Below him lay the city of flat-roofed houses enclosed with a double
wall, without the ring of which were thousands of straw huts, shaped
like bee-hives, wherein dwelt natives of the country, slaves or servants
of the occupying Phoenician race. To Aziel's right, and not more than a
hundred paces from the governor's house in which he was, rose the round
and mighty battlements of the temple, where the followers of El and
Baaltis worshipped, and the gold refiners carried on their business.
At intervals on its flat-topped walls stood towers of observation,
alternating with pointed monoliths of granite and soapstone columns
supporting vultures, rudely carved emblems of Baaltis. Between these
towers armed soldiers walked continually, watching the city below and
the plain beyond, for though the mission of the Phoenicians here was one
of peaceful gain it was evident that they considered it necessary to be
always prepared for war. On the hillside above the great temple towered
another fortress of stone--a citadel deemed to be impregnable even
should the temple fall into the hands of an enemy--while on the crest
of the precipitous slope, stretching as far to right and left as the eye
could reach, were many smaller detached strongholds.
The scene that Aziel saw from his window was a busy one, for beneath him
a market was being held in an open square in the city. Here, sheltered
from the sun by grass-thatched booths, the Phoenician merchants who had
been his companions in their long and perilous journey from the coast
were already in treaty with numerous customers, hoping, not in vain,
to recoup themselves amply for the toils and dangers which they had
survived.
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