den attacks of the Saguntines several times drove
them far down the hillside, and enabled the besieged, with axe and fire,
to destroy much of the work which had been so labouriously carried out.

In one of these sorties Hannibal, who was continually at the front,
overlooking the work, was seriously wounded by a javelin in the thigh.
Until he was cured the siege languished, and was converted into a
blockade, for it was his presence and influence alone which encouraged
the men to continue their work under such extreme difficulties,
involving the death of a large proportion of those engaged. Upon
Hannibal's recovery the work was pressed forward with new vigour, and
the screens and towers were pushed on almost to the foot of the walls.
The battering rams were now brought up, and--shielded by massive
screens, which protected those who worked them from the darts and stones
thrown down by the enemy, and by lofty towers, from whose tops the
Carthaginian archers engaged the Saguntines on the wall--began their
work.

The construction of walls was in those days rude and primitive, and they
had little of the solidity of such structures in succeeding ages.
The stones were very roughly shaped, no mortar was used, and the
displacement of one stone consequently involved that of several others.
This being the case it was not long before the heavy battering rams of
the Carthaginians produced an effect on the walls, and a large breach
was speedily made. Three towers and the walls which connected them fell
with a mighty crash, and the besiegers, believing that the place was
won, advanced to the assault. But the Saguntines met them in the breach,
and for hours a desperate battle raged there.

The Saguntines hurled down upon the assailants trunks of trees bristling
with spearheads and spikes of iron, blazing darts and falariques--great
blocks of wood with projecting spikes, and covered thickly with a mass
of pitch and sulphur which set on fire all they touched. Other species
of falariques were in the form of spindles, the shaft wrapped round with
flax dipped in pitch. Hannibal fought at the head of his troops with
desperate bravery, and had a narrow escape of being crushed by an
enormous rock which fell at his feet; but in spite of his efforts
and those of his troops they were unable to carry the breach, and at
nightfall fell back to their camp, having suffered very heavy losses.

Singularly enough the French columns were repulsed in an e