Page:History of Greece Vol VII.djvu/350

332 332 HISTORTt OF GREECE large city starved out by blockade. Many had little or no pro visions to carry, so low had the stock become reduced ; but of those who had, every man carried his own, even the horsemen and hoplites, now for the first time either already left without slaves, by desertion, or knowing that no slave could now be trusted. But neither such melancholy equality of suffering, nor the number of sufferers, counted for much in the way of allevia- tion. A downcast stupor and sense of abasement possessed every man ; the more intolerable, when they recollected the exit of the armament from Peirseus two years before, with_prayers, and sol- emn pasans, and all the splendid dreams of conquest, set against the humiliation of the closing scene now before them, without a single trireme left out of two prodigious fleets. But it was not until the army had actually begun its march that the full measure of wretchedness was felt and manifested. It was then that the necessity first became proclaimed, which no one probably spoke out beforehand, of leaving behind not merely the unburied bodies, but also the sick and the wounded. The scenes of woe which marked this hour passed endurance or description. The departing soldier sorrowed and shuddered with the sentiment of an unperformed duty, as he turned from the unburied bodies of the slain ; but far more terrible was the trial, when he had to tear himself from the living sufferers, who im- plored their comrades, with wailings of agony and distraction, not to abandon them. Appealing to all the claims of pious friend- ship, they clung round their knees, and even crawled along the line of march until their strength failed. The silent dejection of the previous day was now exchanged for universal tears and groans, and clamorous outbursts of sorrow, amidst which the army could not without the utmost difficulty be disengaged and put in motion. After such heart-rending scenes, it might seem that their cup of bitterness was exhausted ; but worse was yet in store, and the terrors of the future dictated a struggle against all the miseries of past and present. The generals did their best to keep up some sense of order as well as courage ; and Nikias, particularly, in this closing hour of his career, displayed a degree of energy and heroism which he had never before seemed to possess. Though himself among the greatest personal sufferers of all,