incombustible. The women and children went to procure stones on the

strand, and gathered earth with their hands and brought it to the
soldiers.

The Carthaginians also made preparations.
Hamilcar had speedily reassured them by declaring that there was

enough water left in the cisterns for one hundred and twenty-three
days. This assertion, together with his presence, and above all that

of the zaimph among them, gave them good hopes. Carthage recovered
from its dejection; those who were not of Chanaanitish origin were

carried away by the passion of the rest.
The slaves were armed, the arsenals were emptied, and every citizen

had his own post and his own employment. Twelve hundred of the
fugitives had survived, and the Suffet made them all captains; and

carpenters, armourers, blacksmiths, and goldsmiths were intrusted with
the engines. The Carthaginians had kept a few in spite of the

conditions of the peace with Rome. These were repaired. They
understood such work.

The two northern and eastern sides, being protected by the sea and the
gulf, remained inaccessible. On the wall fronting the Barbarians they

collected tree-trunks, mill-stones, vases filled with sulphur, and
vats filled with oil, and built furnaces. Stones were heaped up on the

platforms of the towers, and the houses bordering immediately on the
rampart were crammed with sand in order to strengthen it and increase

its thickness.
The Barbarians grew angry at the sight of these preparations. They

wished to fight at once. The weights which they put into the catapults
were so extravagantly heavy that the beams broke, and the attack was

delayed.
At last on the thirteenth day of the month of Schabar,--at sunrise,--a

great blow was heard at the gate of Khamon.
Seventy-five soldiers were pulling at ropes arranged at the base of a

gigantic beam which was suspended horizontally by chains hanging from
a framework, and which terminated in a ram's head of pure brass. It

had been swathed in ox-hides; it was bound at intervals with iron
bracelets; it was thrice as thick as a man's body, one hundred and

twenty cubits long, and under the crowd of naked arms pushing it
forward and drawing it back, it moved to and fro with a regular

oscillation.
The other rams before the other gates began to be in motion. Men might

be seen mounting from step to step in the hollow wheels of the
tympanums. The pulleys and caps grated, the rope curtains were

lowered, and showers of stones and showers of arrows poured forth
simultaneously; all the scattered slingers ran up. Some approached the

rampart hiding pots of resin under their shields; then they would hurl
these with all their might. This hail of bullets, darts, and flames

passed above the first ranks in the form of a curve which fell behind
the walls. But long cranes, used for masting vessels, were reared on

the summit of the ramparts; and from them there descended some of
those enormous pincers which terminated in two semicircles toothed on

the inside. They bit the rams. The soldiers clung to the beam and drew
it back. The Carthaginians hauled in order to pull it up; and the

action was prolonged until the evening.
When the Mercenaries resumed their task on the following day, the tops

of the walls were completely carpeted with bales of cotton, sails, and
cushions; the battlements were stopped up with mats; and a line of

forks and blades, fixed upon sticks, might be distinguished among the
cranes on the rampart. A furiousresistance immediately began.

Trunks of trees fastened to cables fell and rose alternately and
battered the rams; cramps hurled by the ballistas tore away the roofs

of the huts; and streams of flints and pebbles poured from the
platforms of the towers.

At last the rams broke the gates of Khamon and Tagaste. But the
Carthaginians had piled up such an abundance of materials on the

inside that the leaves did not open. They remained standing.
Then they drove augers against the walls; these were applied to the

joints of the blocks, so as to detach the latter. The engines were
better managed, the men serving them were divided into squads, and

they were worked from morning till evening without interruption and
with the monotonousprecision of a weaver's loom.

Spendius returned to them untiringly. It was he who stretched the
skeins of the ballistas. In order that the twin tensions might

completely correspond, the ropes as they were tightened were struck on
the right and left alternately until both sides gave out an equal

sound. Spendius would mount upon the timbers. He would strike the
ropes softly with the extremity of his foot, and strain his ears like

a musician tuning a lyre. Then when the beam of the catapult rose,
when the pillar of the ballista trembled with the shock of the spring,

when the stones were shooting in rays, and the darts pouring in
streams, he would incline his whole body and fling his arms into the

air as though to follow them.
The soldiers admired his skill and executed his commands. In the

gaiety of their work they gave utterance to jests on the names of the
machines. Thus the plyers for seizing the rams were called "wolves,"

and the galleries were covered with "vines"; they were lambs, or they
were going to gather the grapes; and as they loaded their pieces they

would say to the onagers: "Come, pick well!" and to the scorpions:
"Pierce them to the heart!" These jokes, which were ever the same,

kept up their courage.
Nevertheless the machines did not demolish the rampart. It was formed

of two walls and was completely filled with earth. The upper portions
were beaten down, but each time the besieged raised them again. Matho

ordered the construction of wooden towers which should be as high as
the towers of stone. They cast turf, stakes, pebbles and chariots with

their wheels into the trench so as to fill it up the more quickly; but
before this was accomplished the immensethrong of the Barbarians

undulated over the plain with a single movement and came beating
against the foot of the walls like an overflowing sea.

They moved forward the rope ladders, straight ladders, and sambucas,
the latter consisting of two poles from which a series of bamboos

terminating in a moveablebridge were lowered by means of tackling.
They formed numerous straight lines resting against the wall, and the

Mercenaries mounted them in files, holding their weapons in their
hands. Not a Carthaginian showed himself; already two thirds of the

rampart had been covered. Then the battlements opened, vomiting flames
and smoke like dragon jaws; the sand scattered and entered the joints

of their armour; the petroleum fastened on their garments; the liquid
lead hopped on their helmets and made holes in their flesh; a rain of

sparks splashed against their faces, and eyeless orbits seemed to weep
tears as big as almonds. There were men all yellow with oil, with

their hair in flames. They began to run and set fire to the rest. They
were extinguished in mantles steeped in blood, which were thrown from

a distance over their faces. Some who had no wounds remained
motionless, stiffer than stakes, their mouths open and their arms

outspread.
The assault was renewed for several days in succession, the

Mercenaries hoping to triumph by extraordinaryenergy and audacity.
Sometimes a man raised on the shoulders of another would drive a pin

between the stones, and then making use of it as a step to reach
further, would place a second and a third; and, protected by the edge

of the battlements, which stood out from the wall, they would
gradually raise themselves in this way; but on reaching a certain

height they always fell back again. The great trench was full to
overflowing; the wounded were massed pell-mell with the dead and dying

beneath the footsteps of the living. Calcined trunks formed black
spots amid opened entrails, scattered brains, and pools of blood; and

arms and legs projecting half way out of a heap, would stand straight
up like props in a burning vineyard.

The ladders proving insufficient the tollenos were brought into
requisition,--instruments consisting of a long beam set transversely

upon another, and bearing at its extremity a quadrangular basket which
would hold thirty foot-soldiers with their weapons.