United States or Hungary ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Go in your handsomest armour, and make as brave a show as you can, as my ambassador and kinsman. Take twenty of the Carthaginian horse; they will impose more upon the barbarians than would the Libyans or Numidians. Take your friend Trebon as their commander and a companion for yourself." In two hours Malchus and his escort were ready to start.
"A thousand times better to fall beneath the swords of the Romans than to die like dogs in the holes beneath that hill!" "I quite agree with you, Malchus," Halco, the other officer with the party, said, "and am ready to join you in any plan of escape, however desperate." "The difficulty is about arms," Trebon observed.
"Do not make yourself uneasy on that score, Trebon," Malchus said, "I can tell you, but let it go no further, that ere long there will be fighting enough to satisfy even the most pugnacious." One evening Malchus had left the club early. Full as he was of the thoughts of the tremendous struggle which was soon to begin between the great antagonists, he wearied of the light talk of his gay comrades.
Your friend Trebon behaved with great intelligence in the matter of your rescue, and I shall at once promote him a step in rank." "I am ready to set out again and try whether I can succeed better with some of the other chiefs if you like," Malchus said. "No, Malchus, we will leave them alone for the present.
"I agree with you, Trebon, that it would go hard with us, and that the utmost we could hope for would be a visit to Rome as captives. Still, these chiefs all offered alliance to Hannibal as he went south, and the success which has attended us should surely bind them to our interests. They are ever willing to join the winning side, and so far fortune has been wholly with us."
Malchus remarked to Trebon; "they look at us as if they would gladly spring on us, unarmed as they are, and tear us with their hands. They are well nigh as dark skinned as the Numidians." "Here come their women!" Trebon said; "verily I would as soon fight the men as these creatures. Look how they glare at us!
We will have foot races and trials of skill with the bow, and I will bid their officers pick me out two hundred of the most active and vigourous among them; these you shall have under your command. You can choose among your comrades of the guards one whom you would like to have as your lieutenant." "I will take Trebon," Malchus said; "we fought side by side through the last campaign.
Trebon went out and returned with two soldiers bearing them. "I don't like the look of things," he said in a low voice. "The number of men in the village has trebled since we arrived, and they still keep coming in. None of them show arms at present, but no doubt they are hidden close at hand.
No time was indeed lost, for as soon as the troops were landed they were formed up and at once started on their march. "This is more than we bargained for," Trebon, a young guardsman whose place in the ranks was next to Malchus, said to him. "I thought we should have had at least a month here before we set out.
On emerging from the hills Trebon told his improvised army that they could return to their village, as he had no further need of their services, and, delighted at having escaped without damage or injury, they at once proceeded on their way.
Word Of The Day