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Effectually to accomplish what he resolutely designed, Alexander 

 having first ordered the forces under Philip, together with the 

 elephants, to be transported across the Hydaspes, now made a four- 

 fold division of his army. He commanded Hephaestion, with the 

 first of those divisions, to proceed five days march before the others. 

 Ptolemy, the son of Lagos, with the second, was ordered to follow, 

 at the distance of three days march, in the rear. He sent Craterus 

 and Philip towards the point of junction of the two rivers ; and lie 

 himself, with the third and greatest body of the army, pressed on 

 into the centre of the enemy's country, who, thus urged and sur- 

 rounded from every quarter, must submit either to unconditional 

 surrender or inevitable slaughter. The fleet, in the mean time, 

 received orders to sail down the river to the confluence of the 

 Acesines and Hydraotes, and there to await the arrival of these 

 respective divisions. 



Alexander himself, taking with him the auxiliary foot, the eques- 

 trian archers, and half of the auxiliary horse, immediately ad- 

 vanced rapidly, but silently, through a desert of considerable extent, 

 into the very heart of the enemy's country; and, after marching 

 the greater part of that night, the next morning arrived at the pre- 

 cincts of a fortified city of the Malli, near the shore of the Ace- 

 sines, in which, for security, they had placed their wives and chil- 

 dren ; but, not conceiving that an enemy would march through that 

 desert to attack them, were loitering unarmed in the adjacent fields, 

 and were slaughtered in multitudes. The rest flocked for refuge to 

 the city itself, and shut the gates upon their assailants. It was 

 immediately invested by squadrons of horse ; for, they had advanced 

 with such celerity, that the infantry were yet at some distance 

 behind. When at length they arrived, he did not employ them on 

 this siege, but dispatched them, with Perdiccas at their head, and 

 such horse as could be spared, to besiege another city in the neigh- 



2 Q 2 



