From a mob of despairing,
panic-stricken wretches they organised themselves into a defence
force. They barred the city gates, and started to make weapons to
replace those which they had surrendered to their enemies.
Night and day they worked--men, women, and children. They manufactured
daily 100 shields, 300 swords, 500 spears, and 1000 balls for their
catapults, and the women cut off their hair and plaited it into ropes
for the catapults.
* * * * *
A CATAPULT.
[Illustration: A CARTHAGINIAN CATAPULT.]
The catapult which the Carthaginians used was not the little implement
that a boy uses nowadays; it was a big kind of windlass, by which a
number of ropes were twisted up tightly till they acted as a spring to a
strong wooden arm at the end of which was a leather cup. This held a
stone about the size of a man's head.
When the spring was let go, this arm was flung violently forward, and
the stone was thereby hurled into the air, and flew with great force
for 400 or 500 yards.
The catapults served the purpose of artillery in those days when
gunpowder had not been invented.
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