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The slight chance of a peace was then tried by two persons; Alcon a Saguntine, and Alorcus a Spaniard.
After three days of travel the caravan entered the territory belonging to the tribes of Alorcus. The mountains separated on both sides of the Jalón, forming smiling valleys covered by tall grasses, through which ran herds of wild horses with curling manes and waving tails.
Alorcus named the conditions which Hannibal had imposed that the Saguntines should restore to the Torbolates the territory they had taken from them, and that the inhabitants, giving up all their goods and treasures, should then be permitted to leave the town and to found a new city at a spot which Hannibal would name. The Saguntines, who were crowding round, heard the terms.
The Saguntines, seeing that further resistance was vain, that the besiegers had already won the breach, that there was no chance of assistance from Rome, and having, moreover, consumed their last provisions, sought for terms. Halcon, the Saguntine general, and a noble Spaniard named Alorcus, on the part of Hannibal, met in the breach.
"You will return from this expedition loaded down with riches," said the Greek, "and you will come back to Saguntum to spend them joyously." "May it be thus!" murmured Alorcus. "But I feel a presentiment that we shall never meet again, Actæon; or, if we meet, it will be to curse the gods that we should ever have known each other.
The young men brought down the sword, drawing it forth from the stiff fingers of Endovellicus. "Bind it upon you, Alorcus," continued the wizard. "With this you shall defend us, and may it fall like a thunderbolt wherever the destiny of your people points! Advance, youthful king!" Guided by the elder, Alorcus stepped forward to the pyre upon which his father lay.
In the doorway of the paternal house, a low structure of red stones roofed with logs, Alorcus saw his sisters in dresses made of flowers and wearing around their necks and over their heads cage-like collars from the bars of which hung mourning veils.
The two horsemen began the descent to the city, followed by the Celtiberian messenger. Actæon sympathized with his comrade's emotion. At the same time the curiosity of the traveler, so often aroused by the Celtiberian's tales, was awakened within him. "Do you wish me to accompany you, Alorcus?" The young man received the proposition with a look of gratitude.
When some of the warriors had retired covered with blood, and the combat had assumed the character of a general battle, in which, aroused by the spectacle, the women and children participated, Alorcus ordered the trumpets to sound the retreat, and he hurled himself among the combatants to separate the more tenacious. Thus ended the funeral rites.
The five servants and the messenger brought up the rear, armed with long lances, driving the mules laden with Alorcus' clothing and provisions. Throughout the afternoon they traveled upon the roads, being still in the Saguntine domain, and they passed cultivated and fruitful fields, beautiful villas and compact little towns clinging close around the tower which served them as defense.
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