rolled down the precipice themselves or pushed others over. To save
worse disasters, Hannibal sounded a charge, and drove the Gauls out of
the pass, even succeeding in taking a town which was one of their
strongholds, and full of stores and horses.

After a day's rest he started again, this time accompanied by some of
the enemy, who came with presents of cows and sheep, pretending to wish
for peace, and offered themselves as guides over the next pass. But
Hannibal feared them 'even when they bore gifts,' and did not put much
faith in their promises. He determined to keep a close watch on them,
but guides of some sort were necessary, and no others were to be had.
However, he made arrangements to guard as far as possible against their
treachery, placing his cavalry and baggage train in front, and his heavy
troops in the rear to protect them.

The Carthaginian army had just entered a steep and narrow pass when the
Gauls, who had kept pace with them all the way, suddenly attacked them
with stones and rocks. Unlike their usual custom, they did not cease
their onslaughts, even during the dark hours, and did great harm; but at
sunrise they had vanished, and without much more trouble the
Carthaginians managed to reach the head of the pass, where for two days
the men and beasts, quite exhausted, rested amidst the bitter cold of
the November snows, so strange to many of the army, who had grown up
under burning suns and the sands of the desert.

* * * * *

Cold and tired though they were, hundreds of miles from their homes, one
and all answered to Hannibal's words, entreating them to put their trust
in him, and they should find ample reward for their sufferings in the
rich plains of Italy which could be seen far below them.

'You are now climbing,' he said, 'not only the walls of Italy, but also
those of Rome. The worst is past, and the rest of the way lies downhill,
and will be smooth and easy to travel. We have but to fight one, or at
most two, battles, and Rome will be ours.'

And so perhaps it might have been if Carthage had only supported the
greatest of her sons, and sent him help when he needed it so badly.

* * * * *

Hannibal was wrong when he told his soldiers that their difficulties
were over, for as all accustomed to mountain-climbing could have
informed him, it was much harder to go down the pass than it had been to
come up it. A fresh fall of snow