"There they are! There they are!" he
stammered out, pointing to the Suffet's guards, who were motionless
in their glittering armour. Their horses, dazzled by the light of the
torches which crackled in the darkness, were pawing the ground; the
human spectre struggled and howled:
"They have killed them!"
At these words, which were screamed in Balearic, some Balearians came up
and recognised him; without answering them he repeated:
"Yes, all killed, all! crushed like grapes! The fine young men! the
slingers! my companions and yours!"
They gave him wine to drink, and he wept; then he launched forth into
speech.
Spendius could scarcely repress his joy, as he explained the horrors
related by Zarxas to the Greeks and Libyans; he could not believe them,
so appropriately did they come in. The Balearians grew pale as they
learned how their companions had perished.
It was a troop of three hundred slingers who had disembarked the evening
before, and had on that day slept too late. When they reached the
square of Khamon the Barbarians were gone, and they found themselves
defenceless, their clay bullets having been put on the camels with the
rest of the baggage. They were allowed to advance into the street of
Satheb as far as the brass sheathed oaken gate; then the people with a
single impulse had sprung upon them.
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