about, and dropped down the channel.

"But are we going to Carthage?" asked the Greek.

"Yes, in Carthage they will hear us better," replied one of the legates.
"After what has taken place, either the Senate there will turn Hannibal
over to us, or Rome will declare war on Carthage."

"You may go, Romans, but my duty lies here."

Before the two senators and the legates from Saguntum, who had witnessed
the former scene with astonishment, could interfere, the Athenian flung
one leg over the rail and sprang head first into the channel. He swam
under water for some time, then came up, floating near the bank, to
which the cavalry and foot-soldiers had rushed to take him prisoner.

Before his feet touched ground Actaeon was surrounded by a horde of
slingers who rushed into the water up to their middles to take
possession of his clothing without having to divide it among their
comrades. In an instant they tore off his Celtiberian sword, the pouch
hanging from his belt, and a gold chain which he wore on his breast in
memory of Sonnica. They were about to strip him of his traveling tunic,
leaving him naked, and he had begun to receive blows from the barbarous
and cruel crowd, when Hannibal rode up and recognized him.

"You have preferred to stay! I am glad of that. After having wrought me
so much damage from the walls of Saguntum you have repented and you have
come to join with me. I ought to leave you in the hands of these
barbarians who would rend you to pieces; I ought to crucify you outside
my camp so that that Greek woman whom you love could shudder at you; but
I remember the promise I made you, and I shall keep it, and welcome you
as a friend."

He ordered one of his officials to cover the Greek's wet garments with
an _endromis_, a military cloak of long hair with a hood, worn by
soldiers over their armor in winter. Then he bade him mount a Numidian's
horse.

They took up their march toward the camp. The troops who had rushed to
the entrance of the port slowly returned, while the ship fast dropped
the land, spreading her glowing sails. On the Acropolis the smoke had
dissipated, leaving only a few light clouds floating in the breeze. From
afar one could guess the disappointment felt in the city by the
unexpected flight of the Roman ship. With her seemed to vanish the last
hope of the besieged. Hannibal's troops, as they retired, commented on
the scene at the entrance to the port between their chief and the envoys
f