the omen was
adverse, and not propitious, for it was one of the fundamental
principles of haruspicial science that lightning made sacred whatever
it touched. It was forbidden even to step upon the ground where a
thunder-bolt had fallen; and they ought to consider, therefore, that
the descent of the lightning upon Sparta, as figured to Pyrrhus in the
dream, was intended to mark the city as under the special protection
of heaven, and to warn the invaders not to molest it. Finding thus
that the story of his vision produced a different effect from the one
he had intended, Pyrrhus changed his ground, and told his generals
that no importance whatever was to be attached to visions and dreams.
They might serve, he argued, very well to amuse the ignorant and
superstitious, but wise men should be entirely above being influenced
by them in any way. "You have something better than these things to
trust in," said he. "You have arms in your hands, and you have Pyrrhus
for your leader. This is proof enough for you that you are destined to
conquer."

How far these assurances were found effectual in animating the courage
of the generals we do not know; but the result did not at all confirm
Pyrrhus's vain-glorious predictions. During the first part of the day,
indeed, he made great progress, and for a time it appeared probable
that the city was about to fall into his hands. The plan of his
operations was first to fill up the ditch which the Spartans had made;
the soldiers throwing into it for this purpose great quantities of
materials of every kind, such as earth, stones, fagots, trunks of
trees, and whatever came most readily to hand. They used in this work
immense quantities of dead bodies, which they found scattered over the
plain, the results of the conflict of the preceding day. By means of
the horrid bridging thus made, the troops attempted to make their way
across the ditch, while the Spartans, formed on the top of the
rampart of earth on the inner side of it, fought desperately to repel
them. All this time the women were passing back and forth between them
and the city, bringing out water and refreshments to sustain the
fainting strength of the men, and carrying home the wounded and dying,
and the bodies of the dead.

[Illustration: THE CHARGE.]

At last a considerable body of troops, consisting of a division that
was under the personal charge of Pyrrhus himself, succeeded in
breaking through the Spartan lines, at a point nea