“Now,” he said, “you see the truth of my words.  Hesitate any longer and all will be lost; but if you throw down your arms, and, leaving your captives behind, retire by the way you came, you are free to do so.  Hannibal has no desire for the blood of the Italian people.  He has come to free them from the yoke of Rome, and your treacherous chief, who, after our making an alliance with him, sold you to the Romans, has been slain, therefore I have no further ill will against you.”

The tribesmen, dismayed by the loss of their chief, and uncertain as to the strength of the foes who surrounded them, at once threw down their arms, and, glad to escape with their lives, fled at all speed up the pass towards their village, leaving their captives behind them.

The Carthaginians then descended, Trebon among them.

“I did not show myself, Malchus,” the latter said as he joined his friend, “for the chief knew me by sight, and I wished him to be uncertain whether we were not a fresh party who had arrived.”

“But who are your army?” Malchus asked; “you have astonished me as much as the barbarians.”

“There they are,” Trebon said, laughing, as some fifty or sixty women and a dozen old men and boys began to make their way down the hill.  “Fortunately the tribesmen were too much occupied with their plunder and you to pursue us, and I got down safely with my men.  I was, of course, determined to try to rescue you somehow, but did not see how it was to be done.  Then a happy thought struck me, and the next morning we rode down to the plain till we came to a walled village.  I at once summoned it to surrender, using threats of bringing up a strong body to destroy the place if they refused.  They opened the gates sooner than I had expected, and I found the village inhabited only by women, old men, and children, the whole of the fighting men having been called away to join the Romans.  They were, as you may imagine, in a terrible fright, and expected every one of them to be killed.  However, I told them that we would not only spare their lives, but also their property, if they would obey my orders.

“They agreed willingly enough, and I ordered all those who were strong enough to be of any good to take each sufficient provisions for a week and to accompany me.  Astonished as they were at the order, there was nothing for them to do but to obey, and they accordingly set out.  I found by questioning them that the road we had travelled was the regular one up to the village, and that you would be sure to be brought down by it if the chief intended to send you to Rome.