Like rats, we fight only when there is no other chance for
our lives; nor do we strike the first blow. It is true that there are
some good soldiers in the city, but they are foreign mercenaries; and
as for the rest, half-breeds and freed slaves, they belong as much to
Ithobal as to Sakon, and are not to be trusted. No, no; let us stay
behind our walls, for they at least were built when men were honest and
will not betray us."
Now in Zimboe were three lines of defence; first, that of a single wall
built about the huts of the slaves upon the plain, then that of a double
wall of stone with a ditch between thrown round the Phoenician city, and
lastly, the great fortress-temple and the rocky heights above. These,
guarded as they were by many strongholds within whose circle the cattle
were herded, as it was thought, could only be taken with the sword of
hunger.
At last the storm burst, for on the fifth morning after Elissa had
barred herself within the tomb, Ithobal attacked the native town.
Uttering their wild battle-cries, tens of thousands of his savage
warriors, armed with great spears and shields of ox-hide, and wearing
crests of plumes upon their heads, charged down upon the outer wall.
Twice they were driven back, but the work was in bad repair and too long
to defend, so that at the third rush they flowed over it like lines of
marching ants, driving its defenders before them to the inner gates.
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