Page:A Comprehensive History of India Vol 1.djvu/62

 28 IILSTOKY OF INDIA. [Book I.

B.C. 327. the course of reconnoitring, Alexander luul di.scovered a Hj)ot where the cliannel

was greatly contracted by an island. It was a good way nj> the stream, and, to Alexander's lull suspicion, nonc of his troops were allowed to be seen near it Craterus was stationed considerably below, with the main body of the army; and Poru.s, think- ing that there tlie greatest danger lay, was encamped oj»i)Osite to him. Alexan- der, selecting a body of chosen troops, amounting U) about 6000 men, quitted the banks of the river and marched back into the interior, as if he ha/1 been called away by some sudden emergency. When out of sight he bent gradually round, and in the course of the night arrived on the bank opposite the island. The boats of the Indus were hastily launched, and he was steering his way among the foremost to tlie opposite bank, when the enemy's sentinels discovered him and gave the alarm. Porus first sent forward one of his sons with a small body, but these being speedily routed, he himself, leaving only a few troops to watch the motions of Craterus, hastened to the encounter. It was too late. Alexan- der, with a large portion of his detachment, had effected a landing, and stood on the bank among marshes, into which the elephants, to which Porus mainly trusted, could not venture. He therefore withdrew to the nearest spot of solid ground, and calmly waited Alexander's approach. As this is the first battle- field in which the soldiers of Europe were arrayed against those of India, a deep interest naturally attaches to all its arrangements, and will justify a fuller detail than might have been necessary under different circumstances. Battle of the Porus stationed his elephants in front, with an interval of 100 feet between Hydaspes. q^q]^ q^ them. The infantry were placed in a second line behind the elephants, and in such a way as to fill up the intervals. The two "wings consisted of cavalry, and of the chariots ranged on either side beyond them. Alexander commenced the battle by attacking the enemy's left wing with his cavalry and mounted archers. He had anticipated that this attack would compel the enemy's right wing to move forward in support of its left, and had ordered that, in that case, a detachment of his cavalry under Ccenus should move round to the rear, and thus place the enemy's cavalry, as it were, between two fir&s. The result was as he had foreseen ; and the enemy's cavalry was obliged, in order to meet the double attack, to face about and form two fi-onts. Taking advantage of the partial confusion thus produced, Alexander brought up his phalanx to the charge, and the enemy's wing.s, totally imable to sustain it, sought .shelter by rushing into the intervals between the elephants. By these powerful animals the fortune of the day seemed for a short time to be retrieved, as they pressed forward and trampled down everything that opposed. The advantage, however, was only momentary. The Macedonians, imder thorough discipline, opened their ranks, and then, as the elephants passed, attacked them on flank and rear, shooting down their guides, and inflicting wounds which, without being mortal, so galled them that they became utterly unmanageable. Thus hunied back among the Indian ranks, they produced irremediable confusion. At this critical