"You here?" the Greek exclaimed with surprise. "Are you alone, and do you not hide from the Romans who seek you?"
The imperious eyes of the shepherd, those strange eyes which aroused in the Greek confused and inexplicable memories, looked at him with arrogance.
"The Romans! I hate and despise them! I would go without fear even to the deck of their ship! Mind your own affairs, Actæon, and don't meddle in mine."
"How do you know my name?" exclaimed the Athenian with growing amazement, wondering also at the perfection with which the rude shepherd used the Greek tongue.
"I know your name and your life. You are the son of Lysias, a captain in the service of Carthage, and, like all of your race, you wheel around the world, without finding contentment in any part."
The Greek, so strong and sure of himself on most occasions, felt intimidated in the presence of this enigmatic man.
Absorbed in the contemplation of the cortége which had come to bid farewell to the legates, he had turned his back on Actæon. His eyes expressed hatred and scorn as he saw the bronze wolf of the Roman standard flash in the sunlight, hailed with enthusiasm by the Saguntines.
"They think themselves strong; they think themselves safe, because Rome protects them. They imagine Carthage dead, because her Senate of shopkeepers is afraid to provoke an issue with an ally of Rome. They have beheaded the Saguntine friends of the Carthaginian, those who of old were friends of the Barcas, and used to go out to greet Hamilcar when he passed near the city on his expeditions. They do not know that there is one who will not sleep as long as peace exists. The world is not wide enough for these two peoples; either the one or the other!"
As if the acclamations of the multitude shouting farewells toward the small boat in which the legates were being borne to the liburna and the trumpet blasts which burst forth from the poop of the vessel, were whiplashes to the shepherd, with clenched teeth and eyes red with fury, he shook his sinewy arms at the ship and muttered in menacing tones: