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Spendius recognised them, and restrained a cry. A large veil floated behind in the wind. Two days afterwards the Mercenaries left Carthage. They had each received a piece of gold on the condition that they should go into camp at Sicca, and they had been told with all sorts of caresses: "You are the saviours of Carthage! But you would starve it if you remained there; it would become insolvent.
Their damp sandals made no noise; Spendius, with eyes that flamed more than torches, searched the bushes at every step; and he walked behind Matho with his hands resting on the two daggers which he carried on his arms, and which hung from below the armpit by a leathern band. After leaving the gardens Matho and Spendius found themselves checked by the rampart of Megara.
He read the enumeration of their torments; they shall be made to work at the paving of the streets, at the equipment of the vessels, at the adornment of the Syssitia, while the rest shall be sent to scrape the earth in the mines in the country of the Cantabrians." Spendius repeated the same statements to the Gauls, Greeks, Campanians and Balearians.
They questioned each other, trying to discover what it was that had brought the Suffet just when circumstances were most unfavourable. They went on to talk over the situation, and Spendius, to extenuate his fault, or to revive his courage, asserted that some hope still remained. "And if there be none, it matters not!" said Matho; "alone, I will carry on the war!"
Spendius found it again. But most frequently Matho would go off at sunrise, as melancholy as an augur, to wander about the country. He would stretch himself on the sand, and remain there motionless until the evening. He consulted all the soothsayers in the army one after the other, those who watch the trail of serpents, those who read the stars, and those who breathe upon the ashes of the dead.
Spendius shuddered at the name. "Hamilcar! Hamilcar!" he repeated, panting, and Matho was not there! What was to be done? No means of flight! The suddenness of the event, his terror of the Suffet, and above all, the urgent need of forming an immediate resolution, distracted him; he could see himself pierced by a thousand swords, decapitated, dead.
Suddenly the monsters closed their jaws and the crystal globes revolved no more. Then a mournful modulation lingered for a time through the air and at last died away. "And the veil?" said Spendius. Nowhere could it be seen. Where was it to be found? How could it be discovered? What if the priests had hidden it?
"But Tanith is your enemy," retorted Spendius; "she is persecuting you and you are dying through her wrath. You will be revenged upon her. She will obey you, and you will become almost immortal and invincible." Matho bent his head. Spendius continued: "We should succumb; the army would be annihilated of itself. We have neither flight, nor succour, nor pardon to hope for!
A man could be seen in front crowned with ostrich feathers, and galloping with a lance in each hand. "Narr' Havas!" exclaimed Matho. "What matter?" returned Spendius, and he leaped into the hole which they had just made by removing the flagstone. Matho at his command tried to thrust out one of the blocks. But he could not move his elbows for want of room.
The disdain which they felt for these traders strengthened their courage; and before Spendius could command a manoeuvre they had all understood it, and already executed it. They were deployed in a long, straight line, overlapping the wings of the Punic army in order to completely encompass it.
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