Eustace, John Cretwode: A classical tour through Italy An. MDCCCII (Vol. 1) (London: J. Mawman, 1815)

Ch. VI.

THROUGH ITALY.

241

looks and the voice of a Fury, led them on to a
fourth attack, when they rushed into the bed of
the river, and with horrible shouts and screams,
fell once more upon the enemy. Resistance was
now overpowered ; the French fled in confusion ;
the banks were strewed with bodies, and the
fields covered with fugitives. The consequence
of this victory was the immediate deliverance of
Italy from the insolence and the rapacity of the
French armies; a deliverance which, instead of
being a mere interval of repose, would perhaps
have been the commencement of a long era of
tranquillity, had the same spirit continued to
animate the armies, and the same union pre-
vailed in the cabinets of the confederates. But
this battle, however bloody and important, will
pass unnoticed, in the long register of contests
between different tribes of invading barbarians
perhaps the very names of the generals may
sink into oblivion, with the leaders of the Goths
and of the Vandals, of the Huns and of the
Lombards: while the “ Battle of Trebia” will
live for ever in the pages of Livy, the names of
Annibal and of Mago, of Scipio and of Seim
pronius, recorded both by the historian and by
the poet, will continue to delight the youthful
reader, and a thousand generations will con-
template with emotion,
Cannas et Trebiam ante oculos} Thrasimenaque busta.
* Sil. Ital, lib. xi. 345
VOL. I, K