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country, disembarked on a part of the shore, so separated by a deep 

 stream formed by the violence of the floods from the main land, that 

 it appeared like another island. So high had risen the waters 

 which filled it, they had the utmost difficulty in finding any place 

 fordable either for the cavalry or infantry. At length, however, 

 they waded through it ; the former, with the water reaching up to 

 the necks of their horses ; the latter, buried breast-high in the waves. 

 Again formed in order of battle, and with equal celerity by the king 

 himself, as the troops successively ascended the bank, the horse, with 

 Alexander at their head, pressed on with rapidity to meet the foe ; 

 the foot being ordered to follow them leisurely, that their strength 

 might not be exhausted before they could get into action ; an 

 action, which, from every appearance, would be, in an extreme 

 degree, obstinate and bloody. 



In the mean time, the advanced guard of the enemy, arriving at 

 the camp of Porus, spread the alarm of Alexander's attempt to pass 

 the river near their post ; but the cautious Indian monarch, either 

 not believing their report or considering this as one of those in- 

 genious feints by which he had been so often imposed upon, con- 

 tented himself with sending his sou, at the head of two thousand 

 horse and one hundred and twenty armed chariots, to prevent his 

 landing. On approaching that part of the river, the young prince 

 was not a little astonished to find a landing already effected, and a 

 considerable detachment of the Macedonian army advancing to 

 give him battle ; for, Alexander retained the main body of the horse 

 with him for the greater and more decisive contest which he saw 

 must soon take place between himself and Porus, and he repressed 

 their ardour to engage, in order to give the infantry time to join him. 

 To this line of conduct he was induced by the supposition that 

 Porus, with his whole army, was following close in the rear of his 

 son's detachment; but being undeceived in that respect by the 



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