his presence would have embarrassed her. She sent him
word that she could not receive him.

Moreover, Hamilcar had forbidden his people to admit the King of the
Numidians to see her; by putting off his reward to the end of the war he
hoped to retain his devotion;--and, through dread of the Suffet, Narr'
Havas withdrew.

But he bore himself haughtily towards the Hundred. He changed their
arrangements. He demanded privileges for his men, and placed them
on important posts; thus the Barbarians stared when they perceived
Numidians on the towers.

The surprise of the Carthaginians was greater still when three hundred
of their own people, who had been made prisoners during the Sicilian
war, arrived on board an old Punic trireme. Hamilcar, in fact, had
secretly sent back to the Quirites the crews of the Latin vessels,
taken before the defection of the Tyrian towns; and, to reciprocate the
courtesy, Rome was now sending him back her captives. She scorned the
overtures of the Mercenaries in Sardinian, and would not even recognise
the inhabitants of Utica as subjects.

Hiero, who was ruling at Syracuse, was carried away by this example. For
the preservation of his own States it was necessary that an equilibrium
should exist between the two peoples; he was interested, therefore, in
the safety of the Chanaanites, and he declared himself their friend, and
sent them twelve hundred oxen, with fifty-three thousand nebels of pure
wheat.

A deeper reason prompted aid to Carthage. It was felt that if the
Mercenaries triumphed, every one, from soldier to plate-washer, would
rise, and that no government and no house could resist them.

Meanwhile Hamilcar was scouring the eastern districts. He drove back
the Gauls, and all the Barbarians found that they were themselves in
something like a state of siege.

Then he set himself to harass them. He would arrive and then retire, and
by constantly renewing this manoeuvre, he gradually detached them from
their encampments. Spendius was obliged to follow them, and in the end
Matho yielded in like manner.

He did not pass beyond Tunis. He shut himself up within its walls. This
persistence was full of wisdom, for soon Narr' Havas was to be seen
issuing from the gate of Khamon with his elephants and soldiers.
Hamilcar was recalling him, but the other Barbarians were already
wandering about in the provinces in pursuit of the Suffet.

The latter had received three thousand Gauls from Clypea. He