134 HISTORICAL TALES.

slaughter. The Greek loss in dead was only one
hundred and ninety-two.

Yet, despite this signal victory, Greece was still
in imminent danger. Athens was undefended. The
fleeing fleet might reach and capture it before the
army could return. In truth, the ships had sailed in
this direction, and from the top of a lofty hill Mil-
tiades saw the polished surface of a shield flash in
the sunlight, and quickly guessed what it meant. It
was a signal made by some traitor to the Persian
fleet. Putting his army at once under march, despite
the weariness of the victors, he hastened back over
the long twenty-two miles at all possible speed, and
the worn-out troops reached Athens barely in time
to save it from the approaching fleet.

The triumph of Miltiades was complete. Only for
his quickness in guessing the meaning of the flashing
shield, and the rapidity of his march, all the results
of his great victory would have been lost, and Athens
fallen helpless into Persian arms. But Datis, finding
the city amply garrisoned, and baffled at every point,
turned his ships and sailed in defeat away, leaving
the Athenians masters of city and field.

And now the Spartans—to whom the full moon
had come too late—appeared, two thousand strong,
only in time to congratulate the victors and view the
dead Persians on the field. They had marched the
whole distance in less than three days. As for the
Athenian dead, they were buried with great cere-
mony on the plain where they fell, and the great
mound which covers them is visible there to this
day.