624 The Battle Field of Alexander and Porus. [Dec. 



to the sound of the shrilly conch the ranks are rapidly arrayed. And 

 now in one dense/ deep mass, the host advances to battle. The cavalry 

 leads the van, throwing out videttes on either hand. The war chariots 

 follow and then the infantry : and lastly, the ponderous elephant, with 

 long, but slow and cautious strides heaves onward his portentous, battle- 

 mented bulk ; as if the very towers and castles of the sultry east had 

 mustered in life to arrest the invader. Onward rolls the vast tide, 

 heavy with destruction, carefully and warily they cross the treacherous 

 sands of the Sookaytur. The elephant sounds the footing with his 

 trunk and judges of the ground by the echo of that hollow organ. 

 They have past the sands, they are nearing the Hydaspes. Their van 

 is halted. Doubtless the enemy is in sight. No! it is only their 

 corps of observation flying in disorder and dismay : and he who led 

 them shall return no more. The sight inspires the needful caution. 

 The host proceeds more slowly and in better array. The cavalry falls 

 back upon the flanks. The elephants are advanced beyond the infan- 

 try, which leaves intervals for their retreat. And now a distant gleam 

 of steel betrays the presence of the invaders, and the Indian host is 

 halted in the plain, the left resting almost on the Hydaspes, the right 

 some furlongs from the hills. Why does not the noble Powarr dimi- 

 nish the intervals to a span. He counts upon them in either case for 

 the manoeuvres of his cavalry. He little knows how terrible a cavalry 

 is opposed to his own light horse. Could he but connect with his 

 Phalanx of elephants the hills and the river's brink he might yet be 

 winner of the fight: for the terror of the invader is the companion 

 horse, and they could never face the array of elephants. 



Scarcely is the Indian army in position, when the few, but iron 

 squadrons of the invader are at hand. They form, they pause. Their 

 young leader, conspicuous for his lofty crest and costly arms, and the 

 coal black charger which bounds beneath him, reconnoitres the position 

 from flank to flank. Then, like a whirlwind burst upon the devoted 

 wings of the Indian the iron clad Macedonian chivalry : horse and man 

 inspired with the same uncontrollable ardor and with an energy impos- 

 sible to the exhausted children of the sun. Like the sound of fire 

 amid the forest is the crash, the burst, the turmoil of those strong sons 

 of battle as the ranks go down before them, as the helmet is cleft and 

 the mail is riven and the spear is shivered upon their iron flanks. In 



