Page:Xenophon by Alexander Grant.djvu/61

Rh was the emblem of home, or of easy access to their home. To be taken far up country, deep into the continent of Asia, had always hitherto been a thought of vague fear to the Greek soldier, while he was ready for anything within a short distance of the coast. No Greek force before the Ten Thousand had ever ventured anything like so far away from the Ægean; and they had gone not of deliberate purpose, but being lured on gradually under the influence of Cyrus. The silver gleam of the distant Euxine was to them the restoration of the object of long yearnings, and sudden relief and ecstasy found a vent in the spontaneous shout of Thalatta! and in passionate tears.

Full of the thoughts of fatherland, and "of child and wife and slave," all which had hitherto seemed so far but now so near, the Greeks pursued their course, and arrived at a stream separating them from the country of the Macrones, where they found a hostile array drawn up to oppose their crossing. But in the army was a soldier who belonged to this very tribe, from which he had been taken when a boy as a slave to Athens. He had not forgotten his native tongue, and was able to assure his people that the Greeks meant them no harm. So after mutual pledges of amity, the Macrones conducted them for three days through their land, to the boundaries of the Colchians.

Here on the pass over a lofty range a native force was stationed to meet them. The generals took counsel together as to the best means of conducting the attack; and it was decided not to attack in line,