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spirit of the nation remained still unsubdued. At length, Alexander 

 determined to march to their capital, in which, report informed him, 

 the inhabitants of most of the smaller cities had taken refuge, and he 

 hoped, by one decisive stroke, to end the contest. On approaching 

 the walls, however, he found them dismantled, and the people re- 

 tired beyond the Hydraotes, on whose steep banks they had drawn 

 up their forces, to the amount of fifty thousand men, and seemed 

 determined to contest the passage should he again attempt it. Alex- 

 ander instantly plunged with his cavalry, exceedingly dispropor- 

 tionate in point of number, into the stream, while the Indians, 

 astonished at his undaunted conduct, gradually and in good order 

 retreated to some distance from the shore. The enemy, observing 

 that the horse alone had crossed the stream, resolved to make an 

 immediate attack upon him ; but Alexander, seeing them drawn 

 up with more than usual military skill, and in regular order of 

 battle, and thinking it not prudent to come to close engagement 

 without his infantry, contented himself with riding round them at a 

 distance, while the equestrian archers galled them with their arrows. 

 The choicest of the light-armed foot, and part of the phalanx, soon 

 effected a passage ; and the enemy now becoming diffident of their 

 strength, fled to a fortified town that lay behind them, whither they 

 were immediately pursued by Alexander, and closely besieged. 

 That evening the remainder of the troops joined him ; and, having 

 reposed during the night, the whole, at day-break, made a furious 

 attack on the walls, burst open the gates, and compelled the enemy to 

 take refuge in the citadel. This circumstance, which occurs so often, 

 may be elucidated, by observing, that the ancient cities of India are, 

 for the most part, surrounded with walls of mud baked to a solid 

 consistency by the intense beams of a sun, nearly vertical, while the 

 fort, built of brick or stone, is the only defensible part ; often highly 

 so against a very superior enemy. The king, without a moment's 



