CHAPTER VIII THE BATTLE OF THE MACARAS
In the following day he drew two hundred and twenty-three thousandkikars of gold from the Syssitia, and decreed a tax of fourteen shekelsupon the rich. Even the women contributed; payment was made in behalfof the children, and he compelled the colleges of priests to furnishmoney—a monstrous thing, according to Carthaginian customs.
He demanded all the horses, mules, and arms. A few tried to concealtheir wealth, and their property was sold; and, to intimidate theavarice of the rest, he himself gave sixty suits of armour, and fifteenhundred gomers of meal, which was as much as was given by the IvoryCompany.
He sent into Liguria to buy soldiers, three thousand mountaineersaccustomed to fight with bears; they were paid for six moons in advanceat the rate of four minæ a day.
Nevertheless an army was wanted. But he did not, like Hanno, accept allthe citizens. First he rejected those engaged in sedentary occupations,and then those who were big-bellied or had a pusillanimous look; and headmitted those of ill-repute, the scum of Malqua, sons of Barbarians,freed men. For reward he promised some of the New Carthaginians completerights of citizenship.
His first care was to reform the Legion. These handsome young fellows,who regarded themselves as the military majesty of the Republic,governed themselves. He reduced their officers to the ranks; he treatedthem harshly, made them run, leap, ascend the declivity of Byrsa at asingle burst, hurl javelins, wrestle together, and sleep in the squaresat night. Their families used to come to see them and pity them.
He ordered shorter swords and stronger buskins. He fixed the number ofserving-men, and reduced the amount of baggage; and as there were threehundred Roman pila kept in the temple of Moloch, he took them in spiteof the pontiff’s protests.
He organised a phalanx of seventy-two elephants with those whichhad returned from Utica, and others which were private property, andrendered them formidable. He armed their drivers with mallet and chiselto enable them to split their skulls in the fight if they ran away.
He would not allow his generals to be nominated by the Grand Council.The Ancients tried to urge the laws in objection, but he set them aside;no one ventured to murmur again, and everything yielded to the violenceof his genius.
He assumed sole charge of the war, the government, and the finances;and as a precaution against accusations he demanded the Suffet Hanno asexaminer of his accounts.
He set to work upon the ramparts, and had the old and now useless innerwalls demolished in order to furnish stones. But difference of fortune,replacing the hierarchy of race, still kept the sons of the vanquishedand those of the conquerors apart; thus the patricians viewed thedestruction of these ruins with an angry eye, while the plebeians,scarcely knowing why, rejoiced.
The troops defiled under arms through the streets from morning tillnight; every moment the sound of trumpets was heard; chariots passedbearing shields, tents, and pikes; the courts were full of women engagedin tearing up linen; the enthusiasm spread from one to another, andHamilcar’s soul filled the Republic.
He had divided his soldiers into even numbers, being careful to placea strong man and a weak one alternately throughout the length of hisfiles, so that he who was less vigorous or more cowardly might be atonce led and pushed forward by two others. But with his three thousandLigurians, and the best in Carthage, he could form only a simple phalanxof four thousand and ninety-six hoplites, protected by bronze helmets,and handling ashen sarissæ fourteen cubits long.
There were two thousand young men, each equipped with a sling, a dagger,and sandals. He reinforced them with eight hundred others armed withround shields and Roman swords.
The heavy cavalry was composed of the nineteen hundred remainingguardsmen of the Legion, covered with plates of vermilion bronze, likethe Assyrian Clinabarians. He had further four hundred mounted archers,of those that were called Tarentines, with caps of weasel’s skin,two-edged axes, and leathern tunics. Finally there were twelve hundredNegroes from the quarter of the caravans, who were mingled with theClinabarians, and were to run beside the stallions with one hand restingon the manes. All was ready, and yet Hamilcar did not start.
Often at night he would go out of Carthage alone and make his way beyondthe lagoon towards the mouths of the Macaras. Did he intend to join theMercenaries? The Ligurians encamped in the Mappalian district surroundedhis house.
The apprehensions of the rich appeared justified when, one day, threehundred Barbarians were seen approaching the walls. The Suffet openedthe gates to them; they were deserters; drawn by fear or by fidelity,they were hastening to their master.
Hamilcar’s return had not surprised the Mercenaries; according totheir ideas the man could not die. He was returning to fulfil hispromise;—a hope by no means absurd, so deep was the abyss betweenCountry and Army. Moreover they did not believe themselves culpable; thefeast was forgotten.
The spies whom they surprised undeceived them. It was a triumph for thebitter; even the lukewarm grew furious. Then the two sieges overwhelmedthen with weariness; no progress was being made; a battle would bebetter! Thus many men had left the ranks and were scouring the country.But at news of the arming they returned; Matho leaped for joy. “Atlast! at last!” he cried.
Then the resentment which he cherished against Salammbô was turnedagainst Hamilcar. His hate could now perceive a definite prey; and ashis vengeance grew easier of conception he almost believed that hehad realised it and he revelled in it already. At the same time he wasseized with a loftier tenderness, and consumed by more acrid desire.He saw himself alternately in the midst of the soldiers brandishing theSuffet’s head on a pike, and then in the room with the purple bed,clasping the maiden in his arms, covering her face with kisses, passinghis hands over her long, black hair; and the imagination of this, whichhe knew could never be realised, tortured him. He swore to himself that,since his companions had appointed him schalishim, he would conduct thewar; the certainty that he would not return from it urged him to renderit a pitiless one.
He came to Spendius and said to him:
“You will go and get your men! I will bring mine! Warn Autaritus! Weare lost if Hamilcar attacks us! Do you understand me? Rise!”
Spendius was stupefied before such an air of authority. Matho usuallyallowed himself to be led, and his previous transports had quicklypassed away. But just now he appeared at once calmer and more terrible;a superb will gleamed in his eyes like the flame of sacrifice.
The Greek did not listen to his reasons. He was living in one of theCarthaginian pearl-bordered tents, drinking cool beverages from silvercups, playing at the cottabos, letting his hair grow, and conducting thesiege with slackness. Moreover, he had entered into communications withsome in the town and would not leave, being sure that it would open itsgates before many days were over.
Narr’ Havas, who wandered about among the three armies, was at thattime with him. He supported his opinion, and even blamed the Libyan forwishing in his excess of courage to abandon their enterprise.
“Go, if you are afraid!” exclaimed Matho; “you promised us pitch,sulphur, elephants, foot-soldiers, horses! where are they?”
Narr’ Havas reminded him that he had exterminated Hanno’s lastcohorts;—as to the elephants, they were being hunted in the woods,he was arming the foot-soldiers, the horses were on their way; and theNumidian rolled his eyes like a woman and smiled in an irritating manneras he stroked the ostrich feather which fell upon his shoulder. In hispresence Matho was at a loss for a reply.
But a man who was a stranger entered, wet with perspiration, scared,and with bleeding feet and loosened girdle; his breathing shook hislean sides enough to have burst them, and speaking in an unintelligibledialect he opened his eyes wide as if he were telling of some battle.The king sprang outside and called his horsemen.
They ranged themselves in the plain before him in the form of a circle.Narr’ Havas, who was mounted, bent his head and bit his lips. At lasthe separated his men into two equal divisions, and told the
first towait; then with an imperious gesture he carried off the others at agallop and disappeared on the horizon in the direction of the mountains.
“Master!” murmured Spendius, “I do not like these extraordinarychances—the Suffet returning, Narr’ Havas going away—”
“Why! what does it matter?” said Matho disdainfully.
It was a reason the more for anticipating Hamilcar by uniting withAutaritus. But if the siege of the towns were raised, the inhabitantswould come out and attack them in the rear, while they would have theCarthaginians in front. After much talking the following measures wereresolved upon and immediately executed.
Spendius proceeded with fifteen thousand men as far as the bridge builtacross the Macaras, three miles from Utica; the corners of it werefortified with four huge towers provided with catapults; all the pathsand gorges in the mountains were stopped up with trunks of trees, piecesof rock, interlacings of thorn, and stone walls; on the summits heapsof grass were made which might be lighted as signals, and shepherds whowere able to see at a distance were posted at intervals.
No doubt Hamilcar would not, like Hanno, advance by the mountain ofthe Hot Springs. He would think that Autaritus, being master of theinterior, would close the route against him. Moreover, a check at theopening of the campaign would ruin him, while if he gained a victory hewould soon have to make a fresh beginning, the Mercenaries being furtheroff. Again, he could disembark at Cape Grapes and march thence upon oneof the towns. But he would then find himself between the two armies,an indiscretion which he could not commit with his scanty forces.Accordingly he must proceed along the base of Mount Ariana, then turnto the left to avoid the mouths of the Macaras, and come straight to thebridge. It was there that Matho expected him.
At night he used to inspect the pioneers by torch-light. He would hastento Hippo-Zarytus or to the works on the mountains, would come backagain, would never rest. Spendius envied his energy; but in themanagement of spies, the choice of sentries, the working of the enginesand all means of defence, Matho listened docilely to his companion. Theyspoke no more of Salammbô,—one not thinking about her, and the otherbeing prevented by a feeling of shame.
Often he would go towards Carthage, striving to catch sight ofHamilcar’s troops. His eyes would dart along the horizon; he wouldlie flat on the ground, and believe that he could hear an army in thethrobbing of his arteries.
He told Spendius that if Hamilcar did not arrive in three days he wouldgo with all his men to meet him and offer him battle. Two further dayselapsed. Spendius restrained him; but on the morning of the sixth day hedeparted.
The Carthaginians were no less impatient for war than the Barbarians.In tents and in houses there was the same longing and the same distress;all were asking one another what was delaying Hamilcar.
From time to time he would mount to the cupola of the temple of Eschmounbeside the Announcer of the Moons and take note of the wind.
One day—it was the third of the month of Tibby—they saw himdescending from the Acropolis with hurried steps. A great clamour arosein the Mappalian district. Soon the streets were astir, and the soldierswere everywhere beginning to arm themselves upon their breasts; thenthey ran quickly to the square of Khamon to take their places in theranks. No one was allowed to follow them or even to speak to them, or toapproach the ramparts; for some minutes the whole town was silent as agreat tomb. The soldiers as they leaned on their lances were thinking,and the others in the houses were sighing.
At sunset the army went out by the western gate; but instead of takingthe road to Tunis or making for the mountains in the direction of Utica,they continued their march along the edge of the sea; and they soonreached the Lagoon, where round spaces quite whitened with saltglittered like gigantic silver dishes forgotten on the shore.
Then the pools of water multiplied. The ground gradually became softer,and the feet sank in it. Hamilcar did not turn back. He went on stillat their head; and his horse, which was yellow-spotted like a dragon,advanced into the mire flinging froth around him, and with greatstraining of the loins. Night—a moonless light—fell. A few cried outthat they were about to perish; he snatched their arms from them, andgave them to the serving-men. Nevertheless the mud became deeper anddeeper. Some had to mount the beasts of burden; others clung to thehorses’ tails; the sturdy pulled the weak, and the Ligurian corpsdrove on the infantry with the points of their pikes. The darknessincreased. They had lost their way. All stopped.
Then some of the Suffet’s slaves went on ahead to look for the buoyswhich had been placed at intervals by his order. They shouted throughthe darkness, and the army followed them at a distance.
At last they felt the resistance of the ground. Then a whitish curvebecame dimly visible, and they found themselves on the bank of theMacaras. In spite of the cold no fires were lighted.
In the middle of the night squalls of wind arose. Hamilcar had thesoldiers roused, but not a trumpet was sounded: their captain tappedthem softly on the shoulder.
A man of lofty stature went down into the water. It did not come up tohis girdle; it was possible to cross.
The Suffet ordered thirty-two of the elephants to be posted in the rivera hundred paces further on, while the others, lower down, would checkthe lines of men that were carried away by the current; and holdingtheir weapons above their heads they all crossed the Macaras as thoughbetween two walls. He had noticed that the western wind had driven thesand so as to obstruct the river and form a natural causeway across it.
He was now on the left bank in front of Utica, and in a vast plain, thelatter being advantageous for his elephants, which formed the strengthof his army.
This feat of genius filled the soldiers with enthusiasm. They recoveredextraordinary confidence. They wished to hasten immediately against theBarbarians; but the Suffet bade them rest for two hours. As soon as thesun appeared they moved into the plain in three lines—first came theelephants, and then the light infantry with the cavalry behind it, thephalanx marching next.
The Barbarians encamped at Utica, and the fifteen thousand about thebridge were surprised to see the ground undulating in the distance. Thewind, which was blowing very hard, was driving tornadoes of sand beforeit; they rose as though snatched from the soil, ascended in greatlight-coloured strips, then parted asunder and began again, hiding thePunic army the while from the Mercenaries. Owing to the horns, whichstood up on the edge of the helmets, some thought that they couldperceive a herd of oxen; others, deceived by the motion of the cloaks,pretended that they could distinguish wings, and those who had travelleda good deal shrugged their shoulders and explained everything bythe illusions of the mirage. Nevertheless something of enormous sizecontinued to advance. Little vapours, as subtle as the breath, ranacross the surface of the desert; the sun, which was higher now, shonemore strongly: a harsh light, which seemed to vibrate, threw backthe depths of the sky, and permeating objects, rendered distanceincalculable. The immense plain expanded in every direction beyond thelimits of vision; and the almost insensible undulations of the soilextended to the extreme horizon, which was closed by a great blue linewhich they knew to be the sea. The two armies, having left their tents,stood gazing; the people of Utica were massing on the ramparts to have abetter view.
At last they distinguished several transverse bars bristling with levelpoints. They became thicker, larger; black hillocks swayed to and fro;square thickets suddenly appeared; they were elephants and lances. Asingle shout went up: “The Carthaginians!” and without signal orcommand the soldiers at Utica and those at the bridge ran pell-mell tofall in a body upon Hamilcar.
Spendius shuddered at the name. “Hamilcar! Hamilcar!” he repeated,panting, and Matho was not there! What was to be done? No means offlight! The suddenness of the event, his terror of the Suffet, and aboveall, the urgent need of forming an immediate resolution, distracted him;he could see himself pierced by a thousand swords, decapitated, dead.Meanwhile he was being called for; thirty thousand men would follow him;he was seized with fury
against himself; he fell back upon the hope ofvictory; it was full of bliss, and he believed himself more intrepidthan Epaminondas. He smeared his cheeks with vermilion in order toconceal his paleness, then he buckled on his knemids and his cuirass,swallowed a patera of pure wine, and ran after his troops, who werehastening towards those from Utica.
They united so rapidly that the Suffet had not time to draw up hismen in battle array. By degrees he slackened his speed. The elephantsstopped; they rocked their heavy heads with their chargings of ostrichfeathers, striking their shoulders the while with their trunks.
Behind the intervals between them might be seen the cohorts of thevelites, and further on the great helmets of the Clinabarians,with steel heads glancing in the sun, cuirasses, plumes, and wavingstandards. But the Carthaginian army, which amounted to eleven thousandthree hundred and ninety-six men, seemed scarcely to contain them, forit formed an oblong, narrow at the sides and pressed back upon itself.
Seeing them so weak, the Barbarians, who were thrice as numerous, wereseized with extravagant joy. Hamilcar was not to be seen. Perhaps hehad remained down yonder? Moreover what did it matter? The disdainwhich they felt for these traders strengthened their courage; andbefore Spendius could command a manouvre they had all understood it, andalready executed it.
They were deployed in a long, straight line, overlapping the wings ofthe Punic army in order to completely encompass it. But when therewas an interval of only three hundred paces between the armies, theelephants turned round instead of advancing; then the Clinabarians wereseen to face about and follow them; and the surprise of the Mercenariesincreased when they saw the archers running to join them. So theCarthaginians were afraid, they were fleeing! A tremendous hooting brokeout from among the Barbarian troops, and Spendius exclaimed from the topof his dromedary: “Ah! I knew it! Forward! forward!”
Then javelins, darts, and sling-bullets burst forth simultaneously. Theelephants feeling their croups stung by the arrows began to gallop morequickly; a great dust enveloped them, and they vanished like shadows ina cloud.
But from the distance there came a loud noise of footsteps dominated bythe shrill sound of the trumpets, which were being blown furiously.The space which the Barbarians had in front of them, which was fullof eddies and tumult, attracted like a whirlpool; some dashed into it.Cohorts of infantry appeared; they closed up; and at the same timeall the rest saw the foot-soldiers hastening up with the horseman at agallop.
Hamilcar had, in fact, ordered the phalanx to break its sections, andthe elephants, light troops, and cavalry to pass through the intervalsso as to bring themselves speedily upon the wings, and so well had hecalculated the distance from the Barbarians, that at the moment whenthey reached him, the entire Carthaginian army formed one long straightline.
In the centre bristled the phalanx, formed of syntagmata or full squareshaving sixteen men on each side. All the leaders of all the filesappeared amid long, sharp lanceheads, which jutted out unevenly aroundthem, for the first six ranks crossed their sarissæ, holding them inthe middle, and the ten lower ranks rested them upon the shoulders oftheir companions in succession before them. Their faces were all halfhidden beneath the visors of their helmets; their right legs were allcovered with bronze knemids; broad cylindrical shields reached down totheir knees; and the horrible quadrangular mass moved in a single body,and seemed to live like an animal and work like a machine. Two cohortsof elephants flanked it in regular array; quivering, they shook off thesplinters of the arrows that clung to their black skins. The Indians,squatting on their withers among the tufts of white feathers, restrainedthem with their spoon-headed harpoons, while the men in the towers, whowere hidden up to their shoulders, moved about iron distaffs furnishedwith lighted tow on the edges of their large bended bows. Right andleft of the elephants hovered the slingers, each with a sling around hisloins, a second on his head, and a third in his right hand. Then camethe Clinabarians, each flanked by a Negro, and pointing their lancesbetween the ears of their horses, which, like themselves, werecompletely covered with gold. Afterwards, at intervals, came the lightarmed soldiers with shields of lynx skin, beyond which projected thepoints of the javelins which they held in their left hands; whilethe Tarentines, each having two coupled horses, relieved this wall ofsoldiers at its two extremities.
The army of the Barbarians, on the contrary, had not been able topreserve its line. Undulations and blanks were to be found throughits extravagant length; all were panting and out of breath with theirrunning.
The phalanx moved heavily along with thrusts from all its sarissæ;and the too slender line of the Mercenaries soon yielded in the centrebeneath the enormous weight.
Then the Carthaginian wings expanded in order to fall upon them, theelephants following. The phalanx, with obliquely pointed lances, cutthrough the Barbarians; there were two enormous, struggling bodies; andthe wings with slings and arrows beat them back upon the phalangites.There was no cavalry to get rid of them, except two hundred Numidiansoperating against the right squadron of the Clinabarians. All the restwere hemmed in, and unable to extricate themselves from the lines. Theperil was imminent, and the need of coming to some resolution urgent.
Spendius ordered attacks to be made simultaneously on both flanks of thephalanx so as to pass clean through it. But the narrower ranks glidedbelow the longer ones and recovered their position, and the phalanxturned upon the Barbarians as terrible in flank as it had just been infront.
They struck at the staves of the sarissæ, but the cavalry in the rearembarrassed their attack; and the phalanx, supported by the elephants,lengthened and contracted, presenting itself in the form of a square,a cone, a rhombus, a trapezium, a pyramid. A twofold internal movementwent on continually from its head to its rear; for those who were atthe lowest part of the files hastened up to the first ranks, while thelatter, from fatigue, or on account of the wounded, fell further back.The Barbarians found themselves thronged upon the phalanx. It wasimpossible for it to advance; there was, as it were, an ocean whereinleaped red crests and scales of brass, while the bright shields rolledlike silver foam. Sometimes broad currents would descend from oneextremity to the other, and then go up again, while a heavy massremained motionless in the centre. The lances dipped and rosealternately. Elsewhere there was so quick a play of naked swords thatonly the points were visible, while turmæ of cavalry formed widecircles which closed again like whirlwinds behind them.
Above the voices of the captains, the ringing of clarions and thegrating of tyres, bullets of lead and almonds of clay whistled throughthe air, dashing the sword from the hand or the brain out of the skull.The wounded, sheltering themselves with one arm beneath their shields,pointed their swords by resting the pommels on the ground, while others,lying in pools of blood, would turn and bite the heels of those abovethem. The multitude was so compact, the dust so thick, and the tumultso great that it was impossible to distinguish anything; the cowards whooffered to surrender were not even heard. Those whose hands were emptyclasped one another close; breasts cracked against cuirasses, andcorpses hung with head thrown back between a pair of contracted arms.There was a company of sixty Umbrians who, firm on their hams, theirpikes before their eyes, immovable and grinding their teeth, forced twosyntagmata to recoil simultaneously. Some Epirote shepherds ran upon theleft squadron of the Clinabarians, and whirling their staves, seized thehorses by the man; the animals threw their riders and fled across theplain. The Punic slingers scattered here and there stood gaping. Thephalanx began to waver, the captains ran to and fro in distraction,the rearmost in the files were pressing upon the soldiers, and theBarbarians had re-formed; they were recovering; the victory was theirs.
But a cry, a terrible cry broke forth, a roar of pain and wrath: it camefrom the seventy-two elephants which were rushing on in double line,Hamilcar having waited until the Mercenaries were massed together inone spot to let them loose against them; the Indians had goaded them sovigorously that blood was trickling down their broad ears. Their trunks,which w
ere smeared with minium, were stretched straight out in the airlike red serpents; their breasts were furnished with spears and theirbacks with cuirasses; their tusks were lengthened with steel bladescurved like sabres,—and to make them more ferocious they had beenintoxicated with a mixture of pepper, wine, and incense. They shooktheir necklaces of bells, and shrieked; and the elephantarchs bent theirheads beneath the stream of phalaricas which was beginning to fly fromthe tops of the towers.
In order to resist them the better the Barbarians rushed forward ina compact crowd; the elephants flung themselves impetuously upon thecentre of it. The spurs on their breasts, like ships’ prows, clovethrough the cohorts, which flowed surging back. They stifled the menwith their trunks, or else snatching them up from the ground deliveredthem over their heads to the soldiers in the towers; with their tusksthey disembowelled them, and hurled them into the air, and long entrailshung from their ivory fangs like bundles of rope from a mast. TheBarbarians strove to blind them, to hamstring them; others would slipbeneath their bodies, bury a sword in them up to the hilt, and perishcrushed to death; the most intrepid clung to their straps; they would goon sawing the leather amid flames, bullets, and arrows, and the wickertower would fall like a tower of stone. Fourteen of the animals on theextreme right, irritated by their wounds, turned upon the second rank;the Indians seized mallet and chisel, applied the latter to a joint inthe head, and with all their might struck a great blow.
Down fell the huge beasts, falling one above another. It was likea mountain; and upon the heap of dead bodies and armour a monstrouselephant, called “The Fury of Baal,” which had been caught by theleg in some chains, stood howling until the evening with an arrow in itseye.
The others, however, like conquerors, delighting in extermination,overthrew, crushed, stamped, and raged against the corpses and thedébris. To repel the maniples in serried circles around them, theyturned about on their hind feet as they advanced, with a continualrotatory motion. The Carthaginians felt their energy increase, and thebattle begin again.
The Barbarians were growing weak; some Greek hoplites threw away alltheir arms, and terror seized upon the rest. Spendius was seen stoopingupon his dromedary, and spurring it on the shoulders with two javelins.Then they all rushed away from the wings and ran towards Utica.
The Clinabarians, whose horses were exhausted, did not try to overtakethem. The Ligurians, who were weakened by thirst, cried out for anadvance towards the river. But the Carthaginians, who were posted in thecentre of the syntagmata, and had suffered less, stamped their feetwith longing for the vengeance which was flying from them; and theywere already darting forward in pursuit of the Mercenaries when Hamilcarappeared.
He held in his spotted and sweat-covered horse with silver reins. Thebands fastened to the horns on his helmet flapped in the wind behindhim, and he had placed his oval shield beneath his left thigh. With amotion of his triple-pointed pike he checked the army.
The Tarentines leaped quickly upon their spare horses, and set off rightand left towards the river and towards the town.
The phalanx exterminated all the remaining Barbarians at leisure. Whenthe swords appeared they would stretch out their throats and close theireyelids. Others defended themselves to the last, and were knocked downfrom a distance with flints like mad dogs. Hamilcar had desired thetaking of prisoners, but the Carthaginians obeyed him grudgingly, somuch pleasure did they derive from plunging their swords into the bodiesof the Barbarians. As they were too hot they set about their work withbare arms like mowers; and when they desisted to take breath they wouldfollow with their eyes a horseman galloping across the country after afleeing soldier. He would succeed in seizing him by the hair, hold himthus for a while, and then fell him with a blow of his axe.
Night fell. Carthaginians and Barbarians had disappeared. The elephantswhich had taken to flight roamed in the horizon with their fired towers.These burned here and there in the darkness like beacons nearly halflost in the mist; and no movement could be discerned in the plain savethe undulation of the river, which was heaped with corpses, and wasdrifting them away to the sea.
Two hours afterwards Matho arrived. He caught sight in the starlight oflong, uneven heaps lying upon the ground.
They were files of Barbarians. He stooped down; all were dead. He calledinto the distance, but no voice replied.
That very morning he had left Hippo-Zarytus with his soldiers to marchupon Carthage. At Utica the army under Spendius had just set out, andthe inhabitants were beginning to fire the engines. All had foughtdesperately. But, the tumult which was going on in the direction ofthe bridge increasing in an incomprehensible fashion, Matho had struckacross the mountain by the shortest road, and as the Barbarians werefleeing over the plain he had encountered nobody.
Facing him were little pyramidal masses rearing themselves in the shade,and on this side of the river and closer to him were motionless lightson the surface of the ground. In fact the Carthaginians had fallenback behind the bridge, and to deceive the Barbarians the Suffet hadstationed numerous posts upon the other bank.
Matho, still advancing, thought that he could distinguish Punic engines,for horses’ heads which did not stir appeared in the air fixed uponthe tops of piles of staves which could not be seen; and further off hecould hear a great clamour, a noise of songs, and clashing of cups.
Then, not knowing where he was nor how to find Spendius, assailed withanguish, scared, and lost in the darkness, he returned more impetuouslyby the same road. The dawn as growing grey when from the top ofthe mountain he perceived the town with the carcases of the enginesblackened by the flames and looking like giant skeletons leaning againstthe walls.
All was peaceful amid extraordinary silence and heaviness. Among hissoldiers on the verge of the tents men were sleeping nearly naked, eachupon his back, or with his forehead against his arm which was supportedby his cuirass. Some were unwinding bloodstained bandages from theirlegs. Those who were doomed to die rolled their heads about gently;others dragged themselves along and brought them drink. The sentrieswalked up and down along the narrow paths in order to warm themselves,or stood in a fierce attitude with their faces turned towards thehorizon, and their pikes on their shoulders. Matho found Spendiussheltered beneath a rag of canvas, supported by two sticks set in theground, his knee in his hands and his head cast down.
They remained for a long time without speaking.
At last Matho murmured: “Conquered!”
Spendius rejoined in a gloomy voice: “Yes, conquered!”
And to all questions he replied by gestures of despair.
Meanwhile sighs and death-rattles reached them. Matho partially openedthe canvas. Then the sight of the soldiers reminded him of anotherdisaster on the same spot, and he ground his teeth: “Wretch! oncealready—”
Spendius interrupted him: “You were not there either.”
“It is a curse!” exclaimed Matho. “Nevertheless, in the end Iwill get at him! I will conquer him! I will slay him! Ah! if I had beenthere!—” The thought of having missed the battle rendered him evenmore desperate than the defeat. He snatched up his sword and threw itupon the ground. “But how did the Carthaginians beat you?”
The former slave began to describe the manouvres. Matho seemed tosee them, and he grew angry. The army from Utica ought to have takenHamilcar in the rear instead of hastening to the bridge.
“Ah! I know!” said Spendius.
“You ought to have made your ranks twice as deep, avoided exposing thevelites against the phalanx, and given free passage to the elephants.Everything might have been recovered at the last moment; there was nonecessity to fly.”
Spendius replied:
“I saw him pass along in his large red cloak, with uplifted armsand higher than the dust, like an eagle flying upon the flank of thecohorts; and at every nod they closed up or darted forward; the throngcarried us towards each other; he looked at me, and I felt the coldsteel as it were in my heart.”
“He selected the day, perhaps
?” whispered Matho to himself.
They questioned each other, trying to discover what it was that hadbrought the Suffet just when circumstances were most unfavourable.They went on to talk over the situation, and Spendius, to extenuate hisfault, or to revive his courage, asserted that some hope still remained.
“And if there be none, it matters not!” said Matho; “alone, I willcarry on the war!”
“And I too!” exclaimed the Greek, leaping up; he strode to and fro,his eyes sparkling, and a strange smile wrinkled his jackal face.
“We will make a fresh start; do not leave me again! I am not made forbattles in the sunlight—the flashing of swords troubles my sight; itis a disease, I lived too long in the ergastulum. But give me walls toscale at night, and I will enter the citadels, and the corpses shall becold before cock-crow! Show me any one, anything, an enemy, a treasure,a woman,—a woman,” he repeated, “were she a king’s daughter,and I will quickly bring your desire to your feet. You reproach me forhaving lost the battle against Hanno, nevertheless I won it backagain. Confess it! my herd of swine did more for us than a phalanx ofSpartans.” And yielding to the need that he felt of exalting himselfand taking his revenge, he enumerated all that he had done for the causeof the Mercenaries. “It was I who urged on the Gaul in the Suffet’sgardens! And later, at Sicca, I maddened them all with fear of theRepublic! Gisco was sending them back, but I prevented the interpretersspeaking. Ah! how their tongues hung out of their mouths! do youremember? I brought you into Carthage; I stole the zaïmph. I led you toher. I will do more yet: you shall see!” He burst out laughing like amadman.
Matho regarded him with gaping eyes. He felt in a measure uncomfortablein the presence of this man, who was at once so cowardly and soterrible.
The Greek resumed in jovial tones and cracking his fingers:
“Evoe! Sun after run! I have worked in the quarries, and I havedrunk Massic wine beneath a golden awning in a vessel of my own like aPtolemæus. Calamity should help to make us cleverer. By dint of work wemay make fortune bend. She loves politicians. She will yield!”
He returned to Matho and took him by the arm.
“Master, at present the Carthaginians are sure of their victory. Youhave quite an army which has not fought, and your men obey you. Placethem in the front: mine will follow to avenge themselves. I have stillthree thousand Carians, twelve hundred slingers and archers, wholecohorts! A phalanx even might be formed; let us return!”
Matho, who had been stunned by the disaster, had hitherto thought ofno means of repairing it. He listened with open mouth, and the bronzeplates which circled his sides rose with the leapings of his heart. Hepicked up his sword, crying:
“Follow me; forward!”
But when the scouts returned, they announced that the Carthaginian deadhad been carried off, that the bridge was in ruins, and that Hamilcarhad disappeared.
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