vast plan which Hannibal's words had laid before him,
and to which his father had once alluded in his presence. Malchus
had been brought up by Hamilcar to regard Rome as the deadly enemy of
Carthage, but he had not till now seen the truth which Hannibal had
grasped, that it was a struggle not for empire only between the two
republics, but one of life and death--that Carthage and Rome could not
coexist, and that one or other of them must be absolutely destroyed.

This, indeed, was the creed of the Barcine party, and was, apart from
the minor questions of internal reforms, the great point on which they
differed from Hanno and the trading portion of the community, who were
his chief supporters. These were in favour of Carthage abandoning her
colonies and conquests, and devoting herself solely to commerce and the
acquisition of wealth. Believing that Rome, who would then have open
to her all Europe and Asia to conquer, would not grudge to Carthage the
northern seaboard of Africa, they forgot that a nation which is rich and
defenceless will speedily fall a victim to the greed of a powerful
and warlike neighbour, and that a conqueror never needs excuses for an
attack upon a defenceless neighbour.

Hitherto Malchus had thought only of a war with Rome made up of sea
fights and of descents upon Sicily and Sardinia. The very idea of
invading Italy and striking at Rome herself had never even entered his
mind, for the words of his father had been forgotten in the events
which followed so quickly upon them. The prospect which the words opened
seemed immense. First Northern Spain was to be conquered, Gaul to be
crossed, the terrible mountains of which he had heard from travellers
were next to be surmounted, and finally a fight for life and death to
be fought out on the plains of Italy. The struggle would indeed be a
tremendous one, and Malchus felt his heart beat fast at the thought that
he was to be an actor in it. Surely the history of the world told of no
greater enterprise than this. Even the first step which was to be taken,
a mere preliminary to this grand expedition, was a most formidable one.

Saguntum stood as an outpost of Rome. While Carthage had been advancing
from the south Rome had been pressing forward from the east along
the shores of the Mediterranean, and had planted herself firmly at
Marseilles, a port which gave her a foothold in Gaul, and formed a base
whence she could act in Spain. In order to check the rising