Capua is a fortified town situated in a flat country and marshy withal.

Perhaps at Pinna the large land-owners or capitalists were supreme, as in Umbria and Etruria, which sided with Rome, as also did most of the Latin towns, the Greek towns Neapolis and Rhegium, and most of Campania, where Capua became an important Roman post during the war.

The next day an audience of a full senate was given to Hannibal, when the first part of his address was full of graciousness and benignity, in which he thanked the Campanians for having preferred his friendship to an alliance with the Romans, and held out among his other magnificent promises "that Capua should soon become the capital of all Italy, and that the Romans as well as the other states should receive laws from it.

Meanwhile, Mrs. McLean's little women clamorously demanded and obtained a share of her attention,although Capua and Ursule, with their dark skins, brilliant dyes, and equivocal dialects, were creatures of a more absorbing interest.

That Capua had been a Cannae to Hannibal; that there his courage in battle, his military discipline, the fame he had already acquired, and his hopes of future glory, were extinguished."

From that time, during the whole period of the summer campaign, a great number of them slunk away from the standards without furloughs, while Capua was the only retreat of the deserters.

But Magius said, that Capua would not be a safe place for him, and that Rome, at a time when there was war between the Romans and Capuans, would be rather the residence of a deserter than a guest.

"Let me tell you, Miss Helen," said Mr. Raleigh, "that Capua is a connoisseur, and his dictum is worth all flatteries.