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and the shouts, as of cavalry attempting to ford the river in the face 

 of the enemy, were every where heard, and not only kept the 

 enemy in a perpetual state of alarm and suspense, but exhausted 

 them by incessant vigils. Porus perceiving, at length, that these, 

 were only feints intended to deceive and harass him, ceased to pay 

 an} r particular attention to these nightly alarms ; yet still he relaxed 

 not from the general vigilance which should pervade a well-ordered 

 camp. The Indian monarch being, by this stratagem, lulled into a 

 kind of partial security, Alexander proceeded to the accomplishment 

 of his project. He selected, for the purpose, a strong body of 

 cavalry, in which he knew the inferiority of his enemy, together 

 with the foreign mercenaries and some light-armed battalions, best 

 calculated to act with the celerity and vigour requisite on this occa- 

 sion. Craterus was left on the spot in command of the remaining 

 cavalry, the Macedonian phalanx and the Indian auxiliaries under 

 Taxiles, with orders to continue at night the usual noises, but not to 

 move till he himself, by engaging the enemy on the opposite shore, 

 had drawn off the elephants that lined it, in which case, the cavalry 

 and the whole remainder of the army were immediately, and at 

 every hazard, to force the passage. 



Alexander having taken these precautions, and ordered the impe- 

 rial tent, conspicuous from its loftiness and splendor, to remain 

 standing, surrounded with his guards, as if he himself were still 

 present, marched off, at the dusk of eve, by a circuitous route at 

 some distance from the bank, to the rocky eminence in question. 

 When arrived at about nine miles, or half the distance from the 

 camp to the rock, he stationed there Meleager, Attains, and Gorgias, 

 with the foreign mercenaries, ordering them the instant, that, on the 

 following morning, they observed the hostile armies on the opposite 

 side in motion, they should embark in the vessels, which, silently 

 gliding under cover of the night, had attended their progress down 



Vol. in. 2 M 



