hey were carried away with increased fury and joy.
Several, from laziness or prudence, had remained on the threshold of the
pass. But some cavalry, debouching from a wood, beat them down upon
the rest with blows of pike and sabre; and soon all the Barbarians were
below in the plain.

Then this great human mass, after swaying to and fro for some time,
stood still; they could discover no outlet.

Those who were nearest to the pass went back again, but the passage had
entirely disappeared. They hailed those in front to make them go on;
they were being crushed against the mountain, and from a distance they
inveighed against their companions, who were unable to find the route
again.

In fact the Barbarians had scarcely descended when men who had been
crouching behind the rocks raised the latter with beams and overthrew
them, and as the slope was steep the huge blocks had rolled down
pell-mell and completely stopped up the narrow opening.

At the other extremity of the plain stretched a long passage, split in
gaps here and there, and leading to a ravine which ascended to the upper
plateau, where the Punic army was stationed. Ladders had been placed
beforehand in this passage against the wall of cliff; and, protected by
the windings of the gaps, the velites were able to seize and mount them
before being overtaken. Several even made their way to the bottom of the
ravine; they were drawn up with cables, for the ground at this spot was
of moving sand, and so much inclined that it was impossible to climb
it even on the knees. The Barbarians arrived almost immediately. But
a portcullis, forty cubits high, and made to fit the intervening space
exactly, suddenly sank before them like a rampart fallen from the skies.

The Suffet's combinations had therefore succeeded. None of the
Mercenaries knew the mountain, and, marching as they did at the head
of their columns, they had drawn on the rest. The rocks, which were
somewhat narrow at the base, had been easily cast down; and, while
all were running, his army had raised shouts, as of distress, on the
horizon. Hamilcar, it is true, might have lost his velites, only half of
whom remained, but he would have sacrificed twenty times as many for the
success of such an enterprise.

The Barbarians pressed forward until morning, in compact files, from one
end of the plain to the other. They felt the mountain with their hands,
seeking to discover a passage.

At last day broke; and they per