But they were animated by such rage that they
dashed themselves against it. The first were pierced to the backbone,
those coming next surged over them, and all fell back, leaving human
fragments and bloodstained hair on those horrible branches.
When their discouragement was somewhat abated, they made an examination
of the provisions. The Mercenaries, whose baggage was lost, possessed
scarcely enough for two days; and all the rest found themselves
destitute,--for they had been awaiting a convoy promised by the villages
of the South.
However, some bulls were roaming about, those which the Carthaginians
had loosed in the gorge to attract the Barbarians. They killed them with
lance thrusts and ate them, and when their stomachs were filled their
thoughts were less mournful.
The next day they slaughtered all the mules to the number of about
forty; then they scraped the skins, boiled the entrails, pounded the
bones, and did not yet despair; the army from Tunis had no doubt been
warned, and was coming.
But on the evening of the fifth day their hunger increased; they gnawed
their sword-belts, and the little sponges which bordered the bottom of
their helmets.
These forty thousand men were massed into the species of hippodrome
formed by the mountain about them.
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