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your prince. For, know, that thus far advanced towards the goal, I 

 will not relinquish the dazzling prize. I will march on at the head 

 of the more faithful Scythian and Bactrian forces in my train, and 

 lead them triumphantly over the rivers which you dread, and against 

 the armies and elephants which fill you with so much horror. 

 Those despised barbarians shall hereafter be the braver comrades of 

 Alexander. Return, ungenerous men ! and tell astonished, tell in- 

 dignant, Greece, that you have left your king surrounded with 

 dangers, and in the midst of his enemies." 



The soldiery were deeply agitated by this address, and felt the 

 keenness of these reproaches ; yet they were so exhausted with 

 recent fatigue, they were so impatient to return to their beloved 

 native soil, and were so terrified by the exaggerated accounts of the 

 Ganges and Gangaridae, that it was far from having the effect in- 

 tended. The whole assembly, therefore, still observed that pro- 

 found silence which is so much more expressive than any words. 

 Even the veteran officers of highest distinction and most in favour 

 with Alexander, though entirely agreeing in opinion with the great 

 body of the army, deterred by the dreadful fate of Clytus and 

 Calisthenes,whohad atoned for their unrestrained freedom of speech, 

 with their lives, for a long time refrained from expressing the senti- 

 ments of their hearts. The venerable Ccenus, at length, respectfully 

 rising in the midst of the assembly, addressed Alexander in substance 

 as follows : " It is with extreme reluctance, O king! that I rise to 

 return an answer not consonant to the wish of your address, because 

 I am one of those favoured officers most devoted to your service, 

 and who have shared most largely of your munificence. At my ad- 

 vanced age, men are indifferent to life ; I plead not for myself, but 

 for the army in general, whose united voice I am bound, by honour, 

 faithfully to declare. Of the numerous forces that originally march- 

 ed from Macedon on the Asiatic expedition, very few indeed remain 



