For the next two days Malchus was visited only by the Numidian who brought
his food. The third night, as he was lying on his straw, wondering how
long Hanno would be before he decided his fate, he started to his
feet as he heard, apparently close at hand, his name whispered. It was
repeated, and he now perceived that it came from above.
“Yes,” he said in a low tone, looking upwards, “I am Malchus. Who speaks
to me?”
“It is I, Nessus,” the voice replied. “Thanks to the gods, I have found
my lord.”
“How did you get here, Nessus? I feared that you were drowned.”
“I swam to shore,” the Arab said, “and then watched outside the gate
here. I saw several prisoners brought in, and doubted not that you were
among them. I was at the port when the ship came in, and found that
she brought no passenger. Then I came up here again, soon found friends
among the Arab regiment in the garrison; these obtained me employment
in the stables of the elephants. Each night, when all has been still, I
have crept here, and have whispered your name down each of the gratings.
Tonight you have heard me. Now that I know where you are, I will set to
work to contrive your escape. Is the passage from your cell here wide
enough to admit your being drawn up?”
“Yes,” Malchus replied; “it would be a close fit, but with a rope you
could get me up through it.”
“I will set to work to loosen these bars at once,” Nessus said; “but the
difficulty is not to get you out from here, but to get you beyond the
gates of the citadel. The watch is extremely strict, and the gates
are not opened until nine o'clock. Before that your escape would be
discovered, and it will be impossible for you to pass out undetected. I
must find a hiding place where you can lie concealed until the search
is over, and the vigilance of the sentries is relaxed; but it will be no
easy matter. And now let us speak no more; it is dangerous to breathe,
much less to speak here.”
Not another word was spoken for hours. Malchus could hear a low
continuous scraping noise as Nessus with his dagger worked away upon the
stone into which the grating fitted. At last Nessus spoke again. “I have
nearly finished, my lord, the greater part of the grating is loose, and
in half an hour I can complete the work. Daylight will soon be breaking
and I must go. Tomorrow night I will return with a rope. I hope today to
find some place where you may be concealed.”
Malchus with renewed hope threw himself upon the straw, and lay there
until about noon when he was again summoned to the presence of his
judges. They were the same whom he had seen previously.
“Malchus, son of Hamilcar,” Hanno said, “you are now brought before us
to hear the crime with which you are charged. We have here before us the
written list of the names of the members of the conspiracy, headed
by Giscon, which had for its aim the murder of many of the senate of
Carthage and the overthrow of her constitution. We have also here the
confession of several of the conspirators confirming this list, and
saying that you were one of the party.”
“I do not deny,” Malchus said firmly, “that I did once visit the place
in which those you speak of met, and that my name was then entered on
the roll; but when I went there I was wholly ignorant of the purposes
of the association, and as soon as I learned their aims and objects I
withdrew from them, and did not again visit their place of meeting.”
“You could not well do that,” Hanno said, “since it is writ down that
you sailed very shortly afterwards for Spain.”
“I own that I did so,” Malchus replied, “but I told Giscon on the very
day that I accompanied him to the meeting that I would go there no more.
Moreover, your commissioners with Hannibal's army have already inquired
into the circumstances, and they, in consideration of the fact that I
was then little more than sixteen years old, that I was led ignorantly
into the plot, and at once separated myself from it, absolved me from
blame.”
“The commissioners had no authority to do so,” Hanno replied; “they were
ordered to send you to Carthage, and failed to carry out their orders
only because Hannibal then, as always, set himself above the authority
of the republic. As you have confessed that you were a member of this
conspiracy, no further trial is needed, and this court awards to you
the same punishment which was meted to all the others concerned in the
conspiracy--you will tomorrow be put to death by the usual punishment of
the press.”
Malchus abstained from all reply, for it struck him at once that were
he to defy and anger his judges they might order him to be instantly
executed. He therefore without a word turned and accompanied his jailer
to his cell. He waited impatiently for night, and the hours seemed long
indeed before he heard the whisper of Nessus above. Directly the Arab
received the reply, assuring him that Malchus was still there, he again
set to work.
In an hour the grating was removed and the rope lowered. Malchus
fastened it under his arms, knotting it in front, and then whispered to
Nessus that he was ready. The Arab drew him slowly and steadily up until
his head was in the entrance of the narrow passage. Malchus had grasped
the rope as high as possible above his head and hung by his hands,
thereby drawing the shoulders upwards, and reducing their width as
much as possible. He then managed to swing himself so that his body was
diagonally across the opening, and when thus placed he found to his joy
that the passage was large enough for him to pass through without much
difficulty.
Slowly and steadily Nessus drew him up until his shoulders were
above the level of the ground, when Malchus, placing his hands on the
pavement, sprang noiselessly out. The grating was replaced, and without
a word being spoken they glided from the temple. Not a word was said
until they had gone some little distance.
“You have saved my life again, Nessus,” Malchus said, laying his hand
upon his shoulder. “Another twelve hours and it would have been too
late. I was to have been put to death in the morning.”
Nessus gave a fierce exclamation and placed his hand on his knife.
“Had they slain my lord,” he said, “I would have avenged you. I would
have dogged your enemies night and day till, one by one, my knife should
have found its way to their hearts!”
“Have you found a hiding place, Nessus?”
“There is but one place of safety, my lord, that I can think of. I have
talked it over with two or three faithful friends, and they agree that
so rigid will be the search that it will be well nigh impossible for
anyone within the walls of the citadel to escape detection. The spies
of Hanno are everywhere, and men fear within these walls even to whisper
what they think. At any rate, no more secure hiding place could be found
than that which we have decided upon.”
“And where is that, Nessus?”
“It is in the reservoirs. With four water skins and some planks we
have prepared a raft. My two friends are waiting for us at one of the
entrances. They will have fitted the raft together, and all will be in
readiness. They are not likely to search for you there.”
“The idea is excellent, Nessus.”
The reservoirs of Carthage were of enormous extent, and some of these
remain to this day and are the wonder and admiration of travellers. They
were subterranean, and were cut from the solid rock, the stone extracted
from them being used for the walls of the buildings of the city. Pillars
were left at intervals to support the roof, and it was calculated that
these underground lakes--for they were no less--contained sufficient
water to supply the wants of the great city for at least six months.
These vast storing places for water were an absolute necessity in a
climate like that of Northern Africa, where the rain falls but seldom.
Without them, indeed, Carthage would have been at the mercy of the first
army which laid siege to it.
The greatest pains were devoted to the maintenance of the water supply.
The rainfall from the roofs of the temples and houses was conducted
to the reservoirs, and these stores were never drawn upon on ordinary
occasions, the town being supplied with water brought by aqueducts from
long distances among the hills. Here and there openings were cut in the
rock which formed the roof of the reservoirs, for the admission of air,
and at a few points steps from the surface led down to the water. Iron
gates guarded the entrance to these.
Nessus and his friends had the evening before unfastened one of these
gates. The lock was old and little used, as the gate was placed rather
to prevent children and others going down to the water than for any
other purpose, and the Arabs had found little difficulty in picking the
rough lock.
Malchus followed Nessus down the steps until he reached the edge of the
water, some fifty feet below the surface. Here stood two Arabs bearing
torches. At the foot of the steps floated the raft, formed, as Nessus
had said, of four inflated sheepskins connected by a framework of
planks. Across these a bullock's hide had been stretched, forming a
platform. On this were some rugs, a skin of wine, and a pile of flat
cakes and fruit, together with half a dozen torches.
“Thanks, my friends!” Malchus said to the Arabs. “Some day I may be able
to prove that I am grateful to you.”
“The friends of Nessus are our friends,” one of the Arabs replied
simply; “his lord is our master.”
“Here is a paddle, my lord,” Nessus said. “I propose that you should
paddle straight away as far as you can see a torch burning here; then
that you should fasten the raft to a pillar. Every other night I will
come with provisions here and show a light. If you see the light burn
steadily it is safe for you to approach, and I come only to bring food
or news; if you see the torch wave to and fro, it is a warning that they
intend to search the reservoirs. I do not think it likely they will do
so; still it is best to be prepared, and in that case you must paddle
far away in the recesses. They might search for a long time before they
find you. I trust that your imprisonment here will not be long, but that
we may hit upon some plan of getting you out of the citadel. I would
gladly go with you to share your solitude, but I must remain outside to
plan some way of escape.”
With a short farewell to his faithful follower Malchus took his place
on the raft, having lit a torch and fastened it upright upon it. Then
he paddled slowly away, keeping between the lines of heavy columns. His
rate of progress was slow, and for half an hour he kept the torch
in sight. By this time he felt sure that he must be approaching the
boundary of the reservoir. He therefore moored his raft against a pillar
and waved his torch backwards and forwards. The signal was answered by
a similar movement of the distant light, which then disappeared. Malchus
now extinguished his own torch, placed the means of relighting it with
which Nessus had furnished him close to his hand, and then, wrapping
himself in a rug, lay down to sleep.
When he awoke it was day. The light was streaming down on to the water
from an opening two or three hundred yards away, while far in the
distance he could see a faint light which marked the place of the
steps at which he had embarked. In the neighbourhood of the opening the
columns stood up clear and gray against the dark background. A little
further off their outlines were dim and misty; and wherever else he
looked an inky darkness met his eye, save one or two faint bands of
misty light, which marked the position of distant openings.
The stillness which reigned in this vast cavern was almost oppressive.
Sometimes a faint rustling whisper, the echo of some sound in the
citadel above, passed among the columns; and the plaintive squeak of a
bat was heard now and then, for numbers of these creatures were flitting
noiselessly in the darkness, their forms visible for an instant as they
passed and repassed between Malchus and the light. He wondered vaguely
what they could find to eat here, and then remembered that he had heard
that at nightfall numbers of bats could be seen flying up from the
openings to the reservoirs to seek food without, returning to their
hiding places when morning approached.
Malchus amused himself by thinking over the fury and astonishment of
Hanno and his colleagues on hearing that their prisoner had disappeared,
and he pictured to himself the hot search which was no doubt going on
throughout the citadel. He thought it improbable in the extreme that any
search would be made in the reservoir. Nessus would refasten the gate
after passing through it again, and the idea that he could be floating
on the subterranean lake could hardly occur to them.
Then he turned over in his mind the various devices by which it might
be possible to get beyond the walls of the citadel. The anxiety of
Hanno and those acting with him to prevent the manner in which they had
kidnapped and sentenced to death the messenger and kinsman of Hannibal
from becoming known in the city, would be so great that extraordinary
vigilance would be used to prevent any from leaving the citadel. The
guards on the walls would be greatly increased; none would be allowed to
pass the gate without the most rigourous examination; while every nook
and corner of the citadel, the temples, the barracks, storehouses, and
stables, would be searched again and again. Even should a search be made
in the reservoir, Malchus had little fear of discovery; for even should
a boat come towards the spot where he was lying, he would only have
to pass the raft round to the opposite side of the great pillar, some
twelve feet square, against which he was lying.
When the light faded out he again lay down to sleep. As before, he slept
soundly; for, however great the heat above, the air in the subterranean
chambers was always fresh and cool, and he could well bear the rugs
which Nessus had provided. The next day passed more slowly, for he had
less to think about. After the daylight had again faded he began to look
forward expectantly for the signal, although he knew that many hours
must still elapse before Nessus would be able to make his way to the
place of meeting.
So slowly did the hours pass, indeed, that he began at last to fear that
something must have happened--perhaps that Nessus had been in some way
recognized, and was now in the dungeons below the temple of Moloch.
At last, however, to his joy Malchus saw the distant light; it burned
steadily, and he at once set out to paddle towards it. He did not light
his torch--it would have taken time, and he knew that, quietly as he
paddled, the sound would be borne along the surface of the water to
Nessus. At last he arrived at the steps. Nessus was there alone; beside
him was a basket of fresh provisions.
“Well, Nessus, what news?”
“All is well, my lord; but Hanno is moving heaven and earth to find
you. The gates of the citadel were kept closed all day yesterday; and
although today they have again been opened, the examination of those
who pass out is so strict that no disguise would avail to deceive the
scrutiny of the searchers. One or other of the men who attended you in
the prison is always at the gate. The barracks have been searched from
end to end, the troops occupying them being all turned out while the
agents of the law searched them from top to bottom. The same has been
done with the stables; and it is well that we did not attempt to hide
you above ground, for assuredly if we had done so they would have found
you, however cunningly we had stowed you away. Of course the name of
the prisoner who has escaped is known to none, but the report that an
important prisoner had escaped from the state prisons beneath the temple
has created quite an excitement in the city, for it is said that such an
event never took place before. At present I can hit on no plan whatever
for getting you free.”
“Then I must be content to wait for a while, Nessus. After a time their
vigilance is sure to relax, as they will think that I must have got
beyond the walls.”
“Are there any to whom you would wish me to bear news that you are
here?”
This was a question which Malchus had debated with himself over and over
again. It appeared to him, however, that Hanno's power was so great
that it would be dangerous for anyone to come forward and accuse him.
No doubt every one of the leading men of the Barcine party was strictly
watched; and did Hanno suspect that any of them were in communication
with the escaped prisoner, he would take instant steps against them. He
thought it better, therefore, that none should be acquainted with the
secret until he was free. He therefore replied in the negative to the
question of Nessus.
“I must wait till I am free. Any action now might bring down the
vengeance of Hanno upon others. He would find no difficulty in inventing
some excuse for dealing a blow at them. You think there is no possibility
of escape at present?”
“I can think on no plan, my lord. So strict is the search that when the
elephants went down today to the fountains for water every howdah was
examined to see that no one was hidden within it.”
“It will be necessary also, Nessus, if you do hit upon some plan for
getting me out, to arrange a hiding place in the city.”
“That will be easy enough,” Nessus replied. “My friends have many
relations in the Arab quarter, and once free, you might be concealed
there for any time. And now I will wait no longer, for last night visits
were made in all the barracks and stables by the agents of the law,
to see that every man was asleep in his place. Therefore I will return
without delay. In two days I will be here again; but should anything
occur which it is needful to tell you I will be here tomorrow night.”
Malchus watched for the light on the following evening with but faint
hope of seeing it, but at about the same hour as before he saw it
suddenly appear again. Wondering what had brought Nessus before his
time, he paddled to the stairs.
“Well, Nessus, what is your news?”
“We have hit upon a plan of escape, my lord. As I told you my friend and
I are in the stable with the elephants, our duties being to carry in the
forage for the great beasts, and to keep the stables in order. We have
taken one of the Indian mahouts into our confidence, and he has promised
his aid; the elephant of which he is in charge is a docile beast, and
his driver has taught him many tricks. At his signal he will put up his
trunk and scream and rush here and there as if in the state which is
called must, when they are dangerous of approach. The mahout, who is a
crafty fellow, taught him to act thus, because when in such a state of
temper the elephants cannot be worked with the others, but remain in the
stables, and their drivers have an easy time of it.
“On the promise of a handsome reward the mahout has agreed that tomorrow
morning, before the elephants are taken out, you shall be concealed in
the bottom of the howdah. He will manage that the elephant is the first
in the procession. When we get out into the courtyard he will slyly
prick the beast, and give him the signal to simulate rage; he will then
so direct him that, after charging several times about the court, he
shall make a rush at the gate. You may be sure that the guards there
will step aside quickly enough, for a furious elephant is not a creature
to be hindered.
“When he is once down to the foot of the hill the driver will direct him
to some quiet spot. That he will find easily enough, for at his approach
there will be a general stampede. When he reaches some place where no
one is in sight he will halt the elephant and you will at once drop
off him. I shall be near at hand and will join you. The elephant will
continue his course for some little distance, and the mahout, feigning
to have at last recovered control over him, will direct him back to the
citadel.”
“The idea is a capital one,” Malchus said, “and if carried out will
surely succeed. You and I have often seen during our campaigns elephants
in this state, and know how every one flies as they come along screaming
loudly, with their trunks high, and their great ears out on each side
of their heads. At any rate it is worth trying, Nessus, and if by any
chance we should fail in getting through the gate, the mahout would, of
course, take his elephant back to the stable, and I might slip out there
and conceal myself till night, and then make my way back here again.”
“That's what we have arranged,” Nessus said. “And now, my lord, I will
leave you and go back to the stables, in case they should search them
again tonight. If you will push off and lie a short distance away from
the steps I will be here again half an hour before daybreak. I will
bring you a garb like my own, and will take you direct to the stable
where the animal is kept. There will be no one there save the mahout
and my two friends, so that it will be easy for us to cover you in the
howdah before the elephants go out. There is little chance of anyone
coming into the stables before that, for they have been searched so
frequently during the last two days that Hanno's agents must by this
time be convinced that wherever you are hidden you are not there.
Indeed, today the search has greatly relaxed, although the vigilance
at the gate and on the walls is as great as ever; so I think that they
despair of finding you, and believe that you must either have made your
escape already, or that if not you will sooner or later issue from your
hiding place and fall into their hands.”
Malchus slept little that night, and rejoiced when he again saw
Nessus descending the steps. A few strokes of his paddle sent the raft
alongside. Nessus fastened a cord to it to prevent it from drifting
away.
“We may need it again,” he said briefly. Malchus placed his own clothes
upon it and threw over his shoulders the bernous which Nessus had
brought. He then mounted the steps with him, the gate was closed and the
bolt shot, and they then made their way across to the stables. It was
still perfectly dark, though a very faint light, low in the eastern sky,
showed that ere long the day would break.
Five minutes' walking and they arrived at the stables of the elephants.
These, like those of the horses and the oxen which drew the cumbrous war
machines, were formed in the vast thickness of the walls, and were what
are known in modern times as casemates. As Nessus had said, the Indian
mahout and the other two Arabs were the only human occupants of the
casemate. The elephant at once showed that he perceived the newcomer to
be a stranger by an uneasy movement, but the mahout quieted him.
While they were waiting for morning, Nessus described, more fully than
he had hitherto had an opportunity of doing, the attack made upon him on
board the ship.
“I was,” he said, “as my lord knows, uneasy when I found that they
had recognized you, and when we were within a day's sail of Carthage I
resolved to keep a lookout--therefore, although I wrapped myself in my
cloak and lay down, I did not go to sleep. After a while I thought
I heard the sound of oars, and, standing up, went to the bulwark to
listen. Suddenly some of the sailors, who must have been watching me,
sprang upon me from behind, a cloak was thrown over my head, a rope was
twisted round my arms, and in a moment I was lifted and flung overboard.
“I did not cry out, because I had already made up my mind that it was
better not to arouse you from sleep whatever happened, as, had you run
out, you might have been killed, and I thought it likely that their
object would be, if you offered no resistance, to take you a prisoner,
in which case I trusted that I might later on hope to free you. As my
lord knows, I am a good swimmer. I let myself sink, and when well below
the surface soon got rid of the rope which bound me, and which was,
indeed, but hastily twisted round my arms. I came up to the surface as
noiselessly as possible, and after taking a long breath dived and swam
under water as far as I could. When I came up the ship was so far away
that there was little fear of their seeing me; however, I dived again
and again until in perfect safety.
“I heard a boat rowed by many oars approach the vessel. I listened for a
time and found that all was quiet, and then laid myself out for the long
swim to shore, which I reached without difficulty. All day I kept my eye
on the vessel, which remained at anchor. As I could not tell to which
landing place you might be brought I went up in the evening and took
my post on the road leading up here, and when towards morning a party
entered, carrying one with them on a stretcher, I had little doubt that
it was you.
“I was sure to find friends among the Arabs either belonging to the
regiment stationed in Byrsa or those employed in the storehouses or
stables; so the next morning I entered the citadel and soon met these
men, who belonged to my tribe and village. After that my way was plain;
my only fear was that they might kill you before I could discover the
place in which you were confined, and my heart sank the first night when
I found that, though I whispered down every one of the gratings, I could
obtain no reply.
“I had many answers, indeed, but not from you. There might be many cells
besides those with openings into the temple, and were you placed in one
of these I might never hear of you again. I had resolved that if the
next night passed without my being able to find you, I would inform some
of those known to be friends of Hannibal that you were a prisoner, and
leave it in their hands to act as they liked, while I still continued my
efforts to communicate with you. You may imagine with what joy I heard
your reply on the following night.”
“I must have been asleep the first night,” Malchus said, “and did not
hear your voice.”
“I feared to speak above a whisper, my lord; there are priests all night
in the sanctuary behind the great image.”
Day had by this time broken, and a stir and bustle commenced in front
of the long line of casemates; the elephants were brought out from
their stables and stood rocking themselves from side to side while their
keepers rubbed their hides with pumice stone. Nessus was one of those
who was appointed to make the great flat cakes of coarse flour which
formed the principal food of the elephants. The other Arabs busied
themselves in bringing in fresh straw, which Malchus scattered evenly
over the stall; heaps of freshly cut forage were placed before each
elephant.
In a short time one of the Arabs took the place of Nessus in preparing
the cakes, while Nessus moved away and presently went down into the
town to await the coming of Malchus. By this arrangement if the
superintendent of the stables came round he would find the proper number
of men at work, and was not likely to notice the substitution of Malchus
for Nessus, with whose face he could not yet have become familiar. By
this time numbers of the townsmen were as usual coming up to the citadel
to worship in the temple or to visit friends dwelling there. Malchus
learned that since his escape had been known each person on entrance
received a slip of brass with a stamp on it which he had to give up on
leaving.
All employed in the citadel received a similar voucher, without which
none could pass the gate. The time was now come when the elephants were
accustomed to be taken down to the fountains in the town below, and the
critical moment was at hand. The mahout had already begun to prepare his
elephant for the part he was to play. It had been trumpeting loudly and
showing signs of impatience and anger. The animal was now made to kneel
by the door of its stable, where Malchus had already lain down at the
bottom of the howdah, a piece of sacking being thrown over him by the
Arabs. The two Arabs and the mahout carried the howdah out, placed it on
the elephant, and securely fastened it in its position.
These howdahs were of rough construction, being in fact little more than
large open crates, for the elephants after being watered went to the
forage yard, where the crates were filled with freshly cut grass or
young boughs of trees, which they carried up for their own use to the
citadel.
The mahout took his position on its neck, and the elephant then rose to
its feet. The symptoms of bad temper which it had already given were
now redoubled. It gave vent to a series of short vicious squeals, it
trumpeted loudly and angrily, and, although the mahout appeared to be
doing his best to pacify it, it became more and more demonstrative. The
superintendent of the elephants rode up.
“You had better dismount and take that brute back to the stable,” he
said; “he is not safe to take out this morning.” As he approached the
elephant threw up his trunk, opened his mouth, and rushed suddenly at
him. The officer fled hastily, shouting loudly to the other mahouts to
bring their animals in a circle round the elephant, but the mahout gave
him a sudden prod with his pricker and the elephant set off with great
strides, his ears out, his trunk in the air, and with every sign of
an access of fury, at the top of his speed. He rushed across the great
courtyard, the people flying in all directions with shouts of terror; he
made two or three turns up and down, each time getting somewhat nearer
to the gate.
As he approached it for the third time the mahout guided him towards it,
and, accustomed at this hour to sally out, the elephant made a sudden
rush in that direction. The officer on guard shouted to his men to
close the gate, but before they could attempt to carry out the order
the elephant charged through, and at the top of his speed went down the
road.