The army was broken up and scattered among the various towns and villages, where the inhabitants vied with each other in attending to the comforts of the guests.

A fortnight's absolute rest, an abundance of food, and the consciousness that the worst of their labours was over, did wonders for the men.
Malchus had arrived in a state of extreme exhaustion, and had, indeed, been carried for the last two days of the march on the back of one of the elephants.

The company which he commanded no longer existed; they had borne far more than their share of the fatigues of the march; they had lost nearly half their number in the conflict among the precipices with the natives, and while the rest of the army had marched along a track where the snow had already been beaten hard by the cavalry in front of them, the scouts ahead had to make their way through snow knee deep.

Inured to fatigue and hardship, the Arabs were unaccustomed to cold, and every day had diminished their numbers, until, as they issued out into the plain, but twenty men of the company remained alive.
Hannibal committed his young kinsman to the care of one of the chiefs of the Insubres.

The latter caused a litter to be constructed by his followers, and carried the young Carthaginian away to his village, which was situated at the foot of the hills on the banks of the river Orcus.
Here he was handed over to the care of the women.