her of them. Then there is the Po before you
and the Alps behind. The Po is a deeper, and more rapid and turbulent
river than the Rhone; and as for the Alps, it was with the utmost
difficulty that you passed over them when you were in full strength
and vigor; they are an insurmountable wall to you now. You are
therefore shut in, like our prisoners, on every side, and have no hope
of life and liberty but in battle and victory.

"The victory, however, will not be difficult. I see, wherever I look
among you, a spirit of determination and courage which I am sure will
make you conquerors. The troops which you are going to contend against
are mostly fresh recruits, that know nothing of the discipline of the
camp, and can never successfully confront such war-worn veterans as
you. You all know each other well, and me. I was, in fact, a pupil
with you for many years, before I took the command. But Scipio's
forces are strangers to one another and to him, and, consequently,
have no common bond of sympathy; and as for Scipio himself, his very
commission as a Roman general is only six months old.

"Think, too, what a splendid and prosperous career victory will open
before you. It will conduct you to Rome. It will make you masters of
one of the most powerful and wealthiest cities in the world. Thus far
you have fought your battles only for glory or for dominion; now, you
will have something more substantial to reward your success. There
will be great treasures to be divided among you if we conquer, but if
we are defeated we are lost. Hemmed in as we are on every side, there
is no place that we can reach by flight. There is, therefore, no such
alternative as flight left to us. We _must conquer_."

It is hardly probable that Hannibal could have really and honestly
felt all the confidence that he expressed in his harangues to his
soldiers. He must have had some fears. In fact, in all enterprises
undertaken by man, the indications of success, and the hopes based
upon them, will fluctuate from time to time, and cause his confidence
in the result to ebb and flow, so that bright anticipations of success
and triumph will alternate in his heart with feelings of
discouragement and despondency. This effect is experienced by all; by
the energetic and decided as well as by the timid and the faltering.
The former, however, never allow these fluctuations of hope and fear
to influence their action. They consider well the substantial grounds
for e