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

562 EXTRAORDINARY LOSSES.The battle had lasted eight hours, and had been won byclean,crisp, tactical skill and wonderful use of the cavalryarm.Perhaps no parallel can be found to such able, persistentand effective handling of horse. Alexander is above allothers the pattern of a cavalry general. The conception ofCoenus' ride around the enemy's right and rear was bold, andin execution most brilliant. No cavalry officer, on the fieldof battle, ever performed a more dasliing, clear-headed andsplendid feat of arms. All Alexander's dispositions in thisbattle were masterly. He had left in his canij) so large and.excellent a force that his retreat was fully protected in caseof disaster to the force in hand ;he had abundant reserves inthe brigades of Meleager, Attains and Gorgias, though theseindeed seem to have been tardy in crossing ;and his aj^preciationof what himself and Coenus could do on the level plainin which Porus had drawn up his army was full of theintellectualstrength which wins the world's great victories. Itmay perhaps be said that Alexander's crossing with but fourteenthousand men to attack an army of nearly thrice thenumber savored of foolhardiness. It was certainly the reasonwhy the battle lasted so long, and cost so heavily in kiUedand wounded.But this habit of taking risks was part of Alexander'snature, and success has always been held to justifyxisk in all but the exceptional cases.Craterus now came up, having, though in face of the enemy,crossed the river successfully ;and the other troops lefton the farther side under Meleager, Attains and Gorgias alsoput in an appearance, and not only made the victory a certainone, but undertook the pursuit instead of Alexander's tiredmen. Of Porus' army nearly twenty thousand infantry andthree thousand cavalry were lost ;or according to Diodorus,twelve thousand were killed and nine thousand captured.Their chariots were all broken to pieces, having been a hin-