It was here that the Mercenaries' wives, who had been driven away by Matho, were living with their new husbands.

On seeing the men again their hearts could stand it no longer.

They waved their scarfs at a distance; then they came and chatted in the darkness with the soldiers through the cleft in the wall, and one morning the Great Council learned that they had all fled.

Some had passed through between the stones; others with greater intrepidity had let themselves down with ropes.
At last Spendius resolved to accomplish his design.
The war, by keeping him at a distance, had hitherto prevented him; and since the return to before Carthage, it seemed to him that the inhabitants suspected his enterprise.

But soon they diminished the sentries on the aqueduct.