did not wish to waste his time
and his strength in a contest with Scipio in Gaul, but to press on and
get across the Alps into Italy as soon as possible. And so, fearing
lest Scipio should strike across the country, and intercept him if he
should attempt to go by the most direct route, he determined to move
northwardly, up the River Rhone, till he should get well into the
interior, with a view of reaching the Alps ultimately by a more
circuitous journey.

It was, in fact, the plan of Scipio to come up with Hannibal and
attack him as soon as possible; and, accordingly, as soon as his
horsemen, or, rather, those who were left alive after the battle had
returned and informed him that Hannibal and his army were near, he put
his camp in motion and moved rapidly up the river. He arrived at the
place where the Carthaginians had crossed a few days after they had
gone. The spot was in a terrible state of ruin and confusion. The
grass and herbage were trampled down for the circuit of a mile, and
all over the space were spots of black and smouldering remains, where
the camp-fires had been kindled. The tops and branches of trees lay
every where around, their leaves withering in the sun, and the groves
and forests were encumbered with limbs, and rejected trunks, and trees
felled and left where they lay. The shore was lined far down the
stream with ruins of boats and rafts, with weapons which had been lost
or abandoned, and with the bodies of those who had been drowned in the
passage, or killed in the contest on the shore. These and numerous
other vestiges remained but the army was gone.

There were, however, upon the ground groups of natives and other
visitors, who had come to look at the spot now destined to become so
memorable in history. From these men Scipio learned when and where
Hannibal had gone. He decided that it was useless to attempt to pursue
him. He was greatly perplexed to know what to do. In the casting of
lots, Spain had fallen to him, but now that the great enemy whom he
had come forth to meet had left Spain altogether, his only hope of
intercepting his progress was to sail back into Italy, and meet him as
he came down from the Alps into the great valley of the Po. Still, as
Spain had been assigned to him as his province, he could not well
entirely abandon it. He accordingly sent forward the largest part of
his army into Spain, to attack the forces that Hannibal had left
there, while he himself, with a smaller for