As time went on, the Carthaginians tried to make peace, and they sent
their prisoner, Regulus, over to Rome to persuade the Roman Government
to come to terms. They made him promise on his word of honour that if
he failed to bring about peace he would return again to Carthage, and
become a prisoner once more.
When he got to Rome, instead of urging them to make peace, he told his
countrymen to go on with the war.
The Roman Government were inclined to do this, but at the same time
they saw that if they did, Regulus would probably be put to death by
the Carthaginians for not having procured peace, so they did not know
what to do.
Regulus, seeing their difficulty, told them that he was an old man and
his life did not matter, and he pretended that he had already taken
slow poison. So the Romans resolved to continue the war, and Regulus
went back to Carthage, according to his promise, and gave himself up
to the Carthaginians.
[Illustration: AN ARAB BOY AND HIS "MOKE."]
You might think that they would have admired him for his courage and
sense of honour, but the Carthaginians, as I told you, were a cowardly
lot; they hired soldiers to do their fighting for them, and, like all
cowards, they were cruel, too; so instead of respecting this plucky
old Roman, they punished him by shutting him into a box lined with
sharp spikes, so that he could get no rest nor sleep.
Then they cut off his eyelids, and took him out of his dark cell into
the blazing sunlight, so that he was blinded, and finally they killed
him by crucifying him.
Supposing that we were invaded by an enemy who had a strong army, and
we had nothing but paid soldiers to defend ourselves with because our
men were too cowardly or too unpatriotic to learn how to defend their
homes. If such an enemy were to defeat our weak army, and then order
us to destroy every house in London, how should we like it?
Should not we feel, like the Carthaginians, enraged with our
Government who had not made the country strong, and also enraged with
ourselves because we had not trained ourselves to defend our homes
before it was too late?
The Carthaginians in despair sent more messengers to the Roman general
at their gates, begging for thirty days' grace in which to make their
arrangements, but the conquerors sent these men back with the order
that the destruction of the city was to begin at once.
Then a change came over the Carthaginians. From a mob of despairing,
panic-stricken wretches they organised themselves into a defence
force. They barred the city gates, and started to make weapons to
replace those which they had surrendered to their enemies.
Night and day they worked--men, women, and children. They manufactured
daily 100 shields, 300 swords, 500 spears, and 1000 balls for their
catapults, and the women cut off their hair and plaited it into ropes
for the catapults.
* * * * *