"Ah! I must go," thought the prince, not knowing well whither he was to go or for what purpose.
He turned, however, in the direction of the temple, the silver tower of which rose above the trees as if summoning him.
He went as in a trance, filled with strange wishes. Among the trees it was narrow for him; he wished to ascend to the top of that tower, to draw breath, to take in with his glance some wider horizon. Again he remembered that it was the month Mesori, that a year had passed since the maneuvers; he felt a yearning for the desert. How gladly would he mount his light chariot drawn by two horses, and fly away to some place where it was not so stifling, and trees did not hide the horizon!
He was at the steps of the temple, so he mounted to the platform. It was quiet and empty there, as if all had died; but from afar the water of a fountain was murmuring. At the second stairway he threw aside his burnous and sword; once more he looked at the garden, as if he were sorry to leave the moonlight behind, and entered the temple. There were three stories above him.
The bronze doors were open; at both sides of the entrance stood winged figures of bulls with human heads; on the faces of these was dignified calmness.
"Those are kings of Assyria," thought the prince, looking at their beards plaited in tiny tresses.
The interior of the temple was as black as night when 't is blackest. The darkness was intensified more by white streaks of moonlight falling in through narrow high windows.
In the depth of the temple two lamps were burning before the statue of Astaroth. Some strange illumination from above caused the statue to be perfectly visible. Ramses gazed at it. That was a gigantic woman with the wings of an ostrich. She wore a long robe in folds; on her head was a pointed cap, in her right hand she held a pair of doves. On her beautiful face and in her downcast eyes was an expression of such sweetness and innocence that astonishment seized the prince, for she was the patroness of revenge and of license the most unbridled.
"Phoenicia has shown me one more of her secrets. A strange people," thought Ramses. "Their man-eating gods do not eat, and their lewdness is guarded by virgin priestesses and by a goddess with an innocent face."
Thereupon he felt that something had slipped across his feet quickly, as it were a great serpent. Ramses drew back and stood in the streak of moonlight.