools of doubt, and were coming to regard the religion of the state more as an invaluable means of curbing the vices of the low and ignorant than as a divine light for the learned, had she been such as these, this proposal of Iddilcar would have seemed incredible only on account of its treason to his country.
The visit was evidently over, and Hannibal, about to take his leave, was glancing around, evidently in search of the missing priest. Iddilcar spoke low and rapidly: "I will return at once. Wait me till I come, or I will have you given to a syntagma of Africans." He was out in the peristyle now, bowing low before the captain-general.
Less helpless than he had seemed, and with staring eyes, before which death danced, Iddilcar gathered all his remaining strength for one last, despairing effort, wrenched himself loose, and staggered to his feet. Then Marcia saw Sergius, for she knew now it was indeed he, saw him throw himself forward on his knees, and, catching Iddilcar about the hips, plunge the blade into his side.
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