But three days afterwards, when the attack was about to begin again,
some people arrived tumultuously from the Libyan coast. Barca had
come among them. He had carried off provisions everywhere, and he was
spreading through the country.
Then the Barbarians were indignant as though he were betraying them.
Those who were most weary of the siege, and especially the Gauls, did
not hesitate to leave the walls in order to try and rejoin him. Spendius
wanted to reconstruct the helepolis; Matho had traced an imaginary line
from his tent to Megara, and inwardly swore to follow it, and none of
their men stirred. But the rest, under the command of Autaritus, went
off, abandoning the western part of the rampart, and so profound was the
carelessness exhibited that no one even thought of replacing them.
Narr' Havas spied them from afar in the mountains. During the night he
led all his men along the sea-shore on the outer side of the Lagoon, and
entered Carthage.
He presented himself as a saviour with six thousand men all carrying
meal under their cloaks, and forty elephants laden with forage and dried
meat. The people flocked quickly around them; they gave them names. The
sight of these strong animals, sacred to Baal, gave the Carthaginians
even more joy than the arrival of such relief; it was a token of the
tenderness of the god, a proof that he was at last about to interfere in
the war to defend them.
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