Page:Xenophon by Alexander Grant.djvu/34

24 Greeks in the rear. On this Cyrus moved down upon him, and, charging fiercely with his 600 horse, broke through and routed the 6000 cavalry that formed the body-guard of the King, and killed their commander with his own hand. In the eagerness of pursuit his horsemen got dispersed, and only Cyrus, accompanied by a handful of men—chiefly those who were called his "table-companions"—bore straight on to the spot where Artaxerxes was exposed to view with a little band around him. Maddened with excitement, Cyrus cried out, "I see the man!" and, rushing at his brother, struck him an ill-aimed blow with his lance, wounding him slightly through the breastplate. At the same moment Cyrus himself was pierced by a javelin under the eye, and falling from his horse, was slain. Eight of his chiefs fell around him, and his faithful eunuch, seeing him fall, threw himself on the body, and clasping it in his arms, was put to death. The head and the right hand of Cyrus were cut off, and all his native troops, composing the left wing of the army, took to flight, and retreated to their camp of the night before, a distance of eight miles from the battle-field. Thus ended the battle of Cunaxa (September 3, 401 ) and the expedition of Cyrus.

At first sight there is a halo of romance over the whole enterprise, not unlike that which surrounds the ill-fated Rebellion of 1745. And as the generous impulses in our nature prompt us to take the side of a gallantly-maintained but unfortunate cause, so it is difficult not to sympathise with young Cyrus and his Greeks, as against the Persian King and his over-