be erected. The baggage wagons were arranged in order,
and the cattle unharnessed. The troops began to throw up intrenchments,
and all seemed to show that the Carthaginians were determined to fight
till the last on the ground they held. It was still light enough for the
enemy to perceive what was being done, and, secure of their prey in the
morning, they drew off to a short distance for the night. Hannibal had
learned from a native that morning of a ford across the river, and it
was towards this that he had been marching. As soon as it was perfectly
dark a number of men entered the river to search for the ford. This was
soon discovered.

Then the orders were passed noiselessly round to the soldiers, and
these, in regular order and in the most perfect quiet, rose to their
feet and marched down to the ford. A portion of the infantry first
passed, then the wagons were taken over, the rest of the infantry
followed, and the cavalry and the elephants brought up the rear. The
point where the river was fordable was at a sharp angle, and Hannibal
now occupied its outer side. As daylight approached he placed his
archers on the banks of the river where, owing to the sharp bend, their
arrows would take in flank an enemy crossing the ford, and would also
sweep its approaches.

The cavalry were withdrawn some distance, and were ordered not to charge
until the Spaniards had got across the river. The elephants, forty
in number, were divided into two bodies. One of these was allotted to
protect each of the bodies of infantry on the bank from attack, should
the Spaniards gain a strong footing on the left bank. When day broke
the enemy perceived that the Carthaginians had made the passage of the
river. Believing that they had been too much alarmed to risk a battle,
and were retreating hastily, the natives thronged down in a multitude to
the river without waiting for their leaders or for orders to be given,
and rushing forward, each for himself, leaped into the river.

Numbers were at once swept away by the stream, but the crowd who had
struck upon the ford pressed forward. When they were in midstream in a
tumultuous mass Hannibal launched his cavalry upon them, and a desperate
conflict ensued in the river. The combat was too unequal to last
long. The Spaniards, waist deep in the rapid stream, had difficulty
in retaining their feet, they were ignorant of the width or precise
direction of the ford, and were hampered by their own masses;