unity of their lives had brought about profound friendship among
these men. The camp, with most, took the place of their country; living
without a family they transferred the needful tenderness to a companion,
and they would fall asleep in the starlight side by side under the
same cloak. And then in their perpetual wanderings through all sorts of
countries, murders, and adventures, they had contracted affections, one
for the other, in which the stronger protected the younger in the midst
of battles, helped him to cross precipices, sponged the sweat of fevers
from his brow, and stole food for him, and the weaker, a child perhaps,
who had been picked up on the roadside, and had then become a Mercenary,
repaid this devotion by a thousand kindnesses.

They exchanged their necklaces and earrings, presents which they had
made to one another in former days, after great peril, or in hours of
intoxication. All asked to die, and none would strike. A young fellow
might be seen here and there, saying to another whose beard was grey:
"No! no! you are more robust! you will avenge us, kill me!" and the man
would reply: "I have fewer years to live! Strike to the heart, and think
no more about it!" Brothers gazed on one another with clasped hands,
and friend bade friend eternal farewells, standing and weeping upon his
shoulder.

They threw off their cuirasses that the sword-points might be thrust in
the more quickly. Then there appeared the marks of the great blows which
they had received for Carthage, and which looked like inscriptions on
columns.

They placed themselves in four equal ranks, after the fashion of
gladiators, and began with timid engagements. Some had even bandaged
their eyes, and their swords waved gently through the air like blind
men's sticks. The Carthaginians hooted, and shouted to them that they
were cowards. The Barbarians became animated, and soon the combat as
general, headlong, and terrible.

Sometimes two men all covered with blood would stop, fall into each
other's arms, and die with mutual kisses. None drew back. They rushed
upon the extended blades. Their delirium was so frenzied that the
Carthaginians in the distance were afraid.

At last they stopped. Their breasts made a great hoarse noise, and
their eyeballs could be seen through their long hair, which hung down
as though it had come out of a purple bath. Several were turning round
rapidly, like panthers wounded in the forehead. Others stood motion