oceed under their guidance
with the utmost caution and care. He accepted of the provisions they
offered, and took the hostages. These last he delivered into the
custody of a body of his soldiers and they marched on with the rest of
the army. Then, directing the new guides to lead the way, the army
moved on after them. The elephants went first, with a moderate force
for their protection preceding and accompanying them. Then came long
trains of horses and mules, loaded with military stores and baggage,
and finally the foot soldiers followed, marching irregularly in a long
column. The whole train must have extended many miles, and must have
appeared from any of the eminences around like an enormous serpent,
winding its way tortuously through the wild and desolate valleys.

Hannibal was right in his suspicions. The embassage was a stratagem.
The men who sent it had laid an ambuscade in a very narrow pass,
concealing their forces in thickets and in chasms, and in nooks and
corners among the rugged rocks, and when the guides had led the army
well into the danger, a sudden signal was given, and these concealed
enemies rushed down upon them in great numbers, breaking into their
ranks, and renewing the scene of terrible uproar, tumult, and
destruction which had been witnessed in the other defile. One would
have thought that the elephants, being so unwieldy and so helpless in
such a scene, would have been the first objects of attack. But it was
not so. The mountaineers were afraid of them. They had never seen
such animals before, and they felt for them a mysterious awe, not
knowing what terrible powers such enormous beasts might be expected to
wield. They kept away from them, therefore, and from the horsemen, and
poured down upon the head of the column of foot soldiers which
followed in the rear.

They were quite successful at the first onset. They broke through the
head of the column, and drove the rest back. The horses and elephants,
in the mean time, moved forward, bearing the baggage with them, so
that the two portions of the army were soon entirely separated.
Hannibal was behind, with the soldiers. The mountaineers made good
their position, and, as night came on, the contest ceased, for in such
wilds as these no one can move at all, except with the light of day.
The mountaineers, however, remained in their place, dividing the army,
and Hannibal continued, during the night, in a state of great suspense
and anxiety, with the