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Mardonius was slain, and the Persian camp stormed and plundered 

 of inestimable booty. This dreadful overthrow, being followed, on 

 the evening of the very same day, by the spirited attack made by 

 the Grecian naval force on the Persian entrenched camp and fleet 

 near the promontory of Mycale, on the coast of Ionia, whose 

 inhabitants, long grown impatient under the Persian despotism, had 

 broke out into general revolt, an attack in which the whole navy of 

 Persia was burnt, put an end to all future invasions of Greece by 

 the Persians, who never afterwards dared to appear on this side 

 the Hellespont. Xerxes, in every instance baffled and defeated, 

 returned precipitately to Susa, impressed with humbler notions of 

 the invincible power of the GREAT KING than he left it ; and found 

 how little avail, in the field, are myriad bands of slaves, who fight 

 for hire, when opposed to free-born men, who combat for virtue 

 and independance- In the hurry of his departure, however, he 

 forgot not to make a grand sacrifice at the shrine of the national 

 religion ; for, he issued positive orders for all the temples through- 

 out the Greek settlements in Asia that yet remained in subjection 

 to him, to be burned and levelled, which was rigidly performed in 

 every instance except that of the magnificent fane of Diana of 

 Ephesus*. The reader will now no longer remain in doubt as to 

 the real cause of the total silence or suppression of the Persian 

 annals concerning this reign and its disastrous events : those events, 

 however, are faithfully recorded by an historian whose fame bids 

 fair to be eternal, and on the elegant medals and sculptured monu- 

 ments of Greece, which, preserved with pious care in the cabinets 

 of taste and science, probably will only perish with the wreck of 

 nature. The rapid and disgraceful retreat of Xerxes from his 

 western frontier only served to inflame the courage and persevering 



* Herodot. lib. ix, cap. G9-JOO, ubi supra. 



