o his designs. One of these
men he put to death. In the mean time, he pressed forward his
preparations, compelling men to join his army and to embark on board
his fleet, and resorting to other harsh and extreme measures, which
the people might perhaps have submitted to from one of their own
hereditary sovereigns, but which were altogether intolerable when
imposed upon them by a foreign adventurer, who had come to their
island by their invitation, to accomplish a prescribed and definite
duty. In a word, before Pyrrhus was ready to embark on his African
campaign, a general rebellion broke out all over Sicily against his
authority. Some of the people joined the Mamertines, some the
Carthaginians. In a word, the whole country was in an uproar, and
Pyrrhus had the mortification of seeing the great fabric of power
which, as he imagined, he had been so successfully rearing, come
tumbling suddenly on all sides to the ground.

As the reader will have learned long before this time, it was not the
nature of Pyrrhus to remain on the spot and grapple with difficulties
like these. If there were any new enterprise to be undertaken, or any
desperate battle to be fought on a sudden emergency, Pyrrhus was
always ready and eager for action, and almost sure of success. But he
had no qualities whatever to fit him for the exigencies of such a
crisis as this. He had ardor and impetuosity, but no perseverance or
decision. He could fight, but he could not plan. He was recklessly and
desperately brave in encountering physical danger, but, when involved
in difficulties and embarrassments, his only resource was to fly.
Accordingly, it was soon announced in Sicily that Pyrrhus had
determined to postpone his plan of proceeding to Africa, and was going
back to Tarentum, whence he came. He had received intelligence from
Tarentum, he said, that required his immediate return to that city.
This was probably true; for he had left things in such a condition at
Tarentum, that he was, doubtless, continually receiving such
intelligence from that quarter. Whether he received any special or
extraordinary summons from Tarentum just at this time is extremely
uncertain. He, however, pretended that such a message had come; and
under this pretense he sheltered himself in his intended departure, so
as just to escape the imputation of being actually driven away.

His enemies, however, did not intend to allow him to depart in peace.
The Carthaginians, being apprised