With the girl on his arm, Imlico rapidly paced along the battlements to the sentry, who cried out:
“Halt! Let one only advance and give the countersign.”
Imlico pushed his fair companion, who boldly advanced and said, “Saguntum,” which was the password arranged in the palace for the night.
“ ’Tis the wrong password,” answered the sentinel, lowering his spear point towards her. “Thou canst not pass.”
Imlico laughingly now advanced in turn.
“The lady hath made a mistake, oh sentry. Carthage is the password she would have given.”
“Pass Carthage, and all’s well,” replied the guard, and so they passed in.
It was now Cleandra’s turn to shudder and start. “What? have the guards been changed?” she asked, “and the countersign?”
“Ay, that have they, fair Cleandra; and further know this that ye have not now a single man fit for duty within the whole palace walls, for all thy guards are by this time drugged, senseless, or bound. Thou seest clearly now that none of Elissa’s guests are in any danger, to-night at all events.”
Cleandra now thought of the story about Hannibal’s troops marching in, which had been merely an arranged plan, by which the same troops should appear over and over again. For it will be remembered that these troops could only be seen from the palace when descending on to the landward end of the bridge by the big gate of the city. So the troops that had been employed had marched across the bridge, then embarked in boats, followed up the city walls, crossed the lagoon, and then marching up a winding little pass that lay between the hills, had shown themselves again. And the best of the arrangement had been that all the mercenaries in the ships had, until dark fell, also noticed these troops arriving continually as if from Saguntum, for they saw them plainly crossing the top of a hill. In her need, for she wished to frighten Imlico, Cleandra made use of this plot.