ake with him the whole
of his force, than to leave a guard behind sufficient to protect this
shipping. These orders were about to be executed, when a Grecian
general, who was attached to one of the bodies of troops which were
furnished from the provinces of Asia Minor, asked leave to speak to
the king. The king granted him an audience, when he expressed his
opinion as follows:

"It seems to me to be more prudent, sire, to leave the bridge as it
is, under the care of those who have constructed it, as it may be that
we shall have occasion to use it on our return. I do not recommend the
preservation of it as a means of securing a retreat, for, in case we
meet the Scythians at all, I am confident of victory; but our enemy
consists of wandering hordes who have no fixed habitation, and their
country is entirely without cities or posts of any kind which they
will feel any strong interest in defending, and thus it is possible
that we may not be able to find any enemy to combat. Besides, if we
succeed in our enterprise as completely as we can desire, it will be
important, on many accounts, to preserve an open and free
communication with the countries behind us."

The king approved of this counsel, and countermanded his orders for
the destruction of the bridge. He directed that the Ionian forces that
had accompanied the fleet should remain at the river to guard the
bridge. They were to remain thus on guard for two months, and then, if
Darius did not return, and if they heard no tidings of him, they were
at liberty to leave their post, and to go back, with their galleys, to
their own land again.

Two months would seem to be a very short time to await the return of
an army going on such an expedition into boundless and trackless
wilds. There can, however, scarcely be any accidental error in the
statement of the time, as the mode which Darius adopted to enable the
guard thus left at the bridge to keep their reckoning was a very
singular one, and it is very particularly described. He took a cord,
it is said, and tied sixty knots in it. This cord he delivered to the
Ionian chiefs who were to be left in charge of the bridge, directing
them to untie one of the knots every day. When the cord should
become, by this process, wholly free, the detachment were also at
liberty. They might thereafter, at any time, abandon the post
intrusted to them, and return to their homes.

We can not suppose that military men, capable of organizing a f