ergency, until some superior
officer should arrive, or they should get orders from Rome.

An incident here occurred which showed, in a striking point of view,
the boldness and energy of the young Scipio's character. At the very
meeting in which he was placed in command, and when they were
overwhelmed with perplexity and care, an officer came in, and reported
that in another part of the camp there was an assembly of officers and
young men of rank, headed by a certain Metellus, who had decided to
give up the cause of their country in despair, and that they were
making arrangements to proceed immediately to the sea-coast, obtain
ships, and sail away to seek a new home in some foreign lands,
considering their cause in Italy as utterly lost and ruined. The
officer proposed that they should call a council and deliberate what
was best to do.

"Deliberate!" said Scipio; "this is not a case for deliberation, but
for action. Draw your swords and follow me." So saying, he pressed
forward at the head of the party to the quarters of Metellus. They
marched boldly into the apartment where he and his friends were in
consultation. Scipio held up his sword, and in a very solemn manner
pronounced an oath, binding himself not to abandon his country in this
the hour of her distress, nor to allow any other Roman citizen to
abandon her. If he should be guilty of such treason, he called upon
Jupiter, by the most dreadful imprecations, to destroy him utterly,
house, family, fortune, soul, and body.

"And now, Metellus, I call upon you," said he, "and all who are with
you, to take the same oath. You must do it, otherwise you have got to
defend yourselves against these swords of ours, as well as those of
the Carthaginians." Metellus and his party yielded. Nor was it wholly
to fear that they yielded. It was to the influence of hope quite as
much as to that of fear. The courage, the energy, and the martial
ardor which Scipio's conduct evinced awakened a similar spirit in
them, and made them hope again that possibly their country might yet
be saved.

The news of the awful defeat and destruction of the Roman army flew
swiftly to Rome, and produced universal consternation. The whole city
was in an uproar. There were soldiers in the army from almost every
family, so that every woman and child throughout the city was
distracted by the double agitation of inconsolable grief at the death
of their husband or their father, slain in the battle, and of t