every boat, holding the bridles of three or four horses
which were swimming after them. It must have required great skill on the
part of the oarsmen to allow sufficient space between the boats, so that
the horses should not become entangled with each other, but no accident
happened either to the larger vessels or to the canoes which contained
the rest of the foot.

[Illustration: The Gauls poured out of their camp shouting and screaming
with delight.]

Exactly as Hannibal expected, for he always seemed to know by magic the
faults that his enemy would commit, at the sight of the Carthaginian
army on the river the Gauls poured out of their camp, and crowded to the
bank, shouting and screaming with delight and defiance. There they
stood, with eyes fixed on the advancing boats, when suddenly Hanno's men
came up and attacked them from behind. They turned to grapple with this
unexpected enemy, thus giving Hannibal time to land his first division
and charge them in the rear. Unable to stand the twofold onslaught, the
Gauls wavered, and in a few minutes disappeared in headlong flight.

When the rest of the army was safe on the left bank a camp was pitched,
and orders given for the morrow. Hannibal's great anxiety was for the
passage of the elephants, still on the other side, for the great
creatures on whose help he counted, perhaps more than he should, were
terribly afraid of water. But no man ever lived who was cleverer at
forming schemes than Hannibal, and at last he hit on one which he
thought would do. Five hundred of his light-armed horsemen from the
African province of Numidia were despatched down the river to find out
how many soldiers Scipio had with him, the number and size of the ships
that had arrived, and, if possible, the consul's future plans. Then the
general chose out some men who were specially fitted to manage the
elephants, and bade them recross the river immediately, giving them
exact directions what they were to do when they were once more on the
right bank.

The plan Hannibal had invented for the passage of the elephants was
this.

The men whom he had left on the other side of the Rhone were ordered to
cut down more trees as fast as possible, and chop them into logs, which
were bound firmly together into rafts about fifty feet broad; when
finished, these rafts were standing on the bank, lashed to trees and
covered with turf, so that they looked just like part of the land. The
rafts stretched a long