posted in front of them, close to the walls, being unwilling to move.
Then from the direction of Ariana appeared the men of the West, the

people of the Numidians. In fact, Narr' Havas governed only the
Massylians; and, moreover, as they were permitted by custom to abandon

their king when reverses were sustained, they had assembled on the
Zainus, and then had crossed it at Hamilcar's first movement. First

were seen running up all the hunters from Malethut-Baal and Garaphos,
clad in lions' skins, and with the staves of their pikes driving small

lean horses with long manes; then marched the Gaetulians in cuirasses
of serpents' skin; then the Pharusians, wearing lofty crowns made of

wax and resin; and the Caunians, Macarians, and Tillabarians, each
holding two javelins and a round shield of hippopotamus leather. They

stopped at the foot of the Catacombs among the first pools of the
Lagoon.

But when the Libyans had moved away, the multitude of the Negroes
appeared like a cloud on a level with the ground, in the place which

the others had occupied. They were there from the White Harousch, the
Black Harousch, the desert of Augila, and even from the great country

of Agazymba, which is four months' journey south of the Garamantians,
and from regions further still! In spite of their red wooden jewels,

the filth of their black skin made them look like mulberries that had
been long rolling in the dust. They had bark-thread drawers, dried-

grass tunics, fallow-deer muzzles on their heads; they shook rods
furnished with rings, and brandished cows' tails at the end of sticks,

after the fashion of standards, howling the while like wolves.
Then behind the Numidians, Marusians, and Gaetulians pressed the

yellowish men, who are spread through the cedar forests beyond Taggir.
They had cat-skin quivers flapping against their shoulders, and they

led in leashes enormous dogs, which were as high as asses, and did not
bark.

Finally, as though Africa had not been sufficiently emptied, and it
had been necessary to seek further fury in the very dregs of the

races, men might be seen behind the rest, with beast-like profiles and
grinning with idiotic laughter--wretches ravaged by hideous diseases,

deformed pigmies, mulattoes of doubtful sex, albinos whose red eyes
blinked in the sun; stammering out unintelligible sounds, they put a

finger into their mouths to show that they were hungry.
The confusion of weapons was as great as that of garments and peoples.

There was not a deadlyinvention that was not present--from wooden
daggers, stone hatchets and ivory tridents, to long sabres toothed

like saws, slender, and formed of a yielding copper blade. They
handled cutlasses which were forked into several branches like

antelopes' horns, bills fastened to the ends of ropes, iron triangles,
clubs and bodkins. The Ethiopians from the Bambotus had little

poisoned darts hidden in their hair. Many had brought pebbles in bags.
Others, empty handed, chattered with their teeth.

This multitude was stirred with a ceaseless swell. Dromedaries,
smeared all over with tar-like streaks, knocked down the women, who

carried their children on their hips. The provisions in the baskets
were pouring out; in walking, pieces of salt, parcels of gum, rotten

dates, and gourou nuts were crushed underfoot; and sometimes on
vermin-covered bosoms there would hang a slender cord supporting a

diamond that the Satraps had sought, an almost fabulous stone,
sufficient to purchase an empire. Most of them did not even know what

they desired. They were impelled by fascination or curiosity; and
nomads who had never seen a town were frightened by the shadows of the

walls.
The isthmus was now hidden by men; and this long surface, whereon the

tents were like huts amid an inundation, stretched as far as the first
lines of the other Barbarians, which were streaming with steel and

were posted symmetrically upon both sides of the aqueduct.
The Carthaginians had not recovered from the terror caused by their

arrival when they perceived the siege-engines sent by the Tyrian towns
coming straight towards them like monsters and like buildings--with

their masts, arms, ropes, articulations, capitals and carapaces, sixty
carroballistas, eighty onagers, thirty scorpions, fifty tollenos,

twelve rams, and three gigantic catapults which hurled pieces of rock
of the weight of fifteen talents. Masses of men clinging to their

bases pushed them on; at every step a quivering shook them, and in
this way they arrived in front of the walls.

But several days were still needed to finish the preparations for the
siege. The Mercenaries, taught by their defeats, would not risk

themselves in useless engagements; and on both sides there was no
haste, for it was well known that a terrible action was about to open,

and that the result of it would be complete victory or complete
extermination.

Carthage might hold out for a long time; her broad walls presented a
series of re-entrant and projecting angles, an advantageous

arrangement for repelling assaults.
Nevertheless a portion had fallen down in the direction of the

Catacombs, and on dark nights lights could be seen in the dens of
Malqua through the disjointed blocks. These in some places overlooked

the top of the ramparts. It was here that the Mercenaries' wives, who
had been driven away by Matho, were living with their new husbands. On

seeing the men again their hearts could stand it no longer. They waved
their scarfs at a distance; then they came and chatted in the darkness

with the soldiers through the cleft in the wall, and one morning the
Great Council learned that they had all fled. Some had passed through

between the stones; others with greater intrepidity had let themselves
down with ropes.

At last Spendius resolved to accomplish his design.
The war, by keeping him at a distance, had hitherto prevented him; and

since the return to before Carthage, it seemed to him that the
inhabitants suspected his enterprise. But soon they diminished the

sentries on the aqueduct. There were not too many people for the
defence of the walls.

The former slave practised himself for some days in shooting arrows at
the flamingoes on the lake. Then one moonlight evening he begged Matho

to light a great fire of straw in the middle of the night, while all
his men were to shout at the same time; and taking Zarxas with him, he

went away along the edge of the gulf in the direction of Tunis.
When on a level with the last arches they returned straight towards

the aqueduct; the place was unprotected: they crawled to the base of
the pillars.

The sentries on the platform were walking quietly up and down.
Towering flames appeared; clarions rang; and the soldiers on vedette,

believing that there was an assault, rushed away in the direction of
Carthage.

One man had remained. He showed black against the background of the
sky. The moon was shining behind him, and his shadow, which was of

extravagant size, looked in the distance like an obelisk proceeding
across the plain.

They waited until he was in position just before them. Zarxas seized
his sling, but whether from prudence or from ferocity Spendius stopped

him. "No, the whiz of the bullet would make a noise! Let me!"
Then he bent his bow with all his strength, resting the lower end of

it against the great toe of his left foot; he took aim, and the arrow
went off.

The man did not fall. He disappeared.
"If he were wounded we should hear him!" said Spendius; and he mounted

quickly from story to story as he had done the first time, with the
assistance of a rope and a harpoon. Then when he had reached the top

and was beside the corpse, he let it fall again. The Balearian
fastened a pick and a mallet to it and turned back.

The trumpets sounded no longer. All was now quiet. Spendius had raised
one of the flag-stones and, entering the water, had closed it behind

him.
Calculating the distance by the number of his steps, he arrived at the