n on the threshold of Khamon. He turned round
and shouted to his men to move aside. He dismounted from his horse; and
pricking it on the croup with the sword which he held, sent it against
the Barbarians.

It was a black stallion, which was fed on balls of meal, and would bend
its knees to allow its master to mount. Why was he sending it away? Was
this a sacrifice?

The noble horse galloped into the midst of the lances, knocked down men,
and, entangling its feet in its entrails, fell down, then rose again
with furious leaps; and while they were moving aside, trying to stop it,
or looking at it in surprise, the Carthaginians had united again; they
entered, and the enormous gate shut echoing behind them.

It would not yield. The Barbarians came crushing against it;--and for
some minutes there was an oscillation throughout the army, which became
weaker and weaker, and at last ceased.

The Carthaginians had placed soldiers on the aqueduct, they began to
hurl stones, balls, and beams. Spendius represented that it would be
best not to persist. The Barbarians went and posted themselves further
off, all being quite resolved to lay siege to Carthage.

The rumour of the war, however, had passed beyond the confines of
the Punic empire; and from the pillars of Hercules to beyond Cyrene
shepherds mused on it as they kept their flocks, and caravans talked
about it in the light of the stars. This great Carthage, mistress of the
seas, splendid as the sun, and terrible as a god, actually found men
who were daring enough to attack her! Her fall even had been asserted
several times; and all had believed it for all wished it: the subject
populations, the tributary villages, the allied provinces, the
independent hordes, those who execrated her for her tyranny or were
jealous of her power, or coveted her wealth. The bravest had very
speedily joined the Mercenaries. The defeat at the Macaras had checked
all the rest. At last they had recovered confidence, had gradually
advanced and approached; and now the men of the eastern regions were
lying on the sandhills of Clypea on the other side of the gulf. As soon
as they perceived the Barbarians they showed themselves.

They were not Libyans from the neighbourhood of Carthage, who had long
composed the third army, but nomads from the tableland of Barca, bandits
from Cape Phiscus and the promontory of Dernah, from Phazzana and
Marmarica. They had crossed the desert, drinking at the brackish we