ound fuming vats.

Matho, however, was seated on the ground, at the very place where he had
happened to be when the battle ended, his elbows on his knees, and his
temples in his hands; he saw nothing, heard nothing, and had ceased to
think.

At the shrieks of joy uttered by the crowd he raised his head. Before
him a strip of canvas caught on a flagpole, and trailing on the ground,
sheltered in confused fashion blankets, carpets, and a lion's skin. He
recognised his tent; and he riveted his eyes upon the ground as though
Hamilcar's daughter, when she disappeared, had sunk into the earth.

The torn canvas flapped in the wind; the long rags of it sometimes
passed across his mouth, and he perceived a red mark like the print of a
hand. It was the hand of Narr' Havas, the token of their alliance. Then
Matho rose. He took a firebrand which was still smoking, and threw
it disdainfully upon the wrecks of his tent. Then with the toe of his
cothurn he pushed the things which fell out back towards the flame so
that nothing might be left.

Suddenly, without any one being able to guess from what point he had
sprung up, Spendius reappeared.

The former slave had fastened two fragments of a lance against his
thigh; he limped with a piteous look, breathing forth complaints the
while.

"Remove that," said Matho to him. "I know that you are a brave fellow!"
For he was so crushed by the injustice of the gods that he had not
strength enough to be indignant with men.

Spendius beckoned to him and led him to a hollow of the mountain, where
Zarxas and Autaritus were lying concealed.

They had fled like the slave, the one although he was cruel, and the
other in spite of his bravery. But who, said they, could have expected
the treachery of Narr' Havas, the burning of the camp of the Libyans,
the loss of the zaimph, the sudden attack by Hamilcar, and, above all,
his manoeuvres which forced them to return to the bottom of the mountain
beneath the instant blows of the Carthaginians? Spendius made no
acknowledgement of his terror, and persisted in maintaining that his leg
was broken.

At last the three chiefs and the schalischim asked one another what
decision should now be adopted.

Hamilcar closed the road to Carthage against them; they were caught
between his soldiers and the provinces belonging to Narr' Havas; the
Tyrian towns would join the conquerors; the Barbarians would find
themselves driven to the edge of the sea, and all thos