They became thicker, larger; black hillocks swayed to and fro; square thickets suddenly appeared; they were elephants and lances.

A single shout went up: "The Carthaginians!" and without signal or command the soldiers at Utica and those at the bridge ran pell-mell to fall in a body upon Hamilcar.
Spendius shuddered at the name.

"Hamilcar! Hamilcar!" he repeated, panting, and Matho was not there! What was to be done?
No means of flight! The suddenness of the event, his terror of the Suffet, and above all, the urgent need of forming an immediate resolution, distracted him; he could see himself pierced by a thousand swords, decapitated, dead.
Meanwhile he was being called for; thirty thousand men would follow him; he was seized with fury against himself; he fell back upon the hope of victory; it was full of bliss, and he believed himself more intrepid than Epaminondas.

He smeared his cheeks with vermilion in order to conceal his paleness, then he buckled on his knemids and his cuirass, swallowed a patera of pure wine, and ran after his troops, who were hastening towards those from Utica.
They united so rapidly that the Suffet had not time to draw up his men in battle array.

By degrees he slackened his speed.