ard a ship,
and set sail, and, before the ship-masters could awake from the deep
and prolonged slumbers which followed their wine, and rig their
main-sails to the masts again, Hannibal was far out of reach on his
way to Syria.

In the mean time, there was a great excitement produced at Carthage
by the news which spread every where over the city, the day after his
departure, that he was not to be found. Great crowds assembled before
his house. Wild and strange rumors circulated in explanation of his
disappearance, but they were contradictory and impossible, and only
added to the universal excitement. This excitement continued until the
vessels at last arrived from Cercina, and made the truth known.
Hannibal was himself, however, by this time, safe beyond the reach of
all possible pursuit. He was sailing prosperously, so far as outward
circumstances were concerned, but dejected and wretched in heart,
toward Tyre. He landed there in safety, and was kindly received. In a
few days he went into the interior, and, after various wanderings,
reached Ephesus, where he found Antiochus, the Syrian king.

As soon as the escape of Hannibal was made known at Carthage, the
people of the city immediately began to fear that the Romans would
consider them responsible for it, and that they should thus incur a
renewal of Roman hostility. In order to avert this danger, they
immediately sent a deputation to Rome, to make known the fact of
Hannibal's flight, and to express the regret they felt on account of
it, in hopes thus to save themselves from the displeasure of their
formidable foes. It may at first view seem very ungenerous and
ungrateful in the Carthaginians to abandon their general in this
manner, in the hour of his misfortune and calamity, and to take part
against him with enemies whose displeasure he had incurred only in
their service and in executing their will. And this conduct of the
Carthaginians would have to be considered as not only ungenerous, but
extremely inconsistent, if it had been the same individuals that acted
in the two cases. But it was not. The men and the influences which now
opposed Hannibal's projects and plans had opposed them always and from
the beginning; only, so long as he went on successfully and well, they
were in the minority, and Hannibal's adherents and friends controlled
all the public action of the city. But, now that the bitter fruits of
his ambition and of his totally unjustifiable encroachments