re they reached the gate, that the streets
before them were entirely blocked up with an immense concourse of
soldiers that were pouring tumultuously into the city. It seems that
Helenus had, in some way or other, misunderstood the orders, and
supposed that he was directed to enter the city himself, to re-enforce
his father within the walls. The shock of the encounter produced by
these opposing currents redoubled the confusion. Pyrrhus, and the
officers with him, shouted out orders to the advancing soldiers of
Helenus to fall back; but in the midst of the indescribable din and
confusion that prevailed, no vociferation, however loud, could be
heard. Nor, if the orders had been heard, could they have been obeyed,
for the van of the coming column was urged forward irresistibly by the
pressure of those behind, and the panic which by this time prevailed
among the troops of Pyrrhus's command made them frantic and furious in
their efforts to force their way onward and get out of the city. An
awful scene of confusion and destruction ensued. Men pressed and
trampled each other to death, and the air was filled with shrieks and
cries of pain and terror. The destruction of life was very great, but
it was produced almost entirely by the pressure and the
confusion--men, horses, and elephants being mingled inextricably
together in one vast living mass, which seemed, to those who looked
down upon it from above, to be writhing and struggling in the most
horrible contortions. There was no fighting, for there was no room for
any one to strike a blow. If a man drew his sword or raised his pike,
his arms were caught and pinioned immediately by the pressure around
him, and he found himself utterly helpless. The injury, therefore,
that was done, was the result almost altogether of the pressure and
the struggles, and of the trampling of the elephants and the horses
upon the men, and of the men upon each other.

The elephants added greatly to the confusion of the scene. One of the
largest in the troop fell in the gateway, and lay there for some time
on his side, unable to rise, and braying in a terrific manner. Another
was excited to a phrensy by the loss of his master, who had fallen off
from his head, wounded by a dart or a spear. The faithful animal
turned around to save him. With his trunk he threw the men who were in
the way off to the right hand and the left, and then, taking up the
body of his master with his trunk, he placed it carefully