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troubled by what these wild girls say, my lord Malchus; you know our

Gaulish women are free of tongue, and hold not their men in such awe and

deference as is the custom among other nations."

"I am accustomed to be laughed at," Malchus said smiling; "I have two

sisters at home, and, whatever respect women may pay to their lords

in Carthage, I suppose that neither there nor anywhere else have girls

respect for their brothers."

The music at this moment struck up, the harpers began a song which they

had composed in honour of the occasion, the tribesmen fell into their

ranks again, and Allobrigius placed himself at their head. Malchus

dismounted, and, leading his horse, walked by the side of Brunilda, who,

with the rest of the women, walked on the flanks of the column on its

way back to the village.

The next three months passed very pleasantly to Malchus. In the day

he hunted the boar, the bear, and the wolf among the mountains with

Allobrigius; of an evening he sat by the fire and listened to the songs

of the harpers or to the tales of the wars and wanderings of the Gaulish

tribes, or himself told the story of Carthage and Tyre and the wars of

the former with the Romans, described the life and manners of the great

city, or the hunting of the lion in the Libyan deserts.

While his listeners wondered at the complex life and strange arts and

magnificence of Carthage, Malchus was struck with the simple existence,

the warm family ties, the honest sincerity, and the deep love of freedom

of the Gauls. When Brunilda and her daughter sighed with envy at the

thought of the luxuries and pleasures of the great city, he told them

that they would soon weary of so artificial an existence, and that

Carthage, with its corruption, its ever present dread of the rising of

one class against another, its constant fear of revolt from the people

it had enslaved, its secret tribunals, its oppression and tyranny, had

little which need be envied by the free tribes of Gaul.

"I grant," he said, "that you would gain greater comfort by adopting

something of our civilization. You might improve your dwellings,

hangings round your walls would keep out the bitter winds, well made

doors are in winter very preferable to the skins which hang at your

entrance, and I do think that a Carthaginian cook might, with advantage,

give lessons to the tribes as to preparations of food; but beyond that I

think that you have the best of it."

"The well built houses you speak of," Allobrigius said, "have their

advantages, but they have their drawbacks. A people who once settle down

into permanent abodes have taken the first step towards losing their

freedom. Look at all the large towns in the plains; until lately each of

them held a Roman garrison. In the first place, they offer an incentive

to the attack of a covetous foe; in the second, they bind their

owners to them. The inhabitants of a town cling to their houses and

possessions, and, if conquered, become mere slaves to their captors; we

who live in dwellings which cost but a few weeks of work, whose worldly

goods are the work of our own hands, or the products of the chase,

should never be conquered; we may be beaten, but if so, we can retire

before our enemies and live in freedom in the forest or mountains, or

travel beyond the reach of our foes.

"Had not your army come and freed us from Rome I was already meditating

moving with my tribe across the great mountains to the north and

settling among Brunilda's people in the German forests, far beyond the

reach of Rome. What though, as she tells me, the winters are long

and severe, the people ignorant of many of the comforts which we have

adopted from our neighbours; at least we should be free, and of all

blessings none is to compare with that."

"I agree with you," Malchus said, thinking of the plots and

conspiracies, the secret denunciations, the tyranny and corruption

of Carthage, "it is good to be great, but it is better to be free.

However," he added more cheerfully, "I trust that we are going to free

you from all future fear of Rome, and that you will be able to enjoy

your liberty here without having to remove to the dark forests and long

winter of the country north of the Alps."

So passed the winter. Early in the spring a messenger arrived from

Hannibal bidding Malchus rejoin him, and calling upon Allobrigius to

prepare to take the field against the Romans. Similar messages had been

sent to all the Gaulish tribes friendly to Carthage, and early in March

Hannibal prepared to cross the Apennines and to advance against Rome.

The position occupied by the two Roman armies barred the only two roads

by which it was believed that Hannibal could march upon Rome, but

as soon as the spring commenced Hannibal started by a path, hitherto

untrodden by troops, across the Apennines. In the march the troops

suffered even greater hardships than those which they had undergone

in the passage of the Alps, for during four days and three nights they

marched knee deep in water, unable for a single moment to lie down.

While ever moving backwards and forwards among his men to encourage them

with his presence and words, even the iron frame of Hannibal gave way

under the terrible hardships. The long continued strain, the want of

sleep, and the obnoxious miasma from the marshes, brought on a fever

and cost him the sight of one of his eyes. Of all the elephants but one

survived the march, and it was with an army as worn out and exhausted as

that which had issued from the Alps that he descended into the fertile

plains of Tuscany, near Fiesole.

The army of Flaminius, 30,000 strong, was still lying at Arezzo, on his

direct road south, and it was with this only that Hannibal had now to

deal, the force of Servilius being still far away at Rimini. His own

army was some 35,000 strong, and crossing the Upper Arno near Florence,

Hannibal marched towards Arezzo. Flaminius, as soon as he had heard

that Hannibal was ascending the slopes of the Apennines, had sent

to Servilius to join him, but the latter, alleging that he feared an

invasion by the Gaulish tribes on the north, refused to move, but sent

four thousand cavalry to Flaminius. This brought the armies to nearly

equal strength, but, although Hannibal marched his troops within sight

of Arezzo, Flaminius would not issue from his camp to attack him.

He knew that Hannibal had defeated a force of tried troops, much

exceeding his own in numbers, in the north, and that he would therefore

probably be successful against one which scarcely equalled his own. He

hoped, too, that Hannibal would attack him in his intrenched position.

This the Carthaginian general had no intention of doing, but, leaving

the camp behind him, marched on, plundering and ravaging the country

towards Rome. Flaminius at once broke up his camp and followed on his

track, preparing to take any opportunity which might occur to fall upon

the Carthaginians, and knowing that the senate would at once call up the

army of Servilius to assist him.

Hannibal, by means of scouts left in his rear, found that Flaminius

was marching on with his troops in solid column, taking no precaution

against surprise, secure in the belief that Hannibal's object was to

march on Rome without a stop. The Carthaginian general prepared at once

to take advantage of his enemy's carelessness. He halted his troops at

Cortona. The road by which he had passed wound along the shore of Lake

Trasimene, at the foot of a range of steep hills, which approached

closely to the water.

Half way along these hills a stream runs down a valley into the

lake, and in the valley, completely hidden from the sight of an enemy

approaching, Hannibal placed the Numidian cavalry and the Gaulish

infantry. Among some woods clothing the lower slope of the hills facing

the lake he placed his light troops, while the Spanish and African

infantry and the Gaulish cavalry were similarly hidden on the outer

slopes of the hill in readiness to close in on the rear of the Romans

when they had entered on the road between the hills and the lake.

No better position could have been chosen for a surprise. When once the

Romans had entered the path between the hills and the lake there was no

escape for them. They were shut up between the wood clad hills swarming

with the Carthaginian light troops and the lake, while the heavy

infantry and cavalry of Hannibal were ready to fall on them front and

rear.

When Flaminius arrived at Cortona late at night he heard of the ravages

and executions committed by the Carthaginians, as they had passed

through early in the morning, and resolved to press forward at daybreak

in hopes of finding some opportunity for falling upon and punishing

them. When day broke it seemed favourable to his design, for a thick

mist was rising from the lake and marshes. This, he thought, would

conceal his advance from the Carthaginians, while, as the high ground

ahead rose above the mist, he would be enabled to see their position. He

pushed forward then rapidly, thinking that he should be able to overtake

the rear of the Carthaginian army as it moved slowly along encumbered

with its plunder.

As he neared the entrance to the pass he caught sight of the heavy

armed Carthaginians on the distant hill above the level of the mist,

and believing that his own movements were hidden from the enemy, pushed

forward as fast as the infantry could march. But the moment the rear of

his column had entered the narrow flat between the foot of the hills and

the lake, the Numidians quietly moved down and closed the pass behind

them, while Hannibal with his heavy infantry descended from the farther

hill to confront him. When all was ready he gave the signal, and at once

in front, on their right flank, and on their rear the Carthaginians fell

upon them.

The light troops heralded their attack by rolling a vast quantity of

rocks down the hill on the long column, and then, pressing down through

the woods, poured their arrows and javelins into the struggling mass.

Taken wholly by surprise, unable to advance or retreat, desperate at

finding themselves thus caught in a trap, the Romans fought bravely but

in vain. An earthquake shook the ground on which the terrible fight was

going on; but not for a moment did it interrupt the struggle. For three

hours the Romans, although suffering terribly, still fought on; then

Flaminius was killed, and from that time they thought only of escape.

But this was next to impossible. Six thousand only cut their way out.

Fifteen thousand fell, and nine thousand were taken prisoners.

As soon as the battle was over Hannibal despatched Maharbal with his

division of the army in pursuit of the six thousand who had escaped,

and, overtaking them next morning at Perugia, Maharbal forced them to

surrender. At the same time he detached a strong force against the four

thousand horsemen, whom Servilius had despatched from Rimini to aid his

colleague, and the whole of these were surrounded and taken prisoners.

Thus of the Roman army, thirty-six thousand strong, not a single man

escaped.

In all history there is no record of so great and successful a surprise.

Hannibal retained as prisoners the Roman citizens and Latins, but

released the rest of the captives, telling them that, far from being

their enemy, he had invaded Italy for the purpose of liberating its

helpless people from the tyranny of the Roman domination. The loss

to the Carthaginians in the battle of Lake Trasimene was only fifteen

hundred men.

Hannibal has been blamed for not advancing against Rome after the battle

of Lake Trasimene; but he knew that he could not hope to subdue that

city so long as she was surrounded by faithful allies. His army was

numerically insufficient to undertake such a siege, and was destitute

of the machines for battering the walls. Rome was still defended by

the city legions, besides which every man capable of bearing arms was

a soldier. The bitter hostility of the Latins would have rendered it

difficult in the extreme for the army to have obtained provisions while

carrying on the siege, while in its rear, waiting for an opportunity to

attack, would have lain the army of Servilius, thirty thousand strong,

and growing daily more numerous as the friends and allies of Rome

flocked to its banners.

Hannibal saw that to undertake such an enterprise at present would be

ruin. His course was clear. He had to beat the armies which Rome could

put into the field; to shake the confidence of the Italian tribes in

the power of Rome; to subsist his army upon their territories, and so

gradually to detach them from their alliance with Rome. He hoped that,

by the time this work was finished, Carthage would send another great

army to his assistance provided with siege materials, and he would then

be able to undertake with confidence the great task of striking a vital

blow at Rome herself.

"Malchus," Hannibal said one day, "I wish you to ride north. The tribes

at the foot of the hills promised to aid us, but have so far done

nothing. If they would pour down to the plains now they would occupy the

tribes friendly to the Romans, and would prevent them from sending men

and stores to them. They sent me a message a month ago, saying that they

were still willing to help us, and I then replied that I had been long

waiting to hear that they had risen, and urged them to do so without

loss of time. I have not heard since, and fear that the Roman agents

have, by promises of money and privileges, prevailed upon them to keep

quiet. It is a service of danger; for if they have been bought over they

may seize you and send you in token of their goodwill as a prisoner to

Rome; but I know that will not deter you."

"I am ready to go," Malchus said, "and will start today. What force

shall I take with me, and which of the chiefs shall I first see?"

"You had best go first to Ostragarth. He is the most powerful of the

chiefs on this side of the Apennines. You can select from the treasury