The soldiers who were standing on the doors slipped into the abyss, or else held on to the extremities of the long beams, and by their weight increased the inclination of the helepolis, which was going to pieces with creakings in all its joints.
The other Barbarians rushed up to help them, massing themselves into a compact crowd.

The Carthaginians descended from the rampart, and, assailing them in the rear, killed them at leisure.

But the chariots furnished with sickles hastened up, and galloped round the outskirts of the multitude.

The latter ascended the wall again; night came on; and the Barbarians gradually retired.
Nothing could now be seen on the plain but a sort of perfectly black, swarming mass, which extended from the bluish gulf to the purely white lagoon; and the lake, which had received streams of blood, stretched further away like a great purple pool.
The terrace was now so laden with corpses that it looked as though it had been constructed of human bodies.

In the centre stood the helepolis covered with armour; and from time to time huge fragments broke off from it, like stones from a crumbling pyramid.