CHAPTER IV: A POPULAR RISING


Day after day Malchus went down to the port. His father was well
pleased with his report of what he had done and provided him with
ample funds for paying earnest money to his various agents, as
a proof that their exertions would be well rewarded. He soon had
the satisfaction of seeing that the agitation was growing.

Work was neglected, the sailors and labourers collected on the quays
and talked among themselves, or listened to orators of their own
class, who told them of the dangers which threatened their trade
from the hatred of Hanno and his friends the tax collectors for
Hannibal, whose father and brother-in-law had done such great
things for Carthage by conquering Spain and adding to her commerce
by the establishment of Carthagena and other ports. Were they
going to stand tamely by and see trade ruined, and their families
starving, that the tyrants who wrung from them the taxes should
fatten at ease?

Such was the tenor of the orations delivered by scores of men to
their comrades on the quays. A calm observer might have noticed
a certain sameness about the speeches, and might have come to the
conclusion that the orators had received their instructions from
the same person, but this passed unnoticed by the sailors and
workmen, who were soon roused into fury by the exhortations of the
speakers. They knew nothing either of Hannibal or of Hanno, but
they did know that they were ground down to the earth with taxation,
and that the conquest of Spain and the trade that had arisen had
been of enormous benefit to them. It was, then, enough to tell