"This is more than we bargained for," Trebon, a young guardsman whose
place in the ranks was next to Malchus, said to him. "I thought
we should have had at least a month here before we set out. They
say the city is as gay as Carthage; and as I have many friends
here I have looked forward to a month of jollity before starting.
Every night when I lay down on the hard planks of the deck I have
consoled myself with the thought that a soft bed awaited me here;
and now we have to take at once to the bare ground, with nothing
but this skin strapped on the pommel of my saddle to sleep on, and
my bernous to cover me. It is colder already a great deal than
it was at Carthage; and if that is so here, what will it be on the
tops of those jagged mountains we see before us? Why, as I live,
that highest one over there is of dazzling white! That must be the
snow we have heard of -- the rain turned solid by cold, and which
they say causes a pain to the naked limbs something like hot iron.
Fancy having to sleep in such stuff!"

Malchus laughed at the complaints of his comrade.

"I confess I am glad we are off at once," he said, "for I was
sick of doing nothing but idling away my time at Carthage; and I
suppose it would be just the same here. How busy are the streets
of the town! Except for the sight of the mountains which we see
through the breaks of the houses, one might believe one's self
still at home."

The aspect of Carthagena, indeed, closely resembled that of the
mother city, and the inhabitants were of the same race and blood.

Carthagena had in the first place been formed by a great colony of