ASSAGE OF THE

PASSAGE

BY HANNIBAL AND

T would not be a very difficult matter now-a-days to take an army, if not over, at least through the Alps. It is, then, a striking proof of the advance of engineering skill in recent years to note that though Hannibal and his army crossed the Alps two thousand years ago, and Napoleon and his army crossed these mountains at the beginning of the present century, they had much the same difficulties to contend with; or, rather, they had much the same means of overcoming these difficulties.

Whereas to-day all is changed.

We shall now give a brief account of these. The first expedition was a part of the second Punic War between the Carthaginians and the Romans.

"The Carthaginians trusted the management of it, on their side, to Hannibal, the son of Hamilcar. This extraordinary man had been made the sworn foe of Rome almost from his infancy; for, while yet very young, his father brought him before the altar, and obliged him to take an oath that he never would be in friendship with the Romans, nor desist from opposing their power, until he or they should be no more. On his first appearance in the field, he reconciled, in his own person, the most just method of commanding, with the most perfect obedience to his superiors. Thus, he was equally beloved by his generals, and the troops he was appointed to lead. He was possessed of the greatest courage in opposing danger, and the greatest presence

of mind in retiring from it. No fatigue was able to subdue his body, nor any misfortune to break his spirit; equally patient of heat and cold, he took sustenance only to content nature, and not to delight his appetite. He was the best horseman and the swiftest runner of his time. This great general, who is considered as the most skilful of antiquity, having overrun all Spain, and levied a large army of various languages and nations, resolved to carry the war into Italy itself, as the Romans had before carried it into the dominions of Carthage. For this purpose, leaving a sufficient force with Hanno to guard his conquests in Spain, he crossed the Pyrenean mountains into Gaul, with an army of fifty thousand foot, and nine thousand horse. He quickly traversed that country, which was then wild and extensive, and filled with nations that were his declared enemies. In vain its forests and rivers appeared to intimidate him; in vain the Rhone, with its rapid current, and its banks covered with enemies, or the Dura, branched out into numberless channels, opposed his way; he passed them all with perseverance, and, in ten days, arrived at the foot of the Alps, over which he was to explore a new passage into Italy. It was in the midst of winter when this astonishing project was undertaken. The season added new horrors to a scene that nature had already crowded with objects of dismay. The prodigious height and tremendous steepness of the mountains, capped with snow, the people barbarous and fierce, dressed in skins, with long and shaggy hair, presented a picture that impressed the beholders with astonishment and terror. But nothing was capable of subduing the courage of the

Carthaginian general; for, at the end of fifteen days, spent in crossing the Alps, he found himself in the plains of Italy, with about half his army remaining, the rest having died of the cold, or been cut off by the natives."

The difficulties had indeed been prodigious. In order to open passages he had kindled vast fires against the rocks, which were then deluged with vinegar. This treatment it is said caused them to split into fragments, and thu's open a way. He had many elephants with him when he started, but of these only one survived. Hannibal did not spare himself, as is proved by the fact that he lost the use of one of his eyes from the exposure to which he was subjected.

We pass now over two thousand years to give a brief account of the crossing of the Alps by Napoleon, as a prelude to an attack on the allies in Italy.

"Bonaparte, trusting to the resources of his invincible mind, promised his troops, at Dijon, that in two decades they should be at Milan; and, incredible to relate! he performed his promise, after a series of difficulties such as were never before, in so short a time, surmounted by human strength. The park of artillery was assembled at St. Pierre, and the mind which had conceived the project of its passage, had also provided the means. The great guns were dismounted, placed in hollow trees, and dragged by a certain number of soldiers in proportion to their weight; the wheels were carried over men's shoulders, upon poles; the axle-trees and empty waggons were placed upon hurdles, constructed at Auxonne for the purpose; and mules were loaded with the ammunition, put into boxes of fir. Five hundred livres was promised to the men who conveyed each cannon and its waggon, which, when offered to them, they nobly refused; and the rest of the baggage belonging to the army was conveyed by the soldiers. The path across the mountain, in many parts, was

so narrow that there was not room for more than one man to go at once, without the danger of being buried in the snow. Such was the effect of fatigue, that they frequently, when almost exhausted, dipped their biscuit in the snowwater, and found it a delicious morsel; on their arrival at the convent of the great St. Bernard, each man received a glass of wine, which proved an excellent refreshment. They had then eighteen miles to descend, till they passed the steepest part of the mountain; and here the greatest difficulty commenced. At every step they met with immense chasms, formed by the snow which had melted. The horses were, with extreme care, hardly kept from slipping; and the men, notwithstanding all their precaution, could with difficulty hold their feet, so as to preserve themselves and their horses in the path, and prevent their being precipitated together into the gulf beneath. Bonaparte himself sat down, sliding for about two hundred feet, while his aidesde-camp went before him. At the top of this immense mountain the cold completely destroys all vegetation, and not even a bird is to be seen; one vast. monotonous, dismal prospect extends itself all around, of ice and rocks; no sound is to be heard but that of hail, wind, and falling snow, falling in immense masses piled up by the hand of nature, which hang from the rocks in frightful suspense, and when they fall, overwhelm everything beneath to the extent of many acres.

The strong fortress of Bard, situated in the midst of rocks and precipices, yet remained to impede the progress of the army; but Bonaparte, to whom nothing was impossible, determined upon taking it, and, after immense difficulty and fatigue on the part of the assailants, the fortress at length surrendered; the general himself was at one time so worn out that he laid down upon the ground and slept for two hours, and the troops

filed past him, making as little noise as possible, lest they should disturb his

repose.

No epic poetry ever contained more wonders than Bonaparte realised in his second conquest of Italy; the passage of his army over the great St. Bernard was almost miraculous. Hannibal was fifteen days in performing the third part of what Bonaparte performed in five;

and Hannibal had no heavy artillery to convey, though he had another difficulty to contend with, not less severe, which was the opposition of the inhabitants, who perpetually assailed his army." But Hannibal and Bonaparte were both men of superior talents, and there is no need to exalt the one by a comparison with the other, as certain injudicious historians have done.

ASSAS

ULIUS CÆSAR, of all men who have taken part in the history of our planet during the time of its recorded history, was perhaps the very greatest. He conquered the nation that had conquered the world, for with him the Roman Republic comes to an end, and the Roman Empire begins. He was the centre figure of the world's history at one of its most critical periods. And yet this all powerful man was struck down at the height of his power by the conspiracy of a few comparatively insignificant men. Even Brutus would be but little known had he not aimed his dagger at the heart of Cæsar. It is the strange circumstances of his death that give such a powerful interest to Cæsar's story. The greatest writers of the world have exerted their powers to portray the final scenes. Our own Shakespeare has told the story in one of the greatest of his historical pieces. How many painters, too, have depicted that last scene, where Cæsar was stretched lifeless at the foot of Pompey's statue!

Let us once more narrate the chief points in this marvellous story.

JULIUS CESAR.

"Cæsar having been made perpetual dictator, and received from the senate accumulated honours, it began to be rumoured that he intended to make himself king; and, though in fact he was possessed of the power, the people, who had an utter aversion to the name, could not bear his assuming the title. Whether he really designed to assume the title is doubtful; but at the celebration of the Lupercalia, a pastoral feast in honour of Pan, Cæsar, in a triumphal robe, seated himself in a golden chair upon the rostra, to see the ceremony. From previous arrangement, as it was conjectured, Antony offered him diadem wreathed with laurel. Cæsar refused this crown, on which a shout of applause was raised. of applause was raised. As the sports went on, Antony offered it a second time, and Cæsar again refused it. The acclamations that then followed were loud and general, and no doubt had the effect of showing Cæsar how dangerous his acceptance of it would have proved. It is said, however, that the mortification he felt on this discovery was evident to every one.

This alarmed certain of the Romans, and so a deep conspiracy was laid against him, composed of not fewer than sixty senators. They were still the more formidable, as the generality

a

transmitted with the blood of his ancestors down to him. But though he detested tyranny, yet he could not forbear loving the tyrant, from whom he had received the most signal benefits.

The conspirators, to give a colour of justice to their proceedings, remitted the execution of their design to the Ides of March, the day on which Cæsar was to be offered the crown. The augurs had foretold that this day would be fatal to him; and the night preceding he heard his wife, Calphurnia, lamenting in her

to the senate-house, a slave, who hastened to him with information of the conspiracy, attempted to come near him, but could not for the crowd. Artemidorus, a Greek philosopher, who had discovered the whole plot, delivered him a memorial containing the heads of the information; but Cæsar gave it no special heed soon as he had taken his place in the senate house, the conspirators came near him, and Cimber, who was one of them, approached in a suppliant posture, pretending to sue for his brother's pardon