Chapter V: His Legal Wife

Meanwhile the Carthaginian embassy to Rome to sue for terms of peace had not been a success. It was owing to the atrocious behaviour of the Carthaginian party themselves, who had endeavoured to cast the whole blame of the war from start to finish upon Hannibal, and Hannibal alone, that the negotiations broke down.

For the Roman Senate were not children, and there were so many issues at stake in which it could be clearly proved that the Carthaginians, entirely apart from Hannibal, had held the leading hand, that the Romans were disgusted at their excuses.

For the Senate well knew that, while the people in Carthage had been glad enough to vaunt Hannibal’s victories, they had, from jealousy, never supported him properly, or Rome might now have been a mere province of Carthage. They also divined that, defeated in their own country, the Carthaginians were treacherously inclined to give to Rome as a scapegoat the glorious hero who, alone, unaided, and deserted by his country, had won victory upon victory throughout three-quarters of the then known world.

Therefore the Roman Senate refused the terms of peace, and ordained that Scipio should go on with the war or get better terms.

Scipio was personally annoyed at the failure of the negotiations, for he had ever the same object in view, the long-deferred hope of the possession as his bride of the beloved Elissa. He had suffered much since her recapture by her own countrymen off Locri, and, were it only for revenge upon Maharbal, whose insulting message he had received, he longed more than ever to marry her. But, all question of revenge apart, since the letters that had passed between them, and when she had so nearly reached his outstretched arms, he felt that he loved her more than ever--more than it seemed possible for any man on earth to love a woman.

Instead, therefore, of carrying on the war, Scipio for a while continued the truce, pretending to play with the Carthaginian envoys to deceive Rome, and with the Roman envoys to deceive Carthage.

For he argued: “Did I not see the wine-god Bacchus in a vision? and did he not tell me that I shall be married to Elissa by a priest with a long beard flowing to his knees? and has ever yet one of my visions proved false?” For by this time he had himself really begun to believe in these visions or dreams which had for so long been believed in by others.

Scipio being thus inclined, peace might have been made, after all, but for the treachery of the Carthaginians, who seized, during a time of truce, upon some Roman transports full of provisions, which had been driven ashore in a storm. After this no further ideas of peace were possible, and Scipio recommenced the war with all the more fury because he feared that he must for ever renounce his dearest hopes.

The cowardly Carthaginians, who had neglected him for so many years, now wrote letters recalling Hannibal to the country which he had not seen since he was a boy of nine, for they wanted him to come and defend them. They also sent for his brother Mago, from Capua; but the noble Mago, Maharbal’s friend, was wounded on his way down in a drawn battle in the country of the Insubrian Gauls, and died at sea; never living to greet either his brother or his friend Maharbal again, nor indeed to see even his native soil once more.

Hannibal and his daughter, and Maharbal and all the troops, however, obeyed the summons, thus voluntarily this wonderful general left the country out of which the Romans would never have been able to drive him.

“Oh! Elissa, Elissa!” cried the warrior, as for once, weak as a woman, he fell upon his daughter’s breast in the temple of Juno Lacinia. “Oh, my daughter, comfort me, comfort me! for truly the gods have laid a heavy hand upon me, or why should I leave this fair country of Italy without first taking Rome? See, on yonder brazen tablets, all the exploits I have had carved in three languages for future generations to read, yet one is not there inscribed. All mention that there is of Rome is that I threw my javeline over the wall. Oh! my countrymen, my countrymen! if ye had but supported me it would not now be on Carthaginian soil that my services would be required. Alas! for Rome untaken. Alas! alas! Comfort me, oh, my daughter!”

It was a terrible moment for Elissa, almost as terrible as for the great warrior himself, for to both of them it was the moment when, no matter what had been the untiring efforts of each in the country’s cause--no matter what had been the successes, the end had come, and that end, after long years of noble struggle, meant for both a confession of utter failure--of bitter, terrible failure.

But let us draw a veil over that hour of bitter grief in the temple of Juno Lacinia. Let us leave father and daughter alone in their sorrow--alone in the darkening shades of night, with nought but the dull red glow of the scarcely-burning sacrificial fire to cast a lowering gleam of brightness through the thickening gloom around.

* * * * * * * *

A fortnight later Hannibal had landed with all his troops, and they were comparatively few, at Adrumentum, on the eastern coast of what is now known as Tunisia, and upon arriving there he determined to put into force, while waiting to collect an army, a project that he had had in his head for some time past. This was no less than the union by marriage of Elissa with Maharbal. Two reasons had he for wishing to bring this about without delay. One was that he considered that after many years of long and faithful services, his noble lieutenant deserved the only reward that he could give him; the other, that now that both his brethren were dead, he wished to raise up posterity to himself in his own direct line.

Of Maharbal’s views he had no doubt, but he was by no means so sure of Elissa. Upon his questioning her he found her distinctly averse to the marriage. She would give no reason save that she did not now wish to marry Maharbal. He had not come to espouse her when he might have done so years before, and now her heart was not what it was when a mere girl. She did not wish to marry him. At length her father twitted her with loving Scipio. She confessed plainly that she did love Scipio; but said that she did not, now that marriage between them could be of no use to their country, wish to marry him either. It was clearly impossible. Here she gave Hannibal an opening.

“Marry for thy country’s sake, Elissa? Why, ’tis the very thing I would have thee to do. By all the gods! Maharbal doth love thee truly, and hath he not fought for thy country for all these years with the sole hope of thee as his reward? And now that thou art here and art unmarried, and far more beautiful even than thou wast as a young girl, wilt thou deny him the reward which he hath well merited at his country’s hands in the shape of Hannibal’s only daughter for his bride?”

“My father,” replied Elissa, “since we have, by the ruling of the great gods, come to live together again, ever have I been submissive to thee. Yet wilt thou own that mine, as apart from thine own, hath been an independent career, throughout which I have continually striven to carry out the precepts which thou didst thyself instil into me in early youth. Only once did I neglect to follow them, yet that neglect didst thou thyself condone, while punishing me by depriving me of this very Maharbal, who was then my lover.

“Since then, my father, have I learnt to look upon all as a matter of policy. Policy it would indeed have been had I married Scipio, and, would to all the gods of Carthage and of Rome combined, that, for the sake alone of Carthage, I had been permitted to do so. But putting this love of his for me apart, wherein lies the policy of my now espousing Maharbal the Numidian? Noble he is, I vow, and much, ay, very much in him do I admire, chiefly his great devotion to thyself, which caused him to neglect me when I was younger and more impressionable. But, father! wherein lies the policy?”

“The policy--’tis simple enough, child! ’tis because he is a Numidian! Through him we may win back all the other Numidians, ay even Massinissa and his crew, or certainly all the old followers of Syphax may desert to us, and there are others. Notably, there is a Numidian prince named Tychæus, who hath several thousand horsemen, who might join us for the sake of Maharbal.”

Elissa pondered a moment, then answered:

“But will they not join thee without my marrying Maharbal? Is not he sufficiently devoted to thee to ask their services on thy behalf without claiming now from me the hand he did not care to seek years ago when it was his without question? At least, so I gathered from mine uncle Mago.”

Hannibal became impatient.

“Do as thou wilt, thou headstrong woman!” he cried. “Wouldst thou have a man give me all and I give him nothing in return? Dost thou call that either patriotism or devotion to thy father’s cause? And is it not now thy father’s name and his alone that doth represent the highest interests of thy country to all the rest of the world if not to thee?” He turned angrily as if to leave her.

Elissa turned very pale, but gently laid a restraining hand upon her father’s sleeve.

“Very well, my father, I agree, but upon the condition that our marriage be kept quite secret.”

“Secret!” answered Hannibal testily; “wherefore secret?”

“Simply that Scipio may not know of it,” she answered sadly. “’Twould but enrage him the more, and do no good. Thou mayest yet some day, oh my father, have reason to desire the good offices of Scipio, and,” she sighed deeply, “although, before the gods, I would not willingly deceive him, through whom could those good offices be so easily obtained as through me? Therefore, ’twould, methinks, be perchance more politic to keep it secret should I marry Maharbal. Then will I yield to thy wishes in this matter, and feel, moreover, that I am not, in so yielding, doing unto my country any possible injury. The country, thou knowest, oh my father, is above all. I have now no wish for marriage; but if thou deem it for our country’s welfare, I obey.”

“Ay,” replied Hannibal, stooping down and kissing her, at the same time stroking her hair caressingly, “thou hast said the truth, Elissa. The country is to be considered before all, and secrecy is advisable. It shall be kept a secret.”

On the following day Elissa became the wife of Maharbal. But none knew that she was actually his legal wife save the priest who united them in Hannibal’s presence alone. And Hannibal threatened to cut out his tongue if ever he should breathe a word of the matter to a living soul. So the priest’s silence was assured.

Thus did Maharbal obtain his heart’s desire, and thus did Elissa once again do her duty to her father and her country. And having now married Maharbal, she strove to make him happy.

When once more upon his native soil, Hannibal was not the man to let the grass grow under his feet. He was not long in organising an army from one source and another, and soon he had collected a large force of infantry and a considerable number of elephants; he only wanted cavalry to make up an army which, in Italy, would have been irresistible.