“Ah!” he said as he rose to go, “the others will sleep well enough tonight; but you sybarites, accustomed to your soft couches and your luxuries, will fare badly.  I remember my first night on the hard ground, although `tis now sixteen years back, how my limbs ached and how I longed for morning.  Now, let me give you a hint how to make your beds comfortable.  Mind, this is not for the future, but till your limbs get accustomed to the ground you may indulge in luxuries.  Before you try to go off to sleep note exactly where your hip bones and shoulders will rest; take your daggers and scoop out the earth at these points so as to make depressions in which they may lie.  Then spread your lion skins above them and lie down.  You will sleep as comfortably as if on a soft couch.”

Many of the young soldiers followed Hannibal’s advice; others, among whom was Malchus, determined to accustom themselves at once to the hard ground.  Malchus was not long in getting to sleep, his last thought being that the precaution advised by Hannibal to ensure repose was altogether unnecessary.  But he changed his opinion when, two or three hours later, he woke up with acute pains in his hip and shoulder.  After trying vainly, by changing his position, again to go off to sleep, he rose, rolled up the skin, and set to work to make the excavations recommended by the general.  Then spreading out the skin again he lay down, and was astonished to find how immense was the relief afforded by this simple expedient.

At daybreak the party were in motion.  Their march was a long one; for Hannibal wished to come up with the main army as soon as possible, and no less than thirty miles were encompassed before they halted for the night.  They were now far up on the slopes of the Sierras.  The latter part of the journey had been exceedingly toilsome.  The route was mostly bare rock, which sorely tried the feet of the soldiers, these being in most cases unprotected even by sandals.  Malchus and his mounted companions did not of course suffer in their feet.  But they were almost as glad as the infantry when the camping place was reached, for nothing is more fatiguing to a horseman than to be obliged to travel in the saddle for ten hours at the pace of footmen.  The halting place this time was near the upper edge of the forest which then clothed the lower slopes of the mountains.

Enough meat had been killed on the previous evening for three days’ rations for the troops, and there was therefore no loss of time in preparing the meal.  Wood, of course, was in abundance, and the pots were soon hanging from thick poles placed above the fires.  The night was exceedingly cold, and the soldiers were grateful for the shelter which the trees afforded from the piercing wind which blew across the snow covered peaks of the higher range of mountains.

“What is that noise?” Malchus asked one of the officers as, after the meal was finished and silence began to reign in the camp, a deep sound was heard in the forest.