n as if to obliterate terrible recollections.

"No one knows better than we Elders what occurs in the city," he
continued. "The gods must shudder with horror when they see the deeds
done in Saguntum since they abandoned her. Listen and forget, Actaeon,"
he said in a low voice and with an accent of fear. "Yesterday two women,
maddened by hunger, drew lots to choose which one of their children
they should devour. We Elders have closed our eyes and our ears; we have
not desired to see nor to hear, understanding that punishment would only
serve to increase the horrors. The men who are fighting on the walls are
chewing the leather from their weapons to deceive hunger. Their flesh is
loosened from their bones, they weaken and fall as if wounded by an
invisible stroke from the gods. We have resisted for nearly eight
months; two-thirds of the city no longer exists. We have done enough to
demonstrate before heaven and before man how Saguntum fulfills her
oaths."

The Greek bowed his head, convinced by Alcon's arguments.

"Moreover the valor of the city is breaking down," continued the Elder.
"Faith is dying. The omens are all against us. There are people who,
during the night, have seen globes of fire rise from the Acropolis and
fly toward the sea, plunging into the waters like shooting stars which
cut through the blue of heaven with a stream of light. The people
believe that they are the penates of the city, who, divining the coming
destruction of Saguntum, are abandoning it to go and establish
themselves on the other side of the sea whence they came. Last night,
those who were watching up there in the temple of Hercules saw a serpent
glide from beneath the tomb of Zacynthus, hissing as if it were wounded.
It was blue, with golden stars--the serpent which bit Zacynthus and was
the cause of the foundation of the city around the tomb of the hero. He
crawled between the feet of the astonished watchers; he fled down the
mount, and crept off across the plain in the direction of the sea. He
also has abandoned us; the sacred reptile which was like the tutelary
god of Saguntum."

"It may not be true," said the Greek. "It may be the hallucinations of a
people tormented by hunger."

"That may be; but observe the women and you will find them weeping; in
addition to their misery they are lamenting the flight of the serpent of
Zacynthus. They believe the city defenseless, and many men on the walls
will feel weaker to-day when they hear