understood this and retired to his camp.

* * * * *

Immediately after the battle of Thrasymene, Hannibal, knowing quite well
that he was not strong enough to attack Rome, had taken up his
headquarters on the shores of the Adriatic, so as to be at hand if
Philip of Macedon made a descent upon Italy, or Carthage sent the
reinforcements her general had so frequently asked for. But it was as
useless to trust to the promises of the one as to the patriotism of the
other, and having laid waste the country nearly as far south as
Tarentum, he suddenly crossed the Apennines to the plain on the western
sea, where he hoped to gain over some of the cities to his cause. In
this again he was doomed to disappointment, for the rich Campanian
towns, notably Capua, richest of all, held aloof till they knew for
certain who would be conqueror.

In all Hannibal's campaigns nothing is more surprising than the way he
managed to elude his enemies, who were always close to him and always on
the look-out for him; yet he went wherever he wished.

* * * * *

Seeing that he could not hope for support in Campania, Hannibal
determined to carry off the stores and booty he had collected into a
safe place east of the Apennines, in order that his troops might be
well-fed during the winter. This Fabius learned through a spy, and,
knowing that there was only one pass through the mountains, sent a body
of four thousand men to occupy a position in ambush from which they
might fall upon the Carthaginians as they entered the gorge, while he
himself encamped with a large force on a hill near at hand.

We can imagine the old dictator's satisfaction when he had completed his
arrangements for crushing the Carthaginians, and felt that _this_ time
he would put to silence the grumblings of the people in Rome.

Fabius passed the day in preparing his plan of the attack which was to
take place on the morrow, perhaps now and then allowing his secret
thoughts to linger a little on the triumph awaiting him at Rome. But
that very night Hannibal ordered one of his generals to fell some trees
and split them into faggots, which were to be piled close to where two
thousand oxen were tethered outside the camp. The men wondered a little
what was going to happen, but did as they were bid, and then, by
Hannibal's directions, had supper and lay down to sleep. Very early in
the morning they were awakened by Hannib