Hannibal! what else has the world in it? Only Rome and Carthage: these follow. Marcellus. I must die then? The gods be praised! The commander of a Roman army is no captive. Hannibal. [To the Surgeon.] Could not he bear a sea voyage? Extract the arrow. Surgeon. He expires that moment. Marcellus. It pains me: extract it. Hannibal. Marcellus, I see no expression of pain on your countenance, and never will I consent to hasten the death of an enemy in my power. Since your recovery is hopeless, you say truly you are no captive. [To the Surgeon.] Is there nothing, man, that can assuage the mortal pain? for, suppress the signs of it as he may, he must feel it. Is there nothing to alleviate and allay it? Marcellus. Hannibal, give me thy hand—thou hast found it and brought it me, compassion. [To the Surgeon.] Go, friend; others want thy aid; several fell around me. Hannibal. Recommend to your country, O Marcellus, while time permits it, reconciliation and peace with me, informing the Senate of my superiority in force, and the impossibility of resistance. The tablet is ready: let me take off this ring—try to write, to sign it, at least. Oh, what satisfaction I feel at seeing you able to rest upon the elbow, and even to smile! Marcellus. Within an hour or less, with how severe a brow would Minos say to me, ‘Marcellus, is this thy writing?’ Rome loses one man: she hath lost many such, and she still hath many left. Hannibal. Afraid as you are of falsehood, say you this? I confess in shame the ferocity of my countrymen. Unfortunately, too, the nearer posts are occupied by Gauls, infinitely more cruel. The Numidians are so in revenge: the Gauls both in revenge and in sport. My presence is required at a distance, and I apprehend the barbarity of one or other, learning, as they must do, your refusal to execute my wishes for the common good, and feeling that by this refusal you deprive them of their country, after so long an absence. Marcellus. Hannibal, thou art not dying. Hannibal. What then? What mean you?
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