An awe-inspiring acclamation, a howl of savage joy from without greeted
the overthrow of the walls. From the city streets the desolated fields
and one end of the camp could be seen through the open breach. Arms
glittered in the dense atmosphere, reddened by the dust of the shattered
walls; dark bodies of troops could be seen advancing, and trumpet blasts
resounded.

"The assault! The Carthaginians are coming!"

From all sides of the city armed men gathered. The narrow streets near
the wall vomited groups and more groups who came shouting and
brandishing swords and axes, with the determined mien of those who had
decided to die. Clambering over the rubbish they began to take position
in the breach, and this open space, this broad gash in the city's girdle
of stone, was protected by a motley crowd which flourished weapons and
formed a solid unbreakable mass.

Actaeon was in the first rank; near him he saw the prudent Alcon, who had
exchanged his staff for a sword, and many of the peace-loving merchants
whose astute faces seemed ennobled by the heroic resolution to die
rather than give passage to the enemy.

When the besiegers advanced to the assault they had to clash with the
entire city. The walking-tower, the battering-rams, and the catapults,
availed them nothing; the struggle was hand to hand, and the besieged no
longer used the phalaric, but the sword and the axe.

Hannibal, on foot, guided the phalanxes, which marched with lowered
lance or lifted sword. He was fighting like a soldier, anxious to end
this siege which was delaying his plans, believing this to be the
decisive moment, and that a supreme effort might make him master of the
city. With sharp words he encouraged the soldiers in the different
idioms of their tribes, reminding them of the great riches within the
city, of the beauty of the Greek women, of the large numbers of slaves
inside those walls, and the Balearians attacked with lowered head,
holding before them their wooden spears with points hardened by fire;
the Celtiberians roared their war songs, beating on their breasts as on
sonorous drums, drawing their sharp two-edged swords, and the Numidians
and Mauritanians, dismounting from their horses, moved from place to
place, cautious and sly, hurling upon the besieged the missiles which
they carried in their girdles hidden beneath their white vestments.

All in vain. The breach was a narrow throat. The Carthaginian army, in
spite of superior num