Page:History of Greece Vol VI.djvu/258

 236 HISTORY OF GREECE. full of water from the rain as to be hardly fordable, yet with thin ice on it also, from a previous frost: for the storm, which in other respects was the main help to their escape, here retarded their passage of the ditch by an unusual accumulation of water. It was not, however, until all had crossed except the defenders of the towers, who were yet descending and scrambling through, that the Peloponnesian reserve of three hundred were seen approaching the spot with torches. Their un- shielded right side was turned towards the ditch, and the Plataeans, already across and standing on the bank, immediately assailed them with arrows and javelins, in which the torches enabled them to take tolerable aim, while the Peloponnesians on their side could not distinguish their enemies in the dark, and had no previous knowledge of their position. They were thus held in check until the rearmost Plataeans had surmounted the difficulties of the passage : after which the whole body stole off as speedily as they could, taking at first the road towards Thebes, while their pursuers were seen with their torch-lights following the opposite direction, on the road which led by the heights called Dryos-Kephalaj to Athens : after having marched about three quarters of a mile on the road to Thebes, leaving the chapel of the Hero Androkrates on their right hand, the fugitives quitted it, and striking to the eastward towards Erythrae and Hysioe, soon found themselves in safety among the mountains which separate Boeotia from Attica at that point ; from whence they passed into the glad harbor and refuge of Athens. 1 Two hundred and twelve brave men thus emerged to life and liberty, breaking loose from that impending fate which too soon overtook the remainder, and preserving for futuro times the gen- uine breed and honorable traditions of Platasa. One man alone was taken prisoner at the brink of the outer ditch, while a few, who had enrolled themselves originally for the enterprise, lost courage and returned in despair even from th; foot of the inner wall; telling their comrades within that the whole band had perished. Accordingly, at daybreak, the PI? v,ans within sent out a herald to solicit a truce for burial of the ^vd bodies, and 1 Thucyd. Hi, 24. Diodorus (xii, 56) gives a brief v nary of these facts, without either novelty or liveliness.