grass soldiers and made battalions with the rottenness of our dead,

you recalled the vessels that I had left!"
"We could not risk everything," replied Baat-Baal, who possessed gold

mines in Darytian Gaetulia.
"But what did you do here, at Carthage, in your houses, behind your

walls? There are Gauls on the Eridanus, who ought to have been roused,
Chanaanites at Cyrene who would have come, and while the Romans send

ambassadors to Ptolemaeus--"
"Now he is extolling the Romans to us!" Some one shouted out to him:

"How much have they paid you to defend them?"
"Ask that of the plains of Brutium, of the ruins of Locri, of

Metapontum, and of Heraclea! I have burnt all their trees, I have
pillaged all their temples, and even to the death of their

grandchildren's grandchildren--"
"Why, you disclaim like a rhetor!" said Kapouras, a very illustrious

merchant. "What is it that you want?"
"I say that we must be more ingenious or more terrible! If the whole

of Africa rejects your yoke the reason is, my feeble masters, that you
do not know how to fasten it to her shoulders! Agathocles, Regulus,

Coepio, any bold man has only to land and capture her; and when the
Libyans in the east concert with the Numidians in the west, and the

Nomads come from the south, and the Romans from the north"--a cry of
horror rose--"Oh! you will beat your breasts, and roll in the dust,

and tear your cloaks! No matter! you will have to go and turn the
mill-stone in the Suburra, and gather grapes on the hills of Latium."

They smote their right thighs to mark their sense of the scandal, and
the sleeves of their robes rose like large wings of startled birds.

Hamilcar, carried away by a spirit, continued his speech, standing on
the highest step of the altar, quivering and terrible; he raised his

arms, and the rays from the candelabrum which burned behind him passed
between his fingers like javelins of gold.

"You will lose your ships, your country seats, your chariots, your
hanging beds, and the slaves who rub your feet! The jackal will crouch

in your palaces, and the ploughshare will upturn your tombs. Nothing
will be left but the eagles' scream and a heap of ruins. Carthage,

thou wilt fall!"
The four pontiffs spread out their hands to avert the anathema. All

had risen. But the marine Suffet, being a sacerdotal magistrate under
the protection of the Sun, was inviolate so long as the assembly of

the rich had not judged him. Terror was associated with the altar.
They drew back.

Hamilcar had ceased speaking, and was panting with eye fixed, his face
as pale as the pearls of his tiara, almost frightened at himself, and

his spirit lost in funereal visions. From the height on which he
stood, all the torches on the bronze shafts seemed to him like a vast

crown of fire laid level with the pavement; black smoke issuing from
them mounted up into the darkness of the vault; and for some minutes

the silence was so profound that they could hear in the distance the
sound of the sea.

Then the Ancients began to question one another. Their interests,
their existence, were attacked by the Barbarians. But it was

impossible to conquer them without the assistance of the Suffet, and
in spite of their pride this consideration made them forget every

other. His friends were taken aside. There were interested
reconciliations, understandings, and promises. Hamilcar would not take

any further part in any government. All conjured him. They besought
him; and as the word treason occurred in their speech, he fell into a

passion. The sole traitor was the Great Council, for as the enlistment
of the soldiers expired with the war, they became free as soon as the

war was finished; he even exalted their bravery and all the advantages
which might be derived from interesting them in the Republic by

donations and privileges.
Then Magdassin, a former provincialgovernor, said, as he rolled his

yellow eyes:
"Truly Barca, with your travelling you have become a Greek, or a

Latin, or something! Why speak you of rewards for these men? Rather
let ten thousand Barbarians perish than a single one of us!"

The Ancients nodded approval, murmuring:--"Yes, is there need for so
much trouble? They can always be had?"

"And they can be got rid of conveniently, can they not? They are
deserted as they were by you in Sardinia. The enemy is apprised of the

road which they are to take, as in the case of those Gauls in Sicily,
or perhaps they are disembarked in the middle of the sea. As I was

returning I saw the rock quite white with their bones!"
"What a misfortune!" said Kapouras impudently.

"Have they not gone over to the enemy a hundred times?" cried the
others.

"Why, then," exclaimed Hamilcar, "did you recall them to Carthage,
notwithstanding your laws? And when they are in your town, poor and

numerous amid all your riches, it does not occur to you to weaken them
by the slightest division! Afterwards you dismiss the whole of them

with their women and children, without keeping a single hostage! Did
you expect that they would murder themselves to spare you the pain of

keeping your oaths? You hate them because they are strong! You hate me
still more, who am their master! Oh! I felt it just now when you were

kissing my hands and were all putting a constraint upon yourselves not
to bite them!"

If the lions that were sleeping in the court had come howling in, the
uproar could not have been more frightful. But the pontiff of Eschmoun

rose, and, standingperfectlyupright, with his knees close together,
his elbows pressed to his body, and his hands half open, he said:

"Barca, Carthage has need that you should take the general command of
the Punic forces against the Mercenaries!"

"I refuse," replied Hamilcar.
"We will give you full authority," cried the chiefs of the Syssitia.

"No!"
"With no control, no partition, all the money that you want, all the

captives, all the booty, fifty zereths of land for every enemy's
corpse."

"No! no! because it is impossible to conquer with you!"
"He is afraid!"

"Because you are cowardly, greedy, ungrateful, pusillanimous and mad!"
"He is careful of them!"

"In order to put himself at their head," said some one.
"And return against us," said another; and from the bottom of the hall

Hanno howled:
"He wants to make himself king!"

Then they bounded up, overturning the seats and the torches: the crowd
of them rushed towards the altar; they brandished daggers. But

Hamilcar dived into his sleeves and drew from them two broad
cutlasses; and half stooping, his left foot advanced, his eyes flaming

and his teeth clenched, he defied them as he stood there beneath the
golden candelabrum.

Thus they had brought weapons with them as a precaution; it was a
crime; they looked with terror at one another. As all were guilty,

every one became quickly reassured; and by degrees they turned their
backs on the Suffet and came down again maddened with humiliation. For

the second time they recoiled before him. They remained standing for
some time. Several who had wounded their fingers put them to their

mouths or rolled them gently in the hem of their mantles, and they
were about to depart when Hamilcar heard these words:

"Why! it is a piece of delicacy to avoid distressing his daughter!"
A louder voice was raised:

"No doubt, since she takes her lovers from among the Mercenaries!"
At first he tottered, then his eye rapidly sought for Schahabarim. But

the priest of Tanith had alone remained in his place; and Hamilcar
could see only his lofty cap in the distance. All were sneering in his

face. In proportion as his anguish increased their joy redoubled, and
those who were behind shouted amid the hootings: