ls to Ithobal in
marriage, as many as he would, and with them a great bribe in money. But
the envoys took their leave, saying that nothing would avail since they
preferred spear-thrusts to gold, for which they had little use, and
Ithobal, their king, had fixed his fancy on one woman alone.

So with a heavy and foreboding heart, the city of Zimboe prepared itself
to resist attack, for as they had guessed, when he learned all, the rage
of Ithobal was great. Nor would he listen to any terms that they could
offer save one which they had no power to grant--that Elissa should be
delivered unharmed into his hands. Councils of war were held, and to
these, so soon as he was sufficiently recovered from his sickness,
the prince Aziel was bidden, for he was known to be a skilled captain;
therefore, though he had been the cause of much of their trouble, they
sought his aid. Also, should the struggle be prolonged, they hoped
through him to win Israel, and perhaps Egypt, to their cause.

Aziel's counsel was that they should sally out against the army of
Ithobal by night, since he expected to attack and not to be attacked,
but to that advice they would not listen, for they trusted to their
walls. Indeed, in this Metem supported them, and when the prince argued
with him, he answered:--

"Your tactics would be good enough, Prince, if you had at your back the
lions of Judah, or the wild Arab horsemen of the desert. But here you
must deal with men of my own breed, and we Phoenicians are traders, not
fighting men. Like rats, we fight only when there is no other chance for
our lives; nor do we strike the first blow. It is true that there are
some good soldiers in the city, but they are foreign mercenaries; and
as for the rest, half-breeds and freed slaves, they belong as much to
Ithobal as to Sakon, and are not to be trusted. No, no; let us stay
behind our walls, for they at least were built when men were honest and
will not betray us."

Now in Zimboe were three lines of defence; first, that of a single wall
built about the huts of the slaves upon the plain, then that of a double
wall of stone with a ditch between thrown round the Phoenician city, and
lastly, the great fortress-temple and the rocky heights above. These,
guarded as they were by many strongholds within whose circle the cattle
were herded, as it was thought, could only be taken with the sword of
hunger.

At last the storm burst, for on the fifth morning after Elissa ha