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"Live for me!" cried Actæon, stung with grief, unconscious of his surroundings, deaf to the cries of the defenders on the wall and to the footsteps of someone approaching on the street. "Rhanto, shepherdess, listen to me! Now I understand why I longed to see you; why your memory came to me so often in Rome whenever I thought of Saguntum. Live and be to Actæon the last spring of his existence!
"I am called Rhanto, and my mistress is Sónnica the rich. Have you not heard of her? Her ships are in every port, she has slaves by the hundred, and she drinks from cups of gold. Do you see above those olive trees, on the side toward the sea, that small rose-colored tower? It is the villa where she lives as soon as the passing of winter allows her to leave the city.
Projectiles came hurtling from outside the walls, passing over the merlons like dark-colored birds, as if the Africans were covering an assault with battering-rams and pickaxes to open a breach. Actæon, who since his return to Saguntum had again assumed control of the work of defense, must go up on the wall. "Run away, Rhanto," he said hastily. "You will be killed here.
"I spent many days kneeling before that accursed clay, struggling to make it take on the form of her body; but it is useless. Clay is clay, and it cannot become living substance. When the soft flesh of my Rhanto is within reach of my hand, it is folly to grow desperate trying to mold earth into a semblance of her life. I wish to dream no more, Athenian. I will be content with what I have."
That people should say, after I am dead, 'Erotion the Saguntine made this. I should not hear it after having spent my life working and suffering. No; let us live and love. That day I kicked the statue to pieces, and I embraced Rhanto with an enthusiasm of joy. Loving each other is better than wasting time over clay puppets. Is not that so, Rhanto?"
But how can one copy her divine body? How imbue molded clay with the life which throbs beneath her skin?" In his despair he threatened the clay figurine as if he would crush it under his feet. Then he took courage, and said resolutely: "But I will be stronger than my untrained hands. I will work years and years if necessary, until I see the divine form of my Rhanto reproduced in all its beauty.
She had started to follow him up the wall, but an arrow had caught her. "Rhanto! Poor Rhanto!" Obeying an impulse of grief which he could not explain to himself, but which was stronger than his will, he forgot the defense of the wall, the attack of the enemy, everything, to run toward the girl, who sank down with the gentle flutter of a wounded bird.
The three walked on in silence for some time behind the cloud of dust raised by the goats. The boy gradually recovered his serenity at the side of Rhanto, who had taken one of his hands in hers. "And you why do you come here?" he asked Actæon. "I came as did your father. I am a Greek without fortune, and I wish to offer my arms to the Saguntine Republic in its wars with the Turdetani."
Rhanto had come out of her hiding-place covered by a tunic, and she timidly approached Actæon, looking at him respectfully, and blushing at the same time at the recollection of the condition in which he had surprised her. Erotion, excited by the telling of his hopes, showed eagerness to resume his task. He glanced at his work, and seemed to disrobe the shepherdess with his eyes.
He left the grove of fig trees permitting the two to work undisturbed in their mysterious retreat, Erotion spurred on by ambition, Rhanto submissive from love. The day of the Panathenæa came at last. The fame of the solemn festival had spread beyond the confines of Saguntum, and the rude Celtiberians assembled by caravans to witness the diversions of the rustic people.
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