s carried away all the rest.

The Barbarians had set themselves with their backs to a hillock in
the centre of the plain. They had no chance of conquering, or even of
surviving; but they were the best, the most intrepid, and the strongest.

The people from Carthage began to throw spits, larding-pins and hammers,
over the heads of the Numidians; those whom consuls had feared died
beneath sticks hurled by women; the Punic populace was exterminating the
Mercenaries.

The latter had taken refuge on the top of the hill. Their circle closed
up after every fresh breach; twice it descended to be immediately
repulsed with a shock; and the Carthaginians stretched forth their arms
pell-mell, thrusting their pikes between the legs of their companions,
and raking at random before them. They slipped in the blood; the steep
slope of the ground made the corpses roll to the bottom. The elephant,
which was trying to climb the hillock, was up to its belly; it seemed to
be crawling over them with delight; and its shortened trunk, which was
broad at the extremity, rose from time to time like an enormous leech.

Then all paused. The Carthaginians ground their teeth as they gazed at
the hill, where the Barbarians were standing.

At last they dashed at them abruptly, and the fight began again. The
Mercenaries would often let them approach, shouting to them that they
wished to surrender; then, with frightful sneers, they would kill
themselves at a blow, and as the dead fell, the rest would mount upon
them to defend themselves. It was a kind of pyramid, which grew larger
by degrees.

Soon there were only fifty, then only twenty, only three, and lastly
only two--a Samnite armed with an axe, and Matho who still had his
sword.

The Samnite with bent hams swept his axe alternately to the right and
left, at the same time warning Matho of the blows that were being aimed
at him. "Master, this way! that way! stoop down!"

Matho had lost his shoulder-pieces, his helmet, his cuirass; he was
completely naked, and more livid than the dead, with his hair quite
erect, and two patches of foam at the corners of his lips,--and his
sword whirled so rapidly that it formed an aureola around him. A
stone broke it near the guard; the Samnite was killed and the flood of
Carthaginians closed in, they touched Matho. Then he raised both his
empty hands towards heaven, closed his eyes, and, opening out his arms
like a man throwing himself from the summit of a pro