ding to the dungeons under the temple.

Brave as he was, Malchus could not resist a shudder as he entered the
portal, accompanied by four of his guards and preceded by a jailer.
No questions were asked by the latter, and doubtless the coming of the
prisoner had been expected and prepared for. The way lay down a long
flight of steps and through several passages, all hewn in the solid
rock. They passed many closed doors, until at last they turned into one
which stood open. The gag was then removed from Malchus' mouth, the door
was closed behind him, he heard the bolts fastened, and then remained
alone in perfect darkness.

Malchus felt round the walls of his cell and found that it was about six
feet square. In one corner was a bundle of straw, and, spreading this
out, he threw himself upon it and bitterly meditated over the position
into which he had fallen. His own situation was desperate enough. He was
helpless in the hands of Hanno. The friends and partisans of Hannibal
were ignorant of his coming, and he could hope for no help from them. He
had little doubt as to what his fate would be; he would be put to death
in some cruel way, and Hannibal, his relatives, and friends would never
know what had become of him from the moment when he left the Italian
vessel in the port of Corinth.

But hopeless as was his own situation, Malchus thought more of Hannibal
and his brave companions in arms than of himself. The manner in which
he had been kidnapped by the agents of Hanno, showed how determined was
that demagogue to prevent the true state of things which prevailed in
Italy from becoming known to the people of Carthage. In order to secure
their own triumph, he and his party were willing to sacrifice Hannibal
and his army, and to involve Carthage in the most terrible disasters.

At last Malchus slept. When he awoke a faint light was streaming down
into his cell. In the centre of the room was an opening of about a foot
square, above which a sort of chimney extended twenty feet up through
the solid rock to the surface, where it was covered with an iron
grating. Malchus knew where he was. Along each side of the great temple
extended a row of these gratings level with the floor, and every citizen
knew that it was through these apertures that light and air reached the
prisoners in the cells below. Sometimes groans and cries were heard to
rise, but those who were near would hurry from the spot, for they
knew that the spies of the