Two further days elapsed.

Spendius restrained him; but on the morning of the sixth day he departed.
The Carthaginians were no less impatient for war than the Barbarians.
In tents and in houses there was the same longing and the same distress; all were asking one another what was delaying Hamilcar.
From time to time he would mount to the cupola of the temple of Eschmoun beside the Announcer of the Moons and take note of the wind.
One day--it was the third of the month of Tibby--they saw him descending from the Acropolis with hurried steps.

A great clamour arose in the Mappalian district.

Soon the streets were astir, and the soldiers were everywhere beginning to arm themselves upon their breasts; then they ran quickly to the square of Khamon to take their places in the ranks.

No one was allowed to follow them or even to speak to them, or to approach the ramparts; for some minutes the whole town was silent as a great tomb.