"Do they think that will save them, now that we hold this?" he said to Clitus.
Clearchus leaned against a stone with great joy in his heart. Tyre had been won and Artemisia was saved. The sight of Moloch's dark temple no longer chilled his blood. Baal must look elsewhere for victims. The weary months of longing were at an end.
So desperate had been the struggle in the breach that the Macedonians had forgotten all else. It was not until the pause before the final charge into the city that they began to notice the rolling clouds of black smoke that were drawing together toward the gap along those portions of the wall that remained standing. It rose in dark masses against the sky, blotting out the sun as it spread seaward from the parapet. Under its gloomy canopy men were swarming in long processions upon the top of the wall toward the gap, bearing caldrons of iron and copper suspended from yokes across their shoulders.
"See! They are going to provide us with shade," Clitus said.
Ptolemy looked, and his expression changed to one of alarm.
"Pitch and bitumen!" he exclaimed. "The men will never be able to stand it!"
A caldron rolled down into the gap, followed by another and another, scattering their blazing contents as they came. Wherever the bitumen fell it continued to burn, giving out smoke in stifling volumes. In a few minutes the gap was obscured by suffocating clouds in which the Macedonians groped blindly. Every stone was covered with a coating of the blazing substances. Showers of molten lead and burning oil descended from the walls. The bitumen ate into the flesh of the soldiers. The lead and oil burned out their eyes. Many of them fled like living torches down the slope and plunged into the sea. The gap had become untenable.
Ptolemy saw that it would be impossible for reënforcements to reach him. He shook his sword at the city through the drifting smoke. "Another day!" he shouted, and, turning, plunged down the blazing path.
Clearchus stood dazed as he saw his comrades turn back.
"Come!" Chares shouted. "Do you want to be burned to death?"