“This is more than we bargained for,” Trebon, a young guardsman whose place in the ranks was next to Malchus, said to him.  “I thought we should have had at least a month here before we set out.  They say the city is as gay as Carthage; and as I have many friends here I have looked forward to a month of jollity before starting.  Every night when I lay down on the hard planks of the deck I have consoled myself with the thought that a soft bed awaited me here; and now we have to take at once to the bare ground, with nothing but this skin strapped on the pommel of my saddle to sleep on, and my bernous to cover me.  It is colder already a great deal than it was at Carthage; and if that is so here, what will it be on the tops of those jagged mountains we see before us?  Why, as I live, that highest one over there is of dazzling white!  That must be the snow we have heard of —­ the rain turned solid by cold, and which they say causes a pain to the naked limbs something like hot iron.  Fancy having to sleep in such stuff!”

Malchus laughed at the complaints of his comrade.

“I confess I am glad we are off at once,” he said, “for I was sick of doing nothing but idling away my time at Carthage; and I suppose it would be just the same here.  How busy are the streets of the town!  Except for the sight of the mountains which we see through the breaks of the houses, one might believe one’s self still at home.”

The aspect of Carthagena, indeed, closely resembled that of the mother city, and the inhabitants were of the same race and blood.

Carthagena had in the first place been formed by a great colony of Libyans.  The inhabitants of that province inhabiting the seaports and coasts near Carthage were a mixture of Phoenician and native blood.  They were ever impatient of the supremacy of Carthage, and their rebellions were frequent and often dangerous.  After the suppression of these insurrections, Carthage, sensible of the danger arising from the turbulence of her neighbours, deported great numbers of them to form colonies.  Vast numbers were sent up into the Soudan, which was then one of the most important possessions of the republic.  The most extensive, however, of these forced emigrations was the great colony sent to found Carthagena, which had thus in a very few years, under the fostering genius of the great Hamilcar, become a great and prosperous city.

Carthage itself had thus suddenly sprung into existence.  After many internal troubles the democracy of Tyre had gained the upper hand in that city; and finding their position intolerable, the whole of the aristocracy decided to emigrate, and, sailing with a great fleet under their queen Dido or Elisa —­ for she was called by both names —­ founded Carthage.  This triumph of the democracy in Tyre, as might be expected, proved the ruin of that city.  Very rapidly she fell from the lofty position she had held, and her place in the world and her proud position as Queen of the Seas was very speedily taken by Carthage.