food and drink to
those who were digging in the trench, while the soldiers remained
quietly at rest within the city, awaiting the duties which were to
devolve upon them in the morning. The trench was made wide and deep
enough to impede the passage of the elephants and of the cavalry, and
it was guarded at the ends by wagons, the wheels of which were half
buried in the ground at the places chosen for them, in order to render
them immovable. All this work was performed in such silence and
secrecy that it met with no interruption from Pyrrhus's camp, and the
whole was completed before the morning dawned.

As soon as it began to be light, the camp of Pyrrhus was in motion.
All was excitement and commotion, too, within the city. The soldiers
assumed their arms and formed in array. The women gathered around
them while they were making these preparations, assisting them to
buckle on their armor, and animating them with words of sympathy and
encouragement. "How glorious it will be for you," said they, "to gain
a victory here in the precincts of the city, where we can all witness
and enjoy your triumph; and even if you fall in the contest, your
mothers and your wives are close at hand to receive you to their arms,
and to soothe and sustain you in your dying struggles!"

When all was ready, the men marched forth to meet the advancing
columns of Pyrrhus's army, and the battle soon began. Pyrrhus soon
found that the trench which the Spartans had dug in the night was
destined greatly to obstruct his intended operations. The horse and
the elephants could not cross it at all; and even the men, if they
succeeded in getting over the ditch, were driven back when attempting
to ascend the rampart of earth which had been formed along the side of
it, by the earth thrown up in making the excavation, for this earth
was loose and steep, and afforded them no footing. Various attempts
were made to dislodge the wagons that had been fixed into the ground
at the ends of the trench, but for a time all these efforts were
fruitless. At last, however, Ptolemy, the son of Pyrrhus, came very
near succeeding. He had the command of a force of about two thousand
Gauls, and with this body he made a circuit, so as to come upon the
line of wagons in such a manner as to give him a great advantage in
attacking them. The Spartans fought very resolutely in defense of
them; but the Gauls gradually prevailed, and at length succeeded in
dragging several of the wago