The other Barbarians rushed up to help them, massing themselves into a compact crowd.  The Carthaginians descended from the rampart, and, assailing them in the rear, killed them at leisure.  But the chariots furnished with sickles hastened up, and galloped round the outskirts of the multitude.  The latter ascended the wall again; night came on; and the Barbarians gradually retired.

Nothing could now be seen on the plain but a sort of perfectly black, swarming mass, which extended from the bluish gulf to the purely white lagoon; and the lake, which had received streams of blood, stretched further away like a great purple pool.

The terrace was now so laden with corpses that it looked as though it had been constructed of human bodies.  In the centre stood the helepolis covered with armour; and from time to time huge fragments broke off from it, like stones from a crumbling pyramid.  Broad tracks made by the streams of lead might be distinguished on the walls.  A broken-down wooden tower burned here and there, and the houses showed dimly like the stages of a ruined ampitheatre.  Heavy fumes of smoke were rising, and rolling with them sparks which were lost in the dark sky.

The Carthaginians, however, who were consumed by thirst, had rushed to the cisterns.  They broke open the doors.  A miry swamp stretched at the bottom.

What was to be done now?  Moreover, the Barbarians were countless, and when their fatigue was over they would begin again.

The people deliberated all night in groups at the corners of the streets.  Some said that they ought to send away the women, the sick, and the old men; others proposed to abandon the town, and found a colony far away.  But vessels were lacking, and when the sun appeared no decision had been made.

There was no fighting that day, all being too much exhausted.  The sleepers looked like corpses.

Then the Carthaginians, reflecting upon the cause of their disasters, remembered that they had not dispatched to Phoenicia the annual offering due to Tyrian Melkarth, and a great terror came upon them.  The gods were indignant with the Republic, and were, no doubt, about to prosecute their vengeance.

They were considered as cruel masters, who were appeased with supplications and allowed themselves to be bribed with presents.  All were feeble in comparison with Moloch the Devourer.  The existence, the very flesh of men, belonged to him; and hence in order to preserve it, the Carthaginians used to offer up a portion of it to him, which calmed his fury.  Children were burned on the forehead, or on the nape of the neck, with woollen wicks; and as this mode of satisfying Baal brought in much money to the priests, they failed not to recommend it as being easier and more pleasant.