Alexander : a history of the origin and growth of the art of war from ...

HIS CHANCES. 405ins: out of his men. He had made half the distance. Thebalance could probably have been made during the remainderof the long winter night, had not his path been cut by a deepand apparently impassable ravine which he had to wait tilldaylight to find a means of crossing. He then ascertainedthat it was readily got around.He was now on the north slope of the range. Before himlay stretched out the plain, across which beyond the Araxeswas Persepolis ;behind hira the range he must cross to reachAriobarzanes' rear. He was in perilous case. His own armywas cut up into small detachments, by the circumstances ofthe march and check ; the barbarians were all in one body.Nothing but good fortune and a complete surprise ofthe enemycould save him from annihilation. The least failure, orwhat elsewhere would be but a small disaster, must proveutter ruin. But in this direction lay his only chance. Nothingexcept retreat or this was left. He might have held themouth of the defile against Ariobarzanes with a small forcehave returned down the mountain ; have followed Parmenio,and thus taken the Persians in a trap. Or he coukl marchon this side the range, direct to Persepolis, but only by bridgingthe Araxes. Time was precious. If Ariobarzanes shouldguess his intention, and either manoeuvre was perhaps a matterof several days, he might speedily retire to Persepolis,which he could reach by the main road long before Alexander.And the thing the king most wanted was to reach thiscity before its treasury could be rifled, or its wallsstate of defense.put into aMoreover, either of these plans would necessitatethe leaving the bodies of the men slain in front of thedefile to lie without burial, a thing Alexander was loath to do.With his usual grit he embraced the danger. He hadmarched all night in single file where there were no roads,over treacherous snow. The men strode on, hushed into