第 2 页

time that you have been to the door of the tent during the last half

hour. Your restlessness is enough to give one the fever."

"I believe that you are just as eager as I am, Adherbal," the boy

replied laughing. "It's your first lion hunt as well as mine, and I am

sure you are longing to see whether the assault of the king of beasts is

more trying to the nerves than that of the Iberian tribesmen."

"I am looking forward to it, Malchus, certainly," the young man replied;

"but as I know the lions will not quit their coverts until after

nightfall, and as no efforts on my part will hasten the approach of that

hour, I am well content to lie quiet and to keep myself as cool as may

be."

"Your cousin is right," the general said, "and impatience is a fault,

Malchus. We must make allowances for your impatience on the present

occasion, for the lion is a foe not to be despised, and he is truly

as formidable an antagonist when brought to bay as the Iberians on the

banks of the Ebro--far more so than the revolted tribesmen we have been

hunting for the past three weeks."

"Giscon says nothing," Adherbal remarked; "he has a soul above even

the hunting of lions. I warrant that during the five hours we have been

reclining here his thoughts have never once turned towards the hunt we

are going to have tonight."

"That is true enough," Giscon said, speaking for the first time. "I

own that my thoughts have been of Carthage, and of the troubles that

threaten her owing to the corruption and misgovernment which are sapping

her strength."

"It were best not to think too much on the subject, Giscon," the general

said; "still better not to speak of it. You know that I lament, as you

do, the misgovernment of Carthage, and mourn for the disasters which

have been brought upon her by it. But the subject is a dangerous one;

the council have spies everywhere, and to be denounced as one hostile to

the established state of things is to be lost."

"I know the danger," the young man said passionately. "I know that

hitherto all who have ventured to raise their voices against the

authority of these tyrants have died by torture--that murmuring has been

stamped out in blood. Yet were the danger ten times as great," and the

speaker had risen now from his couch and was walking up and down the

tent, "I could not keep silent. What have our tyrants brought us to?

Their extravagance, their corruption, have wasted the public funds and

have paralyzed our arms. Sicily and Sardinia have been lost; our allies

in Africa have been goaded by their exactions again and again into

rebellion, and Carthage has more than once lately been obliged to fight

hard for her very existence. The lower classes in the city are utterly

disaffected; their earnings are wrung from them by the tax gatherers.

Justice is denied them by the judges, who are the mere creatures of the

committee of five. The suffetes are mere puppets in their hands. Our

vessels lie unmanned in our harbours, because the funds which should pay

the sailors are appropriated by our tyrants to their own purposes. How

can a Carthaginian who loves his country remain silent?"

"All you say is true, Giscon," the general said gravely, "though I

should be pressed to death were it whispered in Carthage that I said so;

but at present we can do nothing. Had the great Hamilcar Barca lived I

believe that he would have set himself to work to clear out this Augean

stable, a task greater than that accomplished by our great hero, the

demigod Hercules; but no less a hand can accomplish it. You know how

every attempt at revolt has failed; how terrible a vengeance fell on

Matho and the mercenaries; how the down trodden tribes have again and

again, when victory seemed in their hands, been crushed into the dust.

"No, Giscon, we must suffer the terrible ills which you speak of until

some hero arises--some hero whose victories will bind not only the army

to him, but will cause all the common people of Carthage--all her allies

and tributaries--to look upon him as their leader and deliverer.

"I have hopes, great hopes, that such a hero may be found in my nephew,

Hannibal, who seems to possess all the genius, the wisdom, and the

talent of his father. Should the dream which he cherished, and of which

I was but now speaking to you, that of leading a Carthaginian army

across the Ebro, over the Apennines, through the plains of lower Gaul,

and over the Alps into Italy, there to give battle to the cohorts of

Rome on their own ground,--should this dream be verified I say, should

success attend him, and Rome be humbled to the dust, then Hannibal would

be in a position to become the dictator of Carthage, to overthrow the

corrupt council, to destroy this tyranny--misnamed a republic--and to

establish a monarchy, of which he should be the first sovereign, and

under which Carthage, again the queen of the world, should be worthy

of herself and her people. And now let us speak of it no more. The very

walls have ears, and I doubt not but even among my attendants there are

men who are spies in the pay of the council. I see and lament as much

as any man the ruin of my country; but, until I see a fair hope of

deliverance, I am content to do the best I can against her enemies, to

fight her battles as a simple soldier."

There was silence in the tent. Malchus had thrown himself down on his

couch, and for a time forgot even the approaching lion hunt in the

conversation to which he had listened.

The government of Carthage was indeed detestable, and was the chief

cause both of the misfortunes which had befallen her in the past, and

of the disasters which were in the future to be hers. The scheme of

government was not in itself bad, and in earlier and simpler times had

acted well. Originally it had consisted of three estates, which answered

to the king, lords, and commons. At the head of affairs were two

suffetes chosen for life. Below them was the senate, a very numerous

body, comprising all the aristocracy of Carthage. Below this was the

democracy, the great mass of the people, whose vote was necessary to

ratify any law passed by the senate.

In time, however, all authority passed from the suffetes, the general

body of the senate and the democracy, into the hands of a committee of

the senate, one hundred in number, who were called the council, the real

power being invested in the hands of an inner council, consisting of

from twenty to thirty of the members. The deliberations of this body

were secret, their power absolute. They were masters of the life and

property of every man in Carthage, as afterwards were the council of ten

in the republic of Venice. For a man to be denounced by his secret

enemy to them as being hostile to their authority was to ensure his

destruction and the confiscation of his property.

The council of a hundred was divided into twenty subcommittees, each

containing five members. Each of these committees was charged with the

control of a department--the army, the navy, the finances, the roads

and communications, agriculture, religion, and the relations with the

various subject tribes, the more important departments being entirely in

the hands of the members of the inner council of thirty.

The judges were a hundred in number. These were appointed by the

council, and were ever ready to carry out their behest, consequently

justice in Carthage was a mockery. Interest and intrigue were paramount

in the law courts, as in every department of state. Every prominent

citizen, every successful general, every man who seemed likely, by his

ability or his wealth, to become a popular personage with the masses,

fell under the ban of the council, and sooner or later was certain to be

disgraced. The resources of the state were devoted not to the needs of

the country but to aggrandizement and enriching of the members of the

committee.

Heavy as were the imposts which were laid upon the tributary peoples of

Africa for the purposes of the state, enormous burdens were added by the

tax gatherers to satisfy the cupidity of their patrons in the council.

Under such circumstances it was not to be wondered at that Carthage,

decaying, corrupt, ill governed, had suffered terrible reverses at the

hands of her young and energetic rival Rome, who was herself some day,

when she attained the apex of her power, to suffer from abuses no

less flagrant and general than those which had sapped the strength of

Carthage.

With the impetuosity of youth Malchus naturally inclined rather to the

aspirations of his kinsman Giscon than to the more sober counsels of his

father. He had burned with shame and anger as he heard the tale of the

disasters which had befallen his country, because she had made money

her god, had suffered her army and her navy to be regarded as secondary

objects, and had permitted the command of the sea to be wrested from her

by her wiser and more far seeing rival.

As evening closed in the stir in the neighbouring camp aroused Malchus

from his thoughts, and the anticipation of the lion hunt, in which he

was about to take part, again became foremost.

The camp was situated twenty days' march from Carthage at the foot of

some hills in which lions and other beasts of prey were known to abound,

and there was no doubt that they would be found that evening.

The expedition had been despatched under the command of Hamilcar to

chastise a small tribe which had attacked and plundered some of

the Carthaginian caravans on their way to Ethiopia, then a rich and

prosperous country, wherein were many flourishing colonies, which had

been sent out by Carthage.

The object of the expedition had been but partly successful. The lightly

clad tribesmen had taken refuge far among the hills, and, although by

dint of long and fatiguing marches several parties had been surprised

and slain, the main body had evaded all the efforts of the Carthaginian

general.

The expedition had arrived at its present camping place on the previous

evening. During the night the deep roaring of lions had been heard

continuously among the hills, and so bold and numerous were they that

they had come down in such proximity to the camp that the troops had

been obliged to rise and light great fires to scare them from making an

attack upon the horses.

The general had therefore consented, upon the entreaties of his nephew

Adherbal, and his son, to organize a hunt upon the following night. As

soon as the sun set the troops, who had already received their orders,

fell into their ranks. The full moon rose as soon as the sun dipped

below the horizon, and her light was ample for the object they had in

view.

The Numidian horse were to take their station on the plain; the infantry

in two columns, a mile apart, were to enter the mountains, and having

marched some distance, leaving detachments behind them, they were to

move along the crest of the hills until they met; then, forming a great

semicircle, they were to light torches, which they had prepared during

the day, and to advance towards the plain shouting and dashing their

arms, so as to drive all the wild animals inclosed in the arc down into

the plain.

The general with the two young officers and his son, and a party of

fifty spearmen, were to be divided between the two groves in which the

camps were pitched, which were opposite the centre of the space facing

the line inclosed by the beaters. Behind the groves the Numidian horse

were stationed, to give chase to such animals as might try to make their

escape across the open plain. The general inspected the two bodies

of infantry before they started, and repeated his instructions to the

officers who commanded them, and enjoined them to march as noiselessly

as possible until the semicircle was completed and the beat began in

earnest.

The troops were to be divided into groups of eight, in order to be able

to repel the attacks of any beasts which might try to break through the

line. When the two columns had marched away right and left towards the

hills, the attendants of the elephants and baggage animals were ordered

to remove them into the centre of the groves. The footmen who remained

were divided into two parties of equal strength. The general with

Malchus remained in the grove in which his tent was fixed with one of

these parties, while Adherbal and Giscon with the others took up their

station in the larger grove.

"Do you think the lions are sure to make for these groves?" Malchus

asked his father as, with a bundle of javelins lying by his side, his

bow in his hand, and a quiver of arrows hung from his belt in readiness,

he took his place at the edge of the trees.

"There can be no certainty of it, Malchus; but it seems likely that the

lions, when driven out of their refuges among the hills, will make

for these groves, which will seem to offer them a shelter from their

pursuers. The fires here will have informed them of our presence last

night; but as all is still and dark now they may suppose that the groves

are deserted. In any case our horses are in readiness among the trees

close at hand, and if the lions take to the plains we must mount and

join the Numidians in the chase."

"I would rather meet them here on foot, father."

"Yes, there is more excitement, because there is more danger in it,

Malchus; but I can tell you the attack of a wounded lion is no joke,

even for a party of twenty-five well armed men. Their force and fury are

prodigious, and they will throw themselves fearlessly upon a clump of

spears in order to reach their enemies. One blow from their paws is

certain death. Be careful, therefore, Malchus. Stir not from my side,

and remember that there is a vast difference between rashness and

bravery."

CHAPTER II: A NIGHT ATTACK

The time seemed to Malchus to pass slowly indeed as he sat waiting the

commencement of the hunt. Deep roars, sounding like distant thunder,

were heard from time to time among the hills. Once or twice Malchus