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natives, seeing the confusion which the fright of the animals created in

the column, at once took to the mountains, climbing up rugged precipices

which appeared to the Carthaginians absolutely inaccessible, and

presently made their appearance far up on the mountain side above the

column.

Here, sending up the most piercing yells, they began to roll rocks and

stones down upon the column. The confusion below became terrible. The

horses, alarmed by the strange wild cries, echoed and re-echoed a score

of times among the mountains, and struck by the falling stones, plunged

and struggled wildly to escape. Some tore along the path, precipitating

those in front of them over the precipice, others lost their footing,

and, dragging with them the carts to which they were attached, fell

into the valley below. All order was lost. Incapable of defence or of

movement the column appeared to be on the verge of destruction.

"Come, my men," Malchus exclaimed to his Arabs, "where these men can

climb we can follow them; the safety of the whole column is at stake."

Slinging their weapons behind them the scouts began to climb the crags.

Sure footed and hardy as they were, it was with the greatest difficulty

that they could make their way up. Many lost their footing, and rolling

down were dashed to pieces; but the great majority succeeded in climbing

the heights, and at once became engaged in desperate battle with the

natives.

Every narrow ledge and crag was the scene of a conflict. The natives

from the distant heights encouraged their companions with their shouts,

and for a time the confusion in the column below was heightened by the

combat which was proceeding far above them. Every stone dislodged by the

feet of the combatants thundered down upon them, and the falling bodies

of those hit by arrow or javelin came crushing down with a dull thud

among the mass.

At last the bravery and superior weapons of the Arabs prevailed. The

precipice was cleared of the natives, and as the uproar ceased and the

missiles ceased to fall, the column recovered its order, and again moved

forward until the whole army gained the top of the pass. Here Hannibal

took possession of a rough fort erected by the natives, captured several

villages, and enough flocks and herds to feed his army for three days.

Then descending from the top of the pass, which is now known as the

Gol-du-Chat, he entered the valley of Chambery, and marched forward for

three days without opposition.

Malchus and his scouts received the warmest congratulations for their

conduct at the pass, for they had undoubtedly saved the army from what

had at one time threatened to be a terrible disaster. On arrival at a

town supposed to be identical with the modern Conflans, the inhabitants

came out with green boughs and expressed their desire for peace and

friendship. They said that they had heard of the fate which had befallen

those who ventured to oppose the Carthaginians, and that they were

anxious to avoid such misfortunes. They offered to deliver hostages as a

proof of their good intentions, to supply sheep and goats for the army,

and to furnish guides through the difficult country ahead.

For two days the march continued. The route the army was passing was

that now known as the little St. Bernard. Fortunately Hannibal had from

the first entertained considerable doubt as to the good faith of his

guides, and never relaxed his vigilance. The scouts and light infantry,

with the cavalry, preceded the great column of baggage, the heavy

cavalry defended the rear.

The track, which had for the last five days' march proceeded along a

comparatively level valley, now mounted rapidly, and turning aside from

the valley of the Isere it led up the deep bed of the mountain torrent

known as the Reclus; this stream ran in a deep trough hollowed out in a

very narrow valley. The bed is now so piled with rocks and stones as to

be impassable, and the Romans afterwards cut a road along on the side

of the mountain. But at this time it was possible for men and animals to

proceed along the bed of the torrent.

Suddenly while struggling with the difficulties of the ascent, a vast

number of the natives appeared on the hills on either side, and began to

hurl down stones and rocks upon the column below, while at the same

time a still stronger force attacked them in the rear. The instant

the natives made their appearance the treacherous guides, who were

proceeding with the scouts at the head of the column, attempted to make

their escape by climbing the mountain side. The Arabs were starting off

in pursuit, but Malchus checked them.

"Keep together," he shouted, "and on no account scatter; the enemy are

upon us in force, and it behooves us all to be steady and deliberate in

our action."

A flight of arrows was, however, sent after the traitors, and most of

them rolled lifeless down the slope again.

Hannibal's first care was to extricate his cavalry from the gorge. This

was performed with great difficulty, and they were drawn up in good

order on the narrow piece of level ground between the gorge in which the

river ran and the mountains bordering the side of the pass.

The light troops now ascended the hills on both sides, and speedily

became engaged with the enemy. The confusion in the bed of the torrent

was tremendous. Great numbers of men and animals were killed by the

rocks and missiles from above, but more of the soldiers were trampled to

death by the frightened horses. The heavy infantry in the rear remained

steady, and repulsed every effort of the main body of the enemy to break

in upon the column.

As night fell the combat ceased, but Hannibal and the troops in advance

of the column passed the night under arms at the foot of a certain white

rock standing above the ravine, and which still marks the exact site of

the conflict. The natives had suffered heavily both from their conflict

with the light troops upon the hillside, and from the repulse of their

assaults upon the rear guard, and in the morning they did not venture

to renew the attack, and the column moved forward out of the ravine

and continued its march, the natives from time to time dashing down to

attack it.

The elephants were placed on the flank of the line of march, and the

appearance of these strange beasts so terrified the enemy that they

desisted from their attack, and by evening the army encamped on the

summit of the pass.

The snow had already fallen deeply, the army were worn out and

dispirited by the exertions and dangers through which they had passed,

and had suffered great losses in men and animals in the nine days which

had elapsed since they first entered the mountains. Hannibal gave them

two days' rest, in which time they were joined by many stragglers who

had fallen behind, and by beasts of burden which, in the terror and

confusion of the attack, had got rid of their loads and had escaped, but

whose instinct led them to follow the line of march.

At the end of the second day Hannibal assembled his troops and addressed

them in a stirring speech. He told them that the worst part of their

journey was now over. He pointed to them the plains of Italy, of which a

view could be obtained through the pass ahead, and told them that there

they would find rest and friends, wealth and glory. The soldiers as

usual responded to the words of their beloved general with shouts of

acclamation, and with renewed spirits prepared to meet the difficulties

which still lay before them.

The next morning the march was renewed. The snow lay deep on the track,

and the soldiers found that, great as had been the difficulties of the

ascent, those of the descent were vastly greater, for the slopes of the

Alps on the Italian side are far steeper and more abrupt than are those

on the French. Every step had to be made with care; those who strayed in

the slightest from the path found the snow gave way beneath their feet

and fell down the precipice beside them.

Many of the baggage animals thus perished; but at last the head of the

column found itself at the foot of the steep descent in a ravine with

almost perpendicular walls, amid whose foot was in summer occupied by a

mountain stream. Into the depth of this ravine the rays of the sun never

penetrated, and in it lay a mass of the previous year's snow which had

never entirely melted, but which formed with the water of the torrent a

sheet of slippery ice.

The newly formed snow prevented the troops from seeing the nature of the

ground, and as they stepped upon it they fell headlong, sliding in

their armour down the rapidly sloping bed of ice, many dashing out

their brains or breaking their limbs against the great boulders which

projected through it. The cavalry next attempted the passage, but with

even less success, for the hoofs of the horses broke through the hard

upper crust of the old snow and the animals sank in to their bellies.

Seeing that it was impossible to pass this obstacle, Hannibal turned

back the head of the column until they reached the top of the ascent

down which they had just come. There he cleared away the snow and

erected a camp; all the infantry were then brought down into the pass

and set to work to build up a road along the side of the ravine.

The engineers with fire and explosives blasted away the foot of the

cliffs; the infantry broke up the rocks and formed a level track. All

night the work continued, the troops relieving each other at frequent

intervals, and by the morning a path which could be traversed by men

on foot, horses, and baggage animals was constructed for a distance of

three hundred yards, beyond which the obstacle which had arrested the

advance of the army did not continue.

The cavalry, baggage animals, and a portion of the infantry at once

continued their way down the valley, while the rest of the infantry

remained behind to widen the road sufficiently for the elephants to

pass along. Although the work was pressed on with the greatest vigour it

needed three days of labour in all before the elephants could be passed

through. The animals were by this time weak with hunger, for from the

time when they had turned aside from the valley of the Isere the Alps

had been wholly bare of trees, and the ground being covered with snow,

no foliage or forage had been obtainable to eke out the store of flour

which they carried for their consumption. Nor was any wood found with

which to manufacture the flat cakes into which the flour was formed for

their rations.

The elephants once through, the march was continued, and, joining the

troops in advance, who had halted in the woods below the snow level,

the column continued its march. On the third day after passing the gorge

they issued out on to the plain of the Po, having lost in the fifteen

days' passage of the Alps great numbers of men from the attacks of

the enemy, from the passage of the rapid torrents, from falls over the

precipices, and from cold, and having suffered still more severely in

horses and baggage animals.

Of the 59,000 picked troops with which he had advanced after the

conquest of Catalonia, Hannibal reached the plains of Italy with but

12,000 African infantry, 8,000 Spanish and Gaulish infantry, and 6,000

cavalry--in all 26,000 men. A small force indeed with which to enter

upon the struggle with the might and power of Rome. Of the 33,000 men

that were missing, 13,000 had fallen in the passes of the Pyrenees and

the march through Gaul, 20,000 had died in the passage of the Alps.

CHAPTER XIII: THE BATTLE OF THE TREBIA

Well was it for the Carthaginians that Hannibal had opened

communications with the Gaulish tribes in the plains at the foot of

the Alps, and that on its issue from the mountain passes his army found

itself among friends, for had it been attacked it was in no position to

offer a vigorous resistance, the men being utterly broken down by their

fatigues and demoralized by their losses. Many were suffering terribly

from frostbites, the cavalry were altogether unable to act, so worn out

and enfeebled were the horses. Great numbers of the men could scarce

drag themselves along owing to the state of their feet; their shoes and

sandals, well enough adapted for sandy plains, were wholly unfitted for

traversing rocky precipices, and the greater part of the army was almost

barefoot.

So long as they had been traversing the mountains they had struggled on

doggedly and desperately; to lag behind was to be slain by the natives,

to lie down was to perish of cold; but with the cessation of the

absolute necessity for exertion the power for exertion ceased also.

Worn out, silent, exhausted, and almost despairing, the army of Hannibal

presented the appearance of one which had suffered a terrible defeat,

rather than that of a body of men who had accomplished a feat of arms

unrivalled in the history of war.

Happily they found themselves among friends. The Insubres, who had been

looking forward eagerly to their coming, flocked in great numbers to

receive them as they issued out into the plain, bringing with them

cattle, grain, wine, and refreshments of all kinds, and inviting the

army to take up their quarters among them until recovered from their

fatigues. This offer Hannibal at once accepted. The army was broken

up and scattered among the various towns and villages, where the

inhabitants vied with each other in attending to the comforts of the

guests. A fortnight's absolute rest, an abundance of food, and the

consciousness that the worst of their labours was over, did wonders for

the men.

Malchus had arrived in a state of extreme exhaustion, and had, indeed,

been carried for the last two days of the march on the back of one of

the elephants. The company which he commanded no longer existed; they

had borne far more than their share of the fatigues of the march; they

had lost nearly half their number in the conflict among the precipices

with the natives, and while the rest of the army had marched along a

track where the snow had already been beaten hard by the cavalry in

front of them, the scouts ahead had to make their way through snow knee