ad saved my life. You
meant to do so, and it was very good of you, a great chief of this army,
to hazard your life for a Gaulish maiden. Clotilde will never forget."

By the time they reached the bridge the column had moved on. A more
docile elephant had been placed in front, and this having moved across
the doubtful portion of the bridge, the others had quickly followed.
Just as Malchus and his companion reached the end of the bridge they met
her mother and sisters coming to meet them.

There was a smile of amusement on their faces as they thanked Malchus
for his attempt at rescue, and Clotilde's sisters whispered some
laughing remarks into her ear which caused the girl to flush hotly,
and to draw her slight figure indignantly to its full height. Malchus
retired to his tent to provide himself with fresh armour and sword, for
he doubted not that those thrown aside had been carried over the bridge
in the confusion. The soldier had returned with his horse, and in a few
minutes he took his place at the head of the Gauls who were drawn up
near Hannibal's tent.

The general himself soon appeared, and mounting his horse rode forward.
Malchus followed with his command, waving an adieu to the party who
stood watching the departure, and not ill pleased that those who had
before known him only as a helpless invalid, should now see him riding
at the head of the splendid bodyguard of the great commander.

Hannibal was marching nearly due east, with the intention of forcing
Scipio to give battle south of the Po. A strong Roman fortress,
Castegglo (Clastidium), lying at the foot of the hills, should have
barred his way; but Hannibal, by the medium of one of his native allies,
bribed the Roman commander to abstain from interrupting his march. Then
he pressed forward until on the third day after crossing the Po he came
within sight of Piacenza, under whose walls the Roman army were ranged.

Scipio, after his disastrous cavalry conflict, had written to Rome
urging his inability, with the force under his command, to give
battle single handed to Hannibal, and begging that he might be at
once reinforced by the army under Sempronius, then lying at Ariminum
(Rimini). The united consular armies, he represented, should take up
their position on the river Trebia.

This river rose in the Apennines but a short distance from Genoa, and
flowed nearly due north into the Po at Piacenza. The Roman army there
would therefore effectually bar Hanni