nd advanced as if it would swallow
her walls.

The day following their courageous sally the Saguntines noticed great
activity in the besieging camp--the funeral honors to the queen of the
Amazons. They saw Asbyte's body borne in parade on a shield by the
women-warriors; then, in the centre of the camp rose a column of smoke
from the enormous pyre which consumed her remains.

The beleaguered people guessed the mood of the enemy. Hannibal was
lying on his couch, and the army seemed depressed by the hero's
suffering. The wizards came and went through the tent, examining the
wound, and then they searched the surrounding mountains for mysterious
herbs to compound miraculous poultices.

In Saguntum some of the most daring urged another sally to take
advantage of that moment of depression for falling upon the enemy and
putting them to flight. But the besieging camp was well guarded;
Hannibal's brother with the principal captains were on the watch to
avoid a surprise; the army lay behind earthen breastworks thrown up
around the camp as in a strong city, and they took advantage of this
opportunity to accomplish new work for protecting it from the danger of
attack. On the other hand the city was no less disheartened by the loss
of the priest of Hercules. The people could not explain to themselves
how the African chieftain had put the gigantic Theron to death before
the eyes of all Saguntum, and the more superstitious saw in this a
celestial sign, the omen that the tutelary gods of the city were about
to abandon it.

The same determination as at the beginning was still displayed; all were
resolved to defend themselves; but the mocking joviality of the early
days of the siege had disappeared. They believed that they scented
adversity round about them, and the ever swelling numbers of the enemy
dispirited them. Each morning they beheld the besieging camp increased.
When would Hannibal's allies cease to come?

The merry Grecian city of rich merchants and of pompous Panathenaic
festivals presented the solemn aspect of every beleaguered town. The
people from the fields who had sought refuge in the city camped in the
streets and squares, distilling the odor of a sick and suffering flock.
In the temples the wounded dragged themselves to the bases of the
columns, groaning; above, on the Acropolis, a funeral pyre smoked day
and night consuming the bodies of those who had died on the walls, or
had fallen in the streets victims of stra