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"No, I am a poor man wandering about the world, and I have come to offer myself to the Republic as a soldier." The Saguntine made a gesture of distress. "I should have guessed it by the arm which serves you as a staff.... Soldiers! Always soldiers! In other times not a sword nor a dart could be seen in the city.
"No one can perform the mission better," said the Saguntine; "that is why I have turned to you. Your life has been spent running over the world; you speak many tongues; and you are not lacking in finesse and valor. Are you acquainted with Rome?" "No, my father's father made war against her, under orders of Pyrrhus."
"They think themselves strong; they think themselves safe, because Rome protects them. They imagine Carthage dead, because her Senate of shopkeepers is afraid to provoke an issue with an ally of Rome. They have beheaded the Saguntine friends of the Carthaginian, those who of old were friends of the Barcas, and used to go out to greet Hamilcar when he passed near the city on his expeditions.
He was almost speechless from fatigue, and his broken words revealed his alarm. Hannibal was coming from the direction of Sætabis! The people from the country were crowding into the city in terror, driving their flocks before them. They had not seen the invader but they ran, horrified by the tales of the fugitives who were fleeing from the frontiers of the Saguntine territory.
The virtuous women of the city, simply dressed in white, passed along, followed by slaves who deposited in netted sacks the provision for the week; the Greeks, in long, saffron-colored chlamydes investigated everything, haggling tediously before making an insignificant purchase; the Saguntine citizens, Iberians who had lost their primitive rudeness through infinite intermarriages, imitated the manner and bearing of the Romans who were at the moment the people in highest esteem.
Alcon was searching for a place on the wall of which he had been told by some of the Elders who were more familiar with the Acropolis. When they had found it the Saguntine groped in the dark until he reached the end of a heavy rope fastened to a merlon, and he flung it over into space. The departure took place in absolute secret.
The three walked on in silence for some time behind the cloud of dust raised by the goats. The boy gradually recovered his serenity at the side of Rhanto, who had taken one of his hands in hers. "And you why do you come here?" he asked Actæon. "I came as did your father. I am a Greek without fortune, and I wish to offer my arms to the Saguntine Republic in its wars with the Turdetani."
The Saguntine youths would race outside the walls in the morning to demonstrate that they were as clever as the Celtiberian horsemen; the more pacific would contest in the Forum, lyre in hand, to win the crown offered to the one who should hymn the poems of Homer most creditably; afterward the procession would reveal all its magnificence through the streets of the city, climbing up to the Acropolis; and in the afternoon the race of the flaming torch would take place to divert the people, who would hiss at him who let his torch go out, and would whip up him who traveled slowly to protect the flame.
Actæon raised himself in his couch to propose the first toast in honor of the chosen divinity. "Drink to Diana, Athenian," spoke the grave voice of Alcon; "drink to the Saguntine goddess!"
Strong slaves, perspiring from standing over the fires in the kitchens, set upon the table the food for the first course, served in great plates of red Saguntine terra cotta. There were shellfish raw and broiled, all highly spiced.
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