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tending princes were proportionate to its magnitude. In fortitude 

 and ardour of glory they were equal : in military talents Porus was 

 inferior; but it was only to Atexander. The former trusted for 

 success to heroic valour and physical strength ; the latter plainly 

 perceived, that, in this instance, at least, he could conquer only by 

 judicious manoeuvre. 



The two armies, thus arranged in view of each other on the op- 

 posite shores of the Hydaspes, had full leisure to weigh and deter- 

 mine on the plans of attack and defence which they meant 

 respectively to pursue. An attempt to pass a river so impetuous, 

 and effect a landing on a shore so steep and so well defended, in 

 open day, seemed to Alexander a hopeless task. It was only under 

 the cover of night, and in the confusion attendant on darkness, that 

 such an attempt was at all likely to prove successful ; at the same 

 time the king's great experience in the art of war, added to the 

 desire of preserving the lives of soldiers, so valuable and so necessary 

 to his future views, in a country where every rood of ground would 

 probably be disputed, taught him that the place of his encampment 

 was not the exact spot from which it should be made. But though 

 not proper for the real attempt, a feigned effort might be made there 

 with advantage, to cover and assist other efforts made elsewhere. 

 Fortunately for the accomplishment of this latter design, about one 

 hundred and fifty stadia, or nineteen miles, below that part of the 

 river where the channel takes a mighty sweep, there projected from 

 the shore a rocky promontory, overgrown with wood ; and, in a line 

 with this promontory, in the middle of the river, stood an uninhabited 

 island, also thickly interspersed with trees, in whose deep umbrage 

 the army, after landing, might lie concealed from the view of the 

 enemy. Having accurately surveyed this spot and formed his reso- 

 lution, Alexander returned to his camp. And now, in execution of 

 his concerted scheme, night after night, the trumpets were sounded, 



