hat never again shall I
be able to mix with others; they may know nothing of it, but it will be
ever on my mind. How they would shrink back in horror were what we have
done whispered to them! Truly, were it not for my family, I would prefer
death with the worst torture to life as it will be now."

The excitement in the army was intense when it became known that a
body of Iberians had attempted to break into Hannibal's palace with the
design of murdering him, and many of the soldiers, seizing their arms,
hurried towards the city, and had not an officer ridden with the news to
Hannibal, they would assuredly have fallen upon the native inhabitants,
and a general massacre would have taken place.

Hannibal at once mounted and rode out to meet the soldiers. He was
received with enthusiastic acclamations; at length he raised his arm to
restore silence, and then addressed the troops, telling them how deeply
he valued the evidence of their affection, but that he prayed them to
return to their camps and lay by their arms.

"We must not," he said, "confound the innocent with the guilty. Those
who were concerned in the attempt have paid the penalty with their
lives; it is not because a handful of Spaniards have plotted against me
that you are to swear hatred against the whole race; were you to punish
the innocent for the guilty you would arouse the fury of the Iberians
throughout the whole peninsula, and all our work would have to be done
over again. You know that above all things I desire the friendship and
goodwill of the natives. Nothing would grieve me more than that, just as
we are attaining this, our efforts should be marred by a quarrel between
yourselves and the people here. I pray you, therefore, as a personal
favour to me, to abstain from all tumult, and go quietly back to your
camp. The attack upon my palace was made only by some thirty or forty of
the scum of the inhabitants, and the attempt was defeated by the wisdom
and courage of my young cousin Malchus, whom you must henceforth regard
as the saviour of my life."

The soldiers at once acceded to the request of their general, and after
another outburst of cheering they returned quietly to their camp.

The result of this affair was to render Malchus one of the most
popular personages in the army, and the lad was quite abashed by the
enthusiastic reception which the soldiers gave him when he passed among
them. It removed, too, any feeling of jealousy which might hav