The trampled soil was hidden beneath splashes of red.
The elephants poised their bleeding trunks between the stakes of their pens.

In the open granaries might be seen sacks of spilled wheat, below the gate was a thick line of chariots which had been heaped up by the Barbarians, and the peacocks perched in the cedars were spreading their tails and beginning to utter their cry.
Matho's immobility, however, astonished Spendius; he was even paler than he had recently been, and he was following something on the horizon with fixed eyeballs, and with both fists resting on the edge of the terrace.
Spendius crouched down, and so at last discovered at what he was gazing.
In the distance a golden speck was turning in the dust on the road to Utica; it was the nave of a chariot drawn by two mules; a slave was running at the end of the pole, and holding them by the bridle.

Two women were seated in the chariot.

The manes of the animals were puffed between the ears after the Persian fashion, beneath a network of blue pearls.

Spendius recognised them, and restrained a cry.
A large veil floated behind in the wind..