THE FIELD OF BLOOD. 153 



But in the temple on the summit of the rocky hill 

 nine hundred Roman deserters, for whom there could 

 be no pardon, stood at bay. The trumpets sounded ; 

 the soldiers clashing their bucklers with their swords, 

 and uttering the war-cry, alala ! alala ! advanced to 

 the attack. Of a sudden the sea of steel recoiled : 

 the standards reeled ; a long tongue of flame sprang 

 forth upon them through the temple door. The 

 deserters had set the building on fire, that they might 

 escape the ignominious death of martial law. 



A man dressed in purple rushed out of the temple 

 with an olive branch in his hand. This was Has- 

 drubal, the commander-in-chief, and the Robespierre of 

 the Reign of Terror. His life was given him; he 

 would do for the triumph. And as he bowed the knee 

 before the consul, a woman appeared on the roof of 

 the temple with two children in her arms. She 

 poured forth some scornful words upon her husband, 

 then plunged with her children into the flames. 



Carthage burned seventeen days before it was 

 entirely consumed. Then the plough was passed over 

 the soil to put an end in legal form to the existence 

 of the city. House might never again be built, corn 

 might never again be sown upon the ground -where it 

 had stood. A hundred years afterwards Julius Caesar 

 founded another Carthage, and planted a Roman colony 

 therein. But it was not built upon the same spot ; 

 the old site remained accursed ; it was a browzing 

 ground for cattle, a field of blood. When recently 

 the remains of the city walls were disinterred, they 

 were found to be covered with a layer of ashes from 

 four to five feet deep, filled with half charred pieces 

 of wood, fragments of iron, and projectiles. 



The possessions of the Carthaginians were formed 



