sustain a terrible struggle against the whole power of
Rome.

CHAPTER VI: A CAMPAIGN IN SPAIN

Among the young officers who had followed Hannibal on board were
some who had left Carthage only a few months before and were known to
Malchus. From them he learned with delight that the troops would take
the field at once.

"We are going on a campaign against the Vacaei," one of them said. "The
army marched out two days since. Hannibal has been waiting here for your
arrival, for a fast sailing ship which started a few hours after you
brought the news that you were on your way, and you will set off to join
the rest without delay. It is going to be a hard campaign."

"Where is the country of the Vacaei?" Malchus asked.

"A long way off," the other replied. "The marches will be long and
tiresome. Their country lies somewhat to the northwest of the great
plateau in the centre of Iberia. We shall have to ascend the mountains
on this side, to cross the plateau, to follow the rivers which flow to
the great ocean."

The Vacaei, in fact, dwelt in the lands bordered by the upper Duero,
their country comprising a portion of old Castille, Leon, and the Basque
provinces. The journey would indeed be a long and difficult one; and
Hannibal was undertaking the expedition not only to punish the turbulent
Vacaei, who had attacked some of the tribes which had submitted to
Carthage, but to accustom the troops to fatigues and hardships, and to
prepare them for the great expedition which he had in view. No time was
indeed lost, for as soon as the troops were landed they were formed up
and at once started on their march.

"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 dazzlin