g sent
to Italy; but in order to do this the navy, now rotting in our harbours,
must be repaired, the command of the sea must be regained, and fresh
levies of troops made.

"To ask Carthage to make these sacrifices in her present mood is
hopeless; we must await an opportunity. I and my friends will prepare
the way, will set our agents to work among the people, and when the
news of another victory arrives and the people's hopes are aroused and
excited, we will strike while the iron is hot, and call upon them to
make one great effort to bring the struggle to a conclusion and to
finish with Rome forever.

"Such is, in my opinion, the only possible mode of proceeding. To
move now would be to ensure a rejection of our demands, to bring fresh
persecutions upon us, and so to weaken us that we should be powerless
to turn to good account the opportunity which the news of another great
victory would afford. I will write at once to Hannibal and explain
all the circumstances of the situation, and will tell him why I have
counselled you to avoid carrying out his instructions, seeing that to
do so now would be to ensure your own destruction and greatly damage our
cause.

"In the meantime you must, for a short time, remain in concealment,
while I arrange for a ship to carry you back to Italy."

"The sooner the better," Malchus said bitterly, "for Carthage with its
hideous tyranny, its foul corruption, its forgetfulness of its glory,
its honour, and even its safety, is utterly hateful to me. I trust that
never again shall I set foot within its walls. Better a thousand times
to die in a battlefield than to live in this accursed city."

"It is natural that you should be indignant," Manon said, "for the young
blood runs hotly in your veins, and your rage at seeing the fate which
is too certainly impending over Carthage, and which you are powerless
to prevent, is in no way to be blamed. We old men bow more resignedly to
the decrees of the gods. You know the saying, `Those whom the gods would
destroy they first strike with madness.' Carthage is such. She sees
unmoved the heroic efforts which Hannibal and his army are making to
save her, and she will not stretch out a hand to aid him. She lives
contentedly under the constant tyranny of Hanno's rule, satisfied to
be wealthy, luxurious, and slothful, to carry on her trade, to keep her
riches, caring nothing for the manly virtues, indifferent to valour,
preparing herself slowly and surely