THE RETREAT OF THE TEN THOUSAND. 233

distance. Then under it appeared on the earth a
broad dark spot, which widened and deepened as it
came nearer, until at length armor began to shine
and spear-heads to glitter, and dense masses of troops
appeared beneath the cloud. Here were great troops
of cavalry, wearing white cuirasses; here a vast ar-
ray of bowmen with wicker shields, spiked so that
they could thrust their points into the ground and
send their arrows from behind them; there a dark
mass of Egyptian infantry, with long wooden shields
that covered the whole body; in front of all was a
row of chariots, with scythes stretching outward
from the wheels, so as to mow down the ranks
through which they were driven.

These scythed chariots faced the Greeks, whose
ranks they were intended to break. But when the
battle-shout was given, and the dense mass of Greeks
rushed forward at a rapid pace, the Persians before
them broke into a sudden panic and fled, the drivers
of the chariots leaping wildly to the ground and join-
ing in the flight. The horses, left to themselves,
and scared by the tumult, rushed in all directions,
many of them hurtling with their scythed chariots
through the flying host, others coming against the
Greeks, who opened their ranks to let them pass.
In that part of the field the battle was won without
a blow being struck or a man killed. The very
presence of the Greeks had brought victory.

The great Persian army would soon have been all
in flight but for an unlooked-for event. Artaxerxes,
in the centre of his army, was surrounded by a body-
guard of six thousand horse, Against these Cyrus,

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