on assembled, and
stationed in the thickets above described, where they lay in ambush
ready to attack the Romans after they should pass the river.

Hannibal also made arrangements for leaving a large part of his army
in his own camp, ready for battle, with orders that they should
partake of food and refreshments, and keep themselves warm by the
fires until they should be called upon. All things being thus ready,
he detached a body of horsemen to cross the river, and see if they
could provoke the Romans to come out of their camp and pursue them.

"Go," said Hannibal, to the commander of this detachment, "pass the
stream, advance to the Roman camp, assail the guards, and when the
army forms and comes out to attack you, retreat slowly before them
back across the river."

The detachment did as it was ordered to do. When they arrived at the
camp, which was soon after break of day--for it was a part of
Hannibal's plan to bring the Romans out before they should have had
time to breakfast--Sempronius, at the first alarm, called all the
soldiers to arms, supposing that the whole Carthaginian force was
attacking them. It was a cold and stormy morning, and the atmosphere
being filled with rain and snow, but little could be seen. Column
after column of horsemen and of infantry marched out of the camp. The
Carthaginians retreated. Sempronius was greatly excited at the idea of
so easily driving back the assailants, and, as they retreated, he
pressed on in pursuit of them. As Hannibal had anticipated, he became
so excited in the pursuit that he did not stop at the banks of the
river. The Carthaginian horsemen plunged into the stream in their
retreat, and the Romans, foot soldiers and horsemen together,
followed on. The stream was usually small, but it was now swelled by
the rain which had been falling all the night. The water was, of
course, intensely cold. The horsemen got through tolerably well, but
the foot soldiers were all thoroughly drenched and benumbed; and as
they had not taken any food that morning, and had come forth on a very
sudden call, and without any sufficient preparation, they felt the
effects of the exposure in the strongest degree. Still they pressed
on. They ascended the bank after crossing the river, and when they had
formed again there, and were moving forward in pursuit of their still
flying enemy, suddenly the whole force of Hannibal's reserves, strong
and vigorous, just from their tents and their fires, bu