rance, I am content to do the best I can against her enemies, to
fight her battles as a simple soldier."

There was silence in the tent. Malchus had thrown himself down on his
couch, and for a time forgot even the approaching lion hunt in the
conversation to which he had listened.

The government of Carthage was indeed detestable, and was the chief
cause both of the misfortunes which had befallen her in the past, and
of the disasters which were in the future to be hers. The scheme of
government was not in itself bad, and in earlier and simpler times had
acted well. Originally it had consisted of three estates, which answered
to the king, lords, and commons. At the head of affairs were two
suffetes chosen for life. Below them was the senate, a very numerous
body, comprising all the aristocracy of Carthage. Below this was the
democracy, the great mass of the people, whose vote was necessary to
ratify any law passed by the senate.

In time, however, all authority passed from the suffetes, the general
body of the senate and the democracy, into the hands of a committee of
the senate, one hundred in number, who were called the council, the real
power being invested in the hands of an inner council, consisting of
from twenty to thirty of the members. The deliberations of this body
were secret, their power absolute. They were masters of the life and
property of every man in Carthage, as afterwards were the council of ten
in the republic of Venice. For a man to be denounced by his secret
enemy to them as being hostile to their authority was to ensure his
destruction and the confiscation of his property.

The council of a hundred was divided into twenty subcommittees, each
containing five members. Each of these committees was charged with the
control of a department--the army, the navy, the finances, the roads
and communications, agriculture, religion, and the relations with the
various subject tribes, the more important departments being entirely in
the hands of the members of the inner council of thirty.

The judges were a hundred in number. These were appointed by the
council, and were ever ready to carry out their behest, consequently
justice in Carthage was a mockery. Interest and intrigue were paramount
in the law courts, as in every department of state. Every prominent
citizen, every successful general, every man who seemed likely, by his
ability or his wealth, to become a popular personage with the masses,
fell under