They besought him; and as the word treason occurred
in their speech, he fell into a passion. The sole traitor was the Great
Council, for as the enlistment of the soldiers expired with the war,
they became free as soon as the war was finished; he even exalted their
bravery and all the advantages which might be derived from interesting
them in the Republic by donations and privileges.
Then Magdassin, a former provincial governor, said, as he rolled his
yellow eyes:
"Truly Barca, with your travelling you have become a Greek, or a Latin,
or something! Why speak you of rewards for these men? Rather let ten
thousand Barbarians perish than a single one of us!"
The Ancients nodded approval, murmuring:--"Yes, is there need for so
much trouble? They can always be had?"
"And they can be got rid of conveniently, can they not? They are
deserted as they were by you in Sardinia. The enemy is apprised of the
road which they are to take, as in the case of those Gauls in Sicily,
or perhaps they are disembarked in the middle of the sea. As I was
returning I saw the rock quite white with their bones!"
"What a misfortune!" said Kapouras impudently.
"Have they not gone over to the enemy a hundred times?" cried the
others.
"Why, then," exclaimed Hamilcar, "did you recall them to Carthage,
notwithstanding your laws? And when they are in your town, poor and
numerous amid all your riches, it does not occur to you to weaken them
by the slightest division! Afterwards you dismiss the whole of them
with their women and children, without keeping a single hostage! Did
you expect that they would murder themselves to spare you the pain of
keeping your oaths? You hate them because they are strong! You hate me
still more, who am their master! Oh! I felt it just now when you were
kissing my hands and were all putting a constraint upon yourselves not
to bite them!"
If the lions that were sleeping in the court had come howling in, the
uproar could not have been more frightful.
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