To the great joy of Malchus, on the very evening before he started Nessus arrived in the camp.  He had, when Malchus was at Rome, been employed with the other Carthaginian soldiers on the fortifications.  Malchus had once or twice seen him as, with the others, he was marched from the prison to the walls, and had exchanged a few words with him.  He had told him that he intended to escape, but could not say when he should find an opportunity to do so; but that if at any time a month passed without his seeing him, Nessus would know that he had gone.

The extra rigour with which the prisoners were guarded had led Nessus to suspect that a prisoner had escaped, and a month having passed without his seeing Malchus, he determined on making an attempt at flight.  So rigourous was the watch that there was no possibility of this being done secretly, and, therefore, one day when they were employed in repairing the foundations of the wall outside the city Nessus seized the opportunity, when the attention of the guards was for a moment directed in another quarter, to start at the top of his speed.  He had chosen the hottest hour of the day for the attempt, when few people were about, and the peasants had left the fields for an hour’s sleep under the shade of trees.

The Roman guard had started in pursuit, but Nessus had not overrated his powers.  Gradually he left them behind him, and, making straight for the Tiber, plunged in and swam the river.  He had followed the right bank up to the hills, and on the second evening after starting made his appearance at Capua.  When he heard the plans of Malchus he announced, as a matter of course, that he should accompany him.  Malchus pointed out that, with the rewards and spoils he had obtained, he had now sufficient money to become a man of importance among his own people.  Nessus quietly waved the remark aside as if it were wholly unworthy of consideration.

The cavalry who were to accompany Malchus were light armed Numidians, whose speed would enable them to distance any bodies of the enemy they might meet on their way.  With them were thirty lead horses, some of them carrying a large sum of money, which Hannibal had directed should be paid to Malchus from the treasury, as his share, as an officer of high rank, of the captured booty.  The rest of the horses were laden with costly arms, robes of honour, and money as presents for the Gaulish chiefs.  These also were furnished from the abundant spoils which had fallen into the hands of the Carthaginians.

Hannibal directed Malchus that, in the event of his failing in his mission, he was not to trouble to send these things back, but was to retain them to win the friendship and goodwill of the chiefs of the country to which he proposed to journey.  The next morning Malchus took an affectionate farewell of the general and his old comrades, and then, with Clotilde riding by his side —­ for the women of the Gauls were as well skilled as the men in the management of horses —­ he started at the head of his party.  He followed the route marked out for him without any adventure of importance.  He had one or two skirmishes with parties of tribesmen allied with Rome, but his movements were too rapid for any force sufficient to oppose his passage being collected.