order to advance. [7] And what must my fine fellow do but get in
front of the captain and march off ahead of the whole troop. I cried
out, 'You, sir, what are you doing?' 'Advancing as you ordered.' 'I
never ordered you to advance alone,' I retorted, 'the order was given
to the whole company.' At which he turned right round and addressed the
ranks: 'Don't you hear the officer abusing you? The orders are for all
to advance!' Whereupon the rest of them marched right past their captain
and up to me. [8] Of course the captain called them back, and they began
to grumble and growl: 'Which of the two are we to obey? One tells us to
advance, the other won't let us move.'

"Well, I had to take the whole matter very quietly and begin again from
the beginning, posting the company as they were, and explaining that no
one in the rear was to move until the front rank man led off: all they
had to do was to follow the man in front. [9] As I was speaking, up came
a friend of mine; he was going off to Persia, and had come to ask me for
a letter I had written home. So I turned to the captain who happened to
know where I had left the letter lying, and bade him fetch it for me.
Off he ran, and off ran my young fellow at his heels, breast-plate,
battle-axe, and all. The rest of the company thought they were bound to
follow suit, joined in the race, and brought my letter back in style.
That is how my company, you see, carries out your instructions to the
full."

[10] He paused, and the listeners laughed to their hearts' content, as
well as they might, over the triumphant entry of the letter under its
armed escort. Then Cyrus spoke:

"Now heaven be praised! A fine set they are, these new friends of ours,
a most rare race! So grateful are they for any little act of courtesy,
you may win a hundred hearts by a dish of meat! And so docile, some of
them must needs obey an order before they have understood it! For my
part I can only pray to be blest with an army like them all."

[11] Thus he joined in the mirth, but he turned the laughter to the
praise of his new recruits.

Then one of the company, a brigadier called Aglaitadas, a somewhat
sour-tempered man, turned to him and said:

"Cyrus, do you really think the tales they tell are true?"

"Certainly," he answered, "why should they say what is false?"

"Why," repeated the other, "simply to raise a laugh, and make a brag
like the impostors that they are." [12] But Cyrus cut him short, "Hus