Hannibal's daughter

I. SOSILUS AND CHŒRAS II. A GIGANTIC SCHEME III. HANNIBAL’S DREAM IV. FIRST BLOOD V. AT THE FOOT OF THE ALPS VI. OVER THE ALPS VII. HANNIBAL’S FIRST TRIUMPH VIII. EUGENIA IX. TH...

I. A SPELL OF PEACE II. ELISSA WRITES TO SCIPIO III. A TERRIBLE SEA FIGHT IV. ELISSA’S MISERY V. HIS LEGAL WIFE VI. A MOMENTOUS MEETING VII. ZAMA VIII. CONCLUSION

On a point of land on the Tœnia, a hundred paces or so to the south of the canal connecting the sea with the Cothon or double harbour of Carthage, stood a palatial residence. Up...

The terrible war, known as the inexpiable or the truceless war, was just at an end, after three years’ duration. The mercenaries who had served so faithfully under Hamilcar in S...

An hour later, a gorgeous procession started from the General’s palace; for on this occasion Hamilcar, well knowing the hatred and jealousy with which he was regarded by the oth...

All the lower parts of Spain had been conquered and settled. Hamilcar had died, as he had lived, fighting nobly, after enjoying almost regal rank in his new country. Hasdrubal,...

The young warrior had sunk down upon the grass, and was leaning wearily upon his elbow by the time that, having partially robed herself, Elissa was able to issue from the pond a...

The City of New Carthage, built by Hasdrubal, the son-in-law of Hamilcar, with whose second wife and now disconsolate widow we have just made acquaintance, was most excellently...

to see some of his advanced guard of returning troops almost at once; perchance indeed this very day some of them may arrive. But that is not the grave part of my news--a large...

“Well, fellow,” he said, “how comes it that thou darest to trust thy person upon my ship when thy companions yonder have thought fit to bar the entrance to their harbour to Cart...

Despite the confidence with which Hannibal’s daughter had advanced to greet the new-comers, it is not to be supposed that she felt as bold as she looked. Her heart was beating v...

It is not to be supposed that Imlico had been wooing Cleandra in the rough and ready fashion that Adherbal, his leader, had adopted; but he had been more successful. For he had...

Hannibal was not long in learning at Saguntum of what had taken place in New Carthage, and was in possession, in most accurate detail, of all the facts from Elissa’s own pen, be...

Since the rescue of Elissa from the brutal grasp of Adherbal, the young girl had unrestrainedly given all her love to her protector. Although experienced in matters of war, from...

All was now animation in Saguntum. The winter had passed and the place was full of troops, for Hannibal was now using the city as his base of operations against all the Iberian...

Hannibal was resting in his house in Saguntum a few days after having sent Elissa back to New Carthage. He had, prior to the scene depicted in the last chapter, overrun a portio...

“I have various news,” said Hannibal; “and, first of all, I must inform ye that I have letters from Carthage. The receipt of the enormous booty which I sent thither hath moved a...

Hannibal rose from his seat, called for a cup of wine, tasted it, put it down, walked up and down the room, sipped at his wine again as if in thought, before he replied. At last...

There had been plenty of stiff fighting before Hannibal succeeded, with his army of seventy thousand of all arms, in getting across the Pyrenees into the country of Gallia, for...

When the carnage was completed and the last blow struck, Hannibal sent for his general of engineers. Monomachus shortly appeared before him, sword in hand, panting for breath, a...

For the next three days the advance up the passes was continued in peace. The Gauls came in, offering garlands and branches of trees in token of goodwill, and gave also hostages...

“Now, Maharbal,” quoth the chief, “I would talk to thee no longer as one general to another, but simply as man to man. What about my daughter Elissa? Hast thou forgotten her? Ha...

What a glorious career of successes it was that was inaugurated with this cavalry victory near the Ticinus! Had not the blood-thirsty monster Monomachus been slain by young Scip...

The two new Consuls that year were Cnœus Servilius and Flaminius, and they had between them some sixty thousand troops. By so unexpectedly crossing the Apennines, and marching t...

It was upon a beautiful summer’s morning that Mago embarked for Carthage. The country all around the Carthaginian camp was, after a shower on the previous night, looking its ver...

After the departure of the army with her father and her lover from Spain, a great blank had fallen upon the life of the young girl Elissa. For the dull days had succeeded to the...

“Elissa,” quoth he, one morn, “wouldst thou like to travel? wouldst thou perchance like to see the African soil whence thy fathers sprung? ’Tis charming, I warrant thee, at this...

When we last left Maharbal upon the shores of the Adriatic he was a prey to great sorrow at the loss of his dear friend Mago. But soon he had no time for any personal feelings,...

The battle was not until two days later, for Hannibal had been mistaken in imagining on the previous day that Paullus Æmilius had been in command, since it had been Varro.

On the morning after the great battle, the wearied troops were occupied in pillaging the bodies of the slain. Gathering together the golden rings of the fallen Roman knights, th...

The young ædile Scipio was now madly in love with her, and the very fact that she had, while apparently returning his embraces, called upon the hated name of Maharbal, made him...

There was a cool and refreshing northern breeze wafted off the seas when one morning the young warrior Scipio persuaded the Carthaginian maid to accompany him on horseback to a...

Not long after this, Scipio landed with reinforcements for the army at Tarraco in Northern Spain, and assumed command of all the shattered remnants of his two uncles’ forces. He...

Scipio soon set his army in motion. He was still a young man of less than seven-and-twenty when, with twenty-five thousand infantry and two thousand five hundred cavalry, he mad...

Scipio burst into the palace garden flushed with the joy of victory, but when he saw his beloved Elissa lying at his feet, he forgot everything, save that there lay, apparently...

A few days after the marriage of the boatswain to the unworthy Princess Cœcilia, Elissa was able to rise from her couch and attire herself with Cleandra’s aid. Very miserable an...

When Elissa left New Carthage, with the prospect before her of becoming a lifelong prisoner in Rome, the war was indeed, as Scipio had said, raging with fury both in Sicily and...

Archimedes, the great mathematician, was a little old man, now nearly ninety years of age. He, however, maintained to the full all his powers, both physical and mental. He still...

As in the morning the sight of the crimson and gold hangings of the tent gradually impressed upon Elissa the sense of her surroundings, a weight like lead fell upon her heart; b...

The king received Æmilius in audience on the following morning in the presence of Elissa and all his courtiers, and from the beginning it was evident that the interview would be...

It was night, a calm summer night, when Elissa, after reading Scipio’s letter, remained alone within a gorgeous pavilion in a camp established upon the shores of the Hellespont,...

For the first time for years Elissa was able to enjoy a space of peace of mind and body. Lying back upon her cushions, beneath the awnings on the deck of the stately ambassadori...

When the three Roman warships were safe within the shelter of the harbour, the entrance to which was completely dominated by the citadel, now full of Roman soldiers, the first t...

Elissa did not have so long to wait as she expected for a reply to her letter to Scipio, for the blockade-runner found him at Syracuse. Owing to her speed, the favourable breeze...

It was not to a bed of roses that Elissa returned when she first rejoined her father in his camp upon the Lacinian Promontory. The world had not been using him well, and his for...

Meanwhile the Carthaginian embassy to Rome to sue for terms of peace had not been a success. It was owing to the atrocious behaviour of the Carthaginian party themselves, who ha...

Although Maharbal’s union with Elissa was kept absolutely secret, yet, since he lived in the same building as that which his Chief had selected as his head-quarters, it was easy...

The following morning the opposing armies were drawn up in battle array as follows. Scipio placed in front the Hastati, with an interval between their maniples. The Principes ca...

Although Elissa had seen the disposition of the troops, and even been present on the field of battle during the earliest stages of the combat, she had been spared the bitter hum...

“If it be the will of the gods,” he replied, “how can I resist? But I would that the gods were men that I might fight this matter out with them at the point of my sword. I could...