212 HISTORICAL TALES.

rain and covered with thin ice. Yet they scrambled
through at, and when the three hundred of the outer
guard approached with torches, they suddenly found
themselves assailed with arrows and javelins from a
foe invisible in the darkness.. They were thus kept
back till the last Platesan had crossed the ditch, when
the bold fugitives marched speedily away, leaving
but one of their number a prisoner in the hands of
the foe.

They first marched towards Thebes, while their
pursuers took the opposite direction. Then they
turned, struck eastward, entered the mountains, and
finally—two hundred and twelve in number—made
their way safely to Athens, to tell their families and.
aNies the thrilling story of their escape.

A few who lost. heart returned from the inner wall
to the town, and told those within that the whole
band had perished. The truth was only learned
within the town when on the next morning a herald
was sent out to solicit a truce for burial of the dead
bodies. The herald brought back the glad tidings
that there were no.dead to bury, that the whole bold
band had escaped.

Happy had it been for the remaining garrison had
they also fled, even at the risk of death. With the
provisions left they held out till the next summer,
when they were forced to yield. In the end, after
the form of a trial, they were all slaughtered by their
foes, and the city itself was razed to the ground by
its Theban enemies, only the Hereum, or temple of
Here, being left. Such was the fate of a city to
which eternal sacredness had been pledged.