CHAPTER XXXII
THE WORLD AT STAKE
With the sea on their left and the mountain cliffs on their right,Clearchus and Nathan rode on either side of Chares in the front rank ofthe squadron of Companion cavalry commanded by Leonidas. The crispNovember air and the excitement of the coming battle made their bloodtingle and raised their spirits to a pitch of reckless gayety. TheSpartan rode in advance, without turning his head or moving a muscleunder the fire of jokes that Chares directed at him.
Presently the cliffs ended and the mountain barrier curved away inland,leaving a plain of greensward and shingle, flooded with sunlight.
"There they are!" Clearchus cried eagerly.
Straight before them, perhaps three miles away, they saw a confusedmass of gleaming banners and the glint of countless spears. Theshallow Pinarus, flowing down from the mountains, rippled across thelevel, and on its further bank, where the ground was high, the GreatKing had taken his stand. For a mile and a half, from the hills to thesea, the plain was blocked by a living rampart, gay with the pomp ofOriental splendor.
As the squadrons of Macedonian cavalry emerged from the pass, theywheeled to the right and formed their line close to the lower slopes ofthe mountain.
"Here come the men of Thessaly," Chares cried.
Their plumes fluttering in the breeze, the Thessalian horse poured outof the pass and ranged themselves behind the Companions.
Then the phalanx appeared, marching rank after rank, with the precisionof a machine. The lancers under Protomachus and Aristo's Paeonians, whohad been thrown forward in advance of the cavalry, raised a shout asthe scarred veterans, each holding his long sarissa erect and bearinghis heavy shield across his shoulder, followed the proud Agema.
While the phalanx was forming on the left of the cavalry there was amovement among the Persians.
"They are coming!" Chares shouted.
Clearchus and Nathan saw a large body of horse and foot advance acrossthe river. Although in numbers they exceeded the entire Macedonianarmy, their departure from the main body of the Persians seemed to makeno diminution in its size. They halted as soon as they had crossed thestream and from the host beyond came the bray of trumpets and thehoarse murmur of many voices.
"They are taking their positions," Nathan said. "They will not attack."
His conjecture proved correct, for in half an hour the troops that hadadvanced fell back again across the river through openings that hadbeen left for them in the wings of the main force, and the glitteringfront of the Persian army was revealed, drawn up in battle array.
The Macedonians had continued to advance slowly across the plain,forming as they went, so that only half a mile now separated them fromthe Persians. Nathan's eyes sought the centre of the enemy's line.
"There he is!" he exclaimed, pointing with his finger.
Clearchus followed the direction he indicated and saw a blotch ofvariegated color, above which fluttered many standards.
"Who is it?" he asked.
"Darius," Nathan replied. "You can see his Medean robe ofpurple--there, just beneath that golden banner."
"What troop is that about him?" inquired Chares.
"They are the princes and the nobles of the court," the Israeliteanswered. "Oxathres, the Great King's brother commands them."
"I wonder whether Phradates is there!" Clearchus said.
"I hope so!" Chares exclaimed, in a voice that came from his heart.
"There, in front of Darius, are his Greek mercenaries," Nathancontinued. "Leonidas told the truth when he said there were thirtythousand of them. Those heavy-armed troops on each side of the centreare the Cardaces. And, look, there is the cavalry, there on the beach.That is the flower of the Persian army. Nabazarnes leads it."
"We met some of those blossoms at the Granicus," Chares remarked. "Itdid not take them long to wither; but there is a whole garden of themyonder, and our line seems rather slender compared with theirs."
The Persian horse was massed on the smooth, hard beach in an enormouswedge which looked as though it might be able, by weight alone, toscatter the squadrons of Greek cavalry under Parmenio which wereopposing it on the left wing of the Macedonian army. Evidently thisdiscrepancy had struck the attention of Alexander, for, while Charesspoke, the Thessalians quietly left their places in the line andtrotted around behind the phalanx to reenforce the allies.
"There goes the sickle that will reap the roses of Darius," Charessaid, gazing after them longingly. "Ph[oe]bus! I wish I were withthem!"
"You will find plenty to do here," Clearchus said. "There are a fewmen over there on the hill who will have to be cared for."
He pointed to the slope on the right, where some twenty thousand of theCardaces were drawn up, far in advance of the Persian line, near thefoot of the mountain.
"They intend to try our flank when we advance," the Theban observed."I didn't know the Persians had so much sense."
"They are going to get a little exercise first," Clearchus said as theflare of trumpets sounded down the line.
Immediately a body of light-armed foot-soldiers and cavalry detacheditself from the right wing and advanced up the hill toward theCardaces. The eyes of both armies were upon them and a cheer ran alongthe Macedonian ranks, from the hillside to the sea.
The Cardaces wavered slightly. They had evidently not expected soprompt an attack. The leaders of the Macedonian force could be seenriding or running in advance of the various divisions, and the menfollowed as steadily as though the charge were merely an exercisedrill. They paused to send a flight of arrows and stones among theCardaces, who, being armed only with lances and swords, had no means ofreplying. To charge down the hill meant that they would be annihilatedby the Macedonian army. To remain where they were was to be slainpiecemeal by the darts and arrows. They began to retire slowly upwardout of the zone of fire.
Their retreat was greeted from the Macedonian lines by a roar thatsounded like the booming of the surf upon the rocks. The peltasts andarchers continued to press them until they had been forced into aposition where they were no longer a menace to the rear of the army.The light-armed troops were then recalled, leaving two squadrons ofCompanions, containing about three hundred men, to hold the twentythousand in check if they should attempt a charge. They performed thetask imposed upon them. Nothing more was heard of the isolatedCardaces that day.
As the detachment returned down the hill and resumed its place in theranks, the commotion in the long, thin line that stretched away to thesea gradually ceased. The soldiers stood motionless behind theircaptains.
Alexander, riding Bucephalus, gave his final commands to Parmenio onthe beach where the Thessalians waited with the allied cavalry to meetthe attack of the Persian horse. Then he turned and came slowly upalong the line, drawing rein here and there to speak a word ofconfidence and encouragement. His double white plume floated over hisshoulders, and the sunlight flashed upon his coat of mail.
When he reached the right wing he addressed the Companions with hisfamiliar smile.
"Do not forget," he said, "that a part of your accustomed duty is toset an example to the rest. I shall lead the Agema. Keep near me, forI may need you. Whether we win or lose, let it be with glory."
He turned his face toward the Persians and scanned with care the densemasses of troops who stood waiting beyond the Pinarus, in lines so deepthat he could not see their rear. His eyes lingered upon the centre,where Darius, his rival for the mastery of the world, was standing. Onthe left of the Great King, the course of the stream bent backward, andthe formation of the Persian army followed its course. The left of theGreek mercenaries, upon whom Darius relied to win the battle, rested inthis elbow of the river.
"There is the vital spot," Alexander said. "If we can gain a footholdon that bank, have no fear of what may happen elsewhere. It will beeasier than it was at the Granicus."
"The cavalry is coming," said Clitus, pointing toward the beach.
Alexand
er turned and saw the gayly caparisoned squadrons of the Persianright dashing into the river. The foam splashed about the knees of thehorses and a forest of lances waved and tossed in the air.
"There is work for Parmenio," the young king remarked as the head ofthe column gained the shore.
He glanced once more along the Persian front, but the movement on thebeach did not extend to the main force. It was clear that Dariusintended to compel him to begin the infantry battle.
Alexander cantered down to the right of the phalanx, where hedismounted and placed himself at the head of the Agema. On the beachthe Thessalians met the shock of the tremendous body of cavalry thathad been launched against them. The impact bore them back, but eventhat rushing avalanche of horses and men could not break them. Itdashed against their wall of steel, recoiled, and rolled on again, insuccessive waves, continually strengthened from the rear as freshsquadrons crossed the stream.
The Macedonian line quivered with eagerness. A page darted fromAlexander's side along the front of the phalanx and spoke a word toPtolemy, son of Lagus. Another sped to the Companions.
"Advance," he cried, "and charge when the king leads! This is theorder!"
"Here we go!" cried Chares, clapping Nathan on the back with a blowthat nearly hurled him from his horse. "Stick to Leonidas! He willfind the best of the fighting for us, or we will drown him in theriver!"
"The phalanx is moving!" Clearchus cried with shining eyes.
A dull throbbing beat through the air and the heavy centre startedslowly forward, each man touching the arm of his neighbor and keepingstep in parade order. The cadence of voices began to mingle with thedrum beat and the wild music of the trumpets.
As they advanced, Clearchus gazed eagerly at the Persian line, everynerve stretched to the point of physical pain. He saw in the centrethe ranks of the Greek mercenaries, ten times as deep as those of thephalanx, standing grim and motionless, in strange contrast with therestless flutter of the heterogeneous masses that surrounded them onthree sides. He blushed to think that, when Persia stood at bay,Greeks could be found to range themselves with her against their owncountry. The thought passed through his mind that Alexander was rightafter all, and that Demosthenes and those who aided him to fan theflame of hostility to Macedon at home were really acting the part oftraitors, not only to Athens, but to all Greece.
He turned his eyes to Alexander, whose plumes shone in the front rankof the Agema. This had now almost reached the Pinarus. Suddenly fromthe phalanx rose the deep-toned paean, summoning the Gods of Hellas toprotect their own. The mighty chant drowned the throbbing of the drumsand the uproar of the battle on the beach. As it rose and swelled, itfilled the plain and rolled back in echoes from the mountain sides.There was something in it stern and inflexible, that thrilledClearchus' heart and lifted him to the plane of self-forgetfulness.
The Agema reached the river. The paean gave way to a wild shout as theslow advance of the phalanx changed to a rush, and the Macedonian linedashed into the rain of javelins, darts, and arrows that was pouredupon it from the Persian side of the stream.