de the city Nessus seized the
opportunity, when the attention of the guards was for a moment directed
in another quarter, to start at the top of his speed. He had chosen the
hottest hour of the day for the attempt, when few people were about, and
the peasants had left the fields for an hour's sleep under the shade of
trees.

The Roman guard had started in pursuit, but Nessus had not overrated his
powers. Gradually he left them behind him, and, making straight for the
Tiber, plunged in and swam the river. He had followed the right bank
up to the hills, and on the second evening after starting made his
appearance at Capua. When he heard the plans of Malchus he announced,
as a matter of course, that he should accompany him. Malchus pointed out
that, with the rewards and spoils he had obtained, he had now sufficient
money to become a man of importance among his own people. Nessus quietly
waved the remark aside as if it were wholly unworthy of consideration.

The cavalry who were to accompany Malchus were light armed Numidians,
whose speed would enable them to distance any bodies of the enemy they
might meet on their way. With them were thirty lead horses, some of them
carrying a large sum of money, which Hannibal had directed should be
paid to Malchus from the treasury, as his share, as an officer of high
rank, of the captured booty. The rest of the horses were laden with
costly arms, robes of honour, and money as presents for the Gaulish
chiefs. These also were furnished from the abundant spoils which had
fallen into the hands of the Carthaginians.

Hannibal directed Malchus that, in the event of his failing in his
mission, he was not to trouble to send these things back, but was to
retain them to win the friendship and goodwill of the chiefs of the
country to which he proposed to journey. The next morning Malchus took
an affectionate farewell of the general and his old comrades, and then,
with Clotilde riding by his side--for the women of the Gauls were as
well skilled as the men in the management of horses--he started at the
head of his party. He followed the route marked out for him without any
adventure of importance. He had one or two skirmishes with parties of
tribesmen allied with Rome, but his movements were too rapid for any
force sufficient to oppose his passage being collected.

After ascending the sea coast the troop skirted the northern slopes of
the Apennines, passing close to the battlefield of Trebia, an