第 24 页

they pleased.

"It is of no use to go far," Malchus said; "the nearer we hide to the

camp the better. We are less likely to be looked for there than at a

distance, and it is impossible for me to travel at any speed until I get

rid of these heavy irons. As soon as we get over that little brow ahead

we shall be out of sight of the sentries, and will take to the first

hiding place we see."

The little rise was but a short distance from camp, the country beyond

was open but was covered with low brushwood. As soon as they were over

the brow and were assured that none of those who had left the camp

before them were in sight, they plunged into the brushwood, and, making

their way on their hands and knees for a few hundred yards, lay down in

the midst of it.

"They are not likely to search on this side of the camp," Malchus said.

"They will not know at what hour I escaped, and will naturally suppose

that I started at once to regain our camp. Listen, their trumpets are

blowing. No doubt they are about to strike their camp and march; by

this time my escape must be known. And now tell me, Nessus, how did you

manage to follow and discover me?"

"It was easy to follow you, my lord," Nessus said. "When I heard your

order I lay still, but watched through the bushes your meeting with the

Gauls. My arrow was in the string, and had they attacked you I should

have loosed it among them, and then rushed out to die with you, but

when I saw them take you a prisoner I followed your orders. I had no

difficulty in keeping you in sight until nightfall. Then I crept up to

the wood and made my way until I was within a few yards of you and lay

there till nearly morning; but, as the men around you never went to

sleep, I could do nothing and stole away again before daylight broke.

Then I followed again until I saw our horsemen approaching. I had

started to run towards them to lead them to you when I saw the Roman

horse, and I again hid myself.

"The next night again the Romans kept too vigilant a watch for me to do

anything, and I followed them all yesterday until I saw them enter the

Roman camp. As soon as it was dark I entered, and, getting into the

part of the camp occupied by the Massilians, whose Gaulish talk I could

understand a little, I gathered that a Carthaginian prisoner who had

been brought in was to be executed in the morning. So I set to work

to find you; but the night was too dark to see where the sentries were

placed, and I had to crawl round every tent to see if one stood at the

entrance on guard, for I was sure that a sentry would be placed over

you. I entered seven tents, at whose doors sentries were placed, before

I found yours, but they were all those of Roman generals or persons of

importance. I entered each time by cutting a slit in the back of the

tent. At last when I was beginning to despair, I found your tent.

"It was the smallest of any that had been guarded, and this made me

think I was right. When I crawled in I found feeling cautiously about,

that two Roman soldiers were asleep on the ground and that you were

lying between them. Then I went to the entrance. The sentry was standing

with his back to it. I struck a blow on his neck from behind, and he

died without knowing he was hurt. I caught him as I struck and lowered

him gently down, for the crash of his arms as he fell would have roused

everyone near. After that it was easy to stab the two guards sleeping by

you, and then I woke you."

"You have saved my life, Nessus, and I shall never forget it," Malchus

said gratefully.

"My life is my lord's," the Arab replied simply. "Glad am I indeed that

I have been able to do you a service."

Just as he spoke they saw through the bushes a party of Roman horse

ride at a gallop over the brow between them and the camp. They halted,

however, on passing the crest, and an officer with them gazed long and

searchingly over the country. For some minutes he sat without speaking,

then he gave an order and the horsemen rode back again over the crest.

"I think we shall see no more of them," Malchus said. "His orders were,

no doubt, that if I was in sight they were to pursue, if not, it would

be clearly useless hunting over miles of brushwood in the hope of

finding me, especially as they must deem it likely that I am far away in

the opposite direction."

An hour later Nessus crept cautiously forward among the bushes, making a

considerable detour until he reached the spot whence he could command a

view of the Roman camp. It had gone, not a soul remained behind, but at

some distance across the plain he could see the heavy column marching

north. He rose to his feet and returned to the spot where he had left

Malchus, and told him that the Romans had gone.

"The first thing, Nessus, is to get rid of these chains."

"It is easy as to the chains," Nessus said, "but the rings around your

legs must remain until we rejoin the camp, it will need a file to free

you from them."

The soil was sandy, and Nessus could find no stone sufficiently large

for his purpose. They, therefore, started in the direction which the

Romans had taken until, after two hours' slow walking, they came upon

the bed of a stream in which were some boulders sufficiently large for

the purpose.

The rings were now pushed down again to the ankles, and Nessus wound

round them strips of cloth until he had formed a pad between the iron

and the skin to lessen the jar of the blow, then he placed the link of

the chain near to the leg upon the edge of the boulder, and, drawing his

sharp heavy sword, struck with all his force upon the iron.

A deep notch was made; again and again he repeated the blow, until the

link was cut through, then, with some difficulty, he forced the two

ends apart until the shackle of the ring would pass between them. The

operation was repeated on the other chain, and then Malchus was free,

save for the two iron rings around his ankles. The work had taken

upwards of an hour, and when it was done they started at a rapid walk in

the direction taken by the column. They had no fear now of the natives,

for should any come upon them they would take them for two Roman

soldiers who had strayed behind the army.

Scipio made a long day's march, and it was not until nightfall that his

army halted. Malchus and his companion made a long detour round the camp

and continued their way for some hours, then they left the track that

the army would follow, and, after walking for about a mile, lay down

among some bushes and were soon asleep.

In the morning they agreed that before proceeding further it was

absolutely necessary to obtain some food. Malchus had been fed when

among the Romans, but Nessus had had nothing from the morning when he

had been upset in the Rhone four days before, save a manchet of bread

which he had found in one of the tents he had entered. Surveying the

country round carefully, the keen eye of the Arab perceived some light

smoke curling up at the foot of the hills on their right, and they at

once directed their course towards it. An hour's walking brought them

within sight of a native village.

As soon as they perceived it they dropped on their hands and knees and

proceeded with caution until within a short distance of it. They were

not long in discovering a flock of goats browsing on the verdure in some

broken ground a few hundred yards from the village. They were under the

charge of a native boy, who was seated on a rock near them. They made

their way round among the brushwood until they were close to the spot.

"Shall I shoot him?" Nessus asked, for he had carried his bow and arrows

concealed in his attire as a Roman soldier.

"No, no," Malchus replied, "the lad has done us no harm; but we must

have one of his goats. His back is towards us, and, if we wait, one of

them is sure to come close to us presently."

They lay quiet among the bushes until, after a delay of a quarter of an

hour, a goat, browsing upon the bushes, passed within a yard or two of

them.

Nessus let fly his arrow, it passed almost through the animal, right

behind its shoulder, and it fell among the bushes. In an instant

Nessus was upon it, and, grasping its mouth tightly to prevent it from

bleating, cut its throat. They dragged it away until a fall in the

ground hid them from the sight of the natives, then they quickly skinned

and cut it up, devoured some of the meat raw, and then, each taking a

leg of the animal, proceeded upon their way.

They now walked without a halt until, late in the evening, they came

down upon the spot where the Carthaginian army had crossed. It was

deserted. Going down to the edge of the river they saw the great rafts

upon which the elephants had crossed.

"We had best go on a mile or two ahead," Nessus said, "the Roman cavalry

may be here in the morning, though the column will be still a day's

march away. By daylight we shall have no difficulty in finding the

traces of the army."

Malchus took the Arab's advice, and the next morning followed on the

traces of the army, which were plainly enough to be seen in the broken

bushes, the trampled ground, and in various useless articles dropped or

thrown away by the troops. They were forced to advance with caution, for

they feared meeting any of the natives who might be hanging on the rear

of the army.

After three days' travelling with scarce a pause they came upon the army

just as the rear guard was crossing the Isere, and Malchus received a

joyous welcome from his friends, who had supposed him drowned at the

passage of the Rhone. His account of his adventure was eagerly listened

to, and greatly surprised were they when they found that he had been a

prisoner in the camp of Scipio, and had been rescued by the fidelity and

devotion of Nessus. Hannibal asked many questions as to the strength

of Scipio's army, but Malchus could only say that, not having seen it

except encamped, he could form but a very doubtful estimate as to its

numbers, but considered it to be but little superior to that of the

Carthaginian.

"I do not think Scipio will pursue us," Hannibal said. "A defeat here

would be as fatal to him as it would be to us, and I think it more

likely that, when he finds we have marched away north, he will return to

his ships and meet us in Italy."

Malchus learned that everything had progressed favourably since the army

had crossed the Rhone, the natives having offered no further opposition

to their advance. A civil war was going on in the region the army had

now entered, between two rival princes, brothers, of the Allobroges.

Hannibal was requested to act as umpire in the quarrel, and decided in

favour of the elder brother and restored order. In return he received

from the prince whom he reseated on his throne, provisions, clothing,

and other necessaries for the army, and the prince, with his troops,

escorted the Carthaginians some distance up into the Alps, and prevented

the tribes dwelling at the foot of the mountains from attacking them.

The conquest of Catalonia, the passage of the Pyrenees, and the march

across the south of Gaul, had occupied many months. Summer had come and

gone, autumn had passed, and winter was at hand. It was the eighteenth

of October when Hannibal led his army up the narrow valleys into the

heart of the Alps. The snow had already fallen thickly upon the upper

part of the mountains, and the Carthaginians shuddered at the sight

of these lofty summits, these wild, craggy, and forbidding wastes.

The appearance of the wretched huts of the inhabitants, of the people

themselves, unshaved and unkempt and clad in sheepskins, and of the

flocks and herds gathering in sheltered spots and crowding together to

resist the effects of the already extreme cold, struck the Carthaginian

troops with dismay. Large bodies of the mountaineers were perceived

posted on the heights surrounding the valleys, and the column,

embarrassed by its length and the vast quantity of baggage, was also

exposed to attack by hordes who might at any moment rush out from the

lateral ravines. Hannibal, therefore, ordered his column to halt.

Malchus was now ordered to go forward with his band of scouts, and to

take with him a party of Gauls, who, their language being similar

to that of the natives, could enter into conversation with them. The

mountaineers, seeing but a small party advancing, allowed them to

approach peaceably and entered freely into conversation with them. They

declared that they would on no account permit the Carthaginian army to

pass forward, but would oppose every foot of their advance.

The Gauls learned, however, that, believing the great column could only

move forward in the daytime, the natives were in the habit of retiring

from their rocky citadels at nightfall. Malchus returned with this news

to Hannibal, who prepared to take advantage of it. The camp was at once

pitched, and the men set to work to form an intrenchment round it as if

Hannibal meditated a prolonged halt there. Great fires were lit and the

animals unloaded. The natives, seeing from above everything that was

being done, deserted their posts as usual at nightfall, confident that

the Carthaginians had no intention of moving forward.

Malchus with his scouts crept on along the path, and soon sent down

word to Hannibal that the heights were deserted. The general himself now

moved forward with all his light troops, occupied the head of the pass,

and posted strong parties of men upon the heights commanding it. As soon

as day broke the rest of the army got into motion and proceeded up the

pass. The natives were now seen approaching in great numbers, but they

halted in dismay on seeing that the Carthaginians had already gained

possession of the strong places.

The road by which the column was ascending wound along the face of

a precipice, and was so narrow that it was with difficulty that the

horses, snorting with fright, could be persuaded to proceed. The