it would only throw
itself, weak and defenseless, into the hands of the enemy. Hannibal,
therefore, waited until he had boats, rafts, and floats enough
constructed to carry over a force all together sufficiently numerous
and powerful to attack the enemy with a prospect of success.

The Romans, as we have already remarked, say that Hannibal was
cunning. He certainly was not disposed, like Alexander, to trust in
his battles to simple superiority of bravery and force, but was always
contriving some stratagem to increase the chances of victory. He did
so in this case. He kept up for many days a prodigious parade and
bustle of building boats and rafts in sight of his enemy, as if his
sole reliance was on the multitude of men that he could pour across
the river at a single transportation, and he thus kept their
attention closely riveted upon these preparations. All this time,
however, he had another plan in course of execution. He had sent a
strong body of troops secretly up the river, with orders to make their
way stealthily through the forests, and cross the stream some few
miles above. This force was intended to move back from the river, as
soon as it should cross the stream, and come down upon the enemy in
the rear, so as to attack and harass them there at the same time that
Hannibal was crossing with the main body of the army. If they
succeeded in crossing the river safely, they were to build a fire in
the woods, on the other side, in order that the column of smoke which
should ascend from it might serve as a signal of their success to
Hannibal.

This detachment was commanded by an officer named Hanno--of course a
very different man from Hannibal's great enemy of that name in
Carthage. Hanno set out in the night, moving back from the river, in
commencing his march, so as to be entirely out of sight from the Gauls
on the other side. He had some guides, belonging to the country, who
promised to show him a convenient place for crossing. The party went
up the river about twenty-five miles. Here they found a place where
the water spread to a greater width, and where the current was less
rapid, and the water not so deep. They got to this place in silence
and secrecy, their enemies below not having suspected any such design.
As they had, therefore, nobody to oppose them, they could cross much
more easily than the main army below. They made some rafts for
carrying over those of the men that could not swim, and such munitions