Matho stopped up the holes in them with the stones of the houses.

It was the last struggle; he hoped for nothing, and yet he told himself that fortune was fickle.
As the Carthaginians approached they noticed a man on the rampart who towered over the battlements from his belt upwards.

The arrows that flew about him seemed to frighten him no more than a swarm of swallows.
Extraordinary to say, none of them touched him.
Hamilcar pitched his camp on the south side; Narr' Havas, to his right, occupied the plain of Rhades, and Hanno the shore of the lake; and the three generals were to maintain their respective positions, so as all to attack the walls simultaneously.
But Hamilcar wished first to show the Mercenaries that he would punish them like slaves.

He had the ten ambassadors crucified beside one another on a hillock in front of the town.
At the sight of this the besieged forsook the rampart.
Matho had said to himself that if he could pass between the walls and Narr' Havas's tents with such rapidity that the Numidians had not time to come out, he could fall upon the rear of the Carthaginian infantry, who would be caught between his division and those inside.

He dashed out with his veterans.
Narr' Havas perceived him; he crossed the shore of the lake, and came to warn Hanno to dispatch men to Hamilcar's assistance.