threatened in the interest of the tyrants of Carthage, for them to enter
heart and soul into the cause.

During these four days the Barcine Club was like the headquarters of
an army. Night and day the doors stood open, messengers came and went
continually, consultations of the leading men of the city were held
almost without a break. Every man belonging to it had his appointed
task. The landed proprietors stirred up the cultivators of the soil, the
manufacturers were charged with the enlightenment of their hands as to
the dangers of the situation, the soldiers were busy among the
troops; but theirs was a comparatively easy task, for these naturally
sympathized with their comrades in Spain, and the name of the great
Hamilcar was an object of veneration among them.

Hanno's faction was not idle. The Syssite which was composed of his
adherents was as large as its rival. Its orators harangued the people in
the streets on the dangers caused to the republic by the ambition of
the family of Barca, of the expense entailed by the military and naval
establishments required to keep up the forces necessary to carry out
their aggressive policy, of the folly of confiding the principal army of
the state to the command of a mere youth. They dilated on the wealth and
generosity of Hanno, of his lavish distribution of gifts among the poor,
of his sympathy with the trading community. Each day the excitement
rose, business was neglected, the whole population was in a fever of
excitement.

On the evening of the fourth day the agents of the Barcine Club
discovered that Hanno's party were preparing for a public demonstration
on the following evening. They had a certainty of a majority in the
public vote, which, although nominally that of the people, was, as has
been said, confined solely to what would now be called the middle class.

Hitherto the Barcine party had avoided fixing any period for their own
demonstration, preferring to wait until they knew the intention of their
opponents. The council now settled that it should take place on the
following day at eleven o'clock, just when the working classes would
have finished their morning meal.

The secret council, however, determined that no words should be
whispered outside their own body until two hours before the time, in
order that it should not be known to Hanno and his friends until too
late to gather their adherents to oppose it. Private messengers were,
however, sent out late to a