overtook two days later.

Malchus was received with great delight by his father and Hannibal, who
had given him up for lost. Nessus had over and over again recounted all
the details of their adventure to his comrades, and the quickness of
Malchus at hitting upon the stratagem of returning to the cave, and so
escaping from a position where escape seemed well nigh impossible,
won for him an even higher place than before in the admiration of his
followers.

CHAPTER XI: THE PASSAGE OF THE RHONE

The army was now moving through the passes of the Pyrenees. The labour
was great; no army had ever before crossed this mountain barrier; roads
had to be made, streams bridged, and rocks blasted away, to allow the
passage of the elephants and baggage wagons. Opinions have differed as
to the explosives used by the Carthaginian miners, but it is certain
that they possessed means of blasting rocks. The engineers of Hannibal's
force possessed an amount of knowledge and science vastly in excess of
that attained by the Romans at that time, and during the campaign the
latter frequently endeavoured, and sometimes with success, by promises
of high rewards, to induce Hannibal's engineers to desert and take
service with them. A people well acquainted with the uses of sulphur
and niter, skilled in the Oriental science of chemistry, capable of
manufacturing Greek fire--a compound which would burn under water--may
well have been acquainted with some mixture resembling gunpowder.

The art of making this explosive was certainly known to the Chinese in
very remote ages, and the Phoenicians, whose galleys traversed the most
distant seas to the east, may have acquired their knowledge from that
people.

The wild tribes of the mountains harassed the army during this difficult
march, and constant skirmishes went on between them and Hannibal's light
armed troops. However, at last all difficulties were overcome, and the
army descended the slopes into the plains of Southern Gaul.

Already Hannibal's agents had negotiated for an unopposed passage
through this country; but the Gauls, alarmed at the appearance of
the army, and at the news which had reached them of the conquest of
Catalonia, assembled in arms. Hannibal's tact and a lavish distribution
of presents dissipated the alarm of the Gauls, and their chiefs visited
Hannibal's camp at Elne, and a treaty was entered into for the passage
of the army.

A singular article of this treaty, and one