her
is dead."

[29] "Well," rejoined Cyrus, "I take it, you believe he would welcome
us, if he thought we came to help him?" "I am more than sure of that,"
said Gobryas, "but it is not so easy to set eyes on him." "And why?"
asked Cyrus. "Because if we are to join him at all, we must march right
past Babylon itself." [30] "And where is the difficulty in that?" said
Cyrus. "Heaven help us!" cried Gobryas. "The city has only to open
her gates, and she can send out an army ten thousand times as large as
yours. That is why," he added, "the Assyrians are less prompt than they
were at bringing in their weapons and their horses, because those who
have seen your army think it so very small, and their report has got
about. So that in my opinion it would be better to advance with the
utmost care."

[31] Cyrus listened and replied.

"You do well, Gobryas, my friend, in urging as much care as possible.
But I cannot myself see a safer route for us than the direct advance
on Babylon, if Babylon is the centre of the enemy's strength. They are
numerous, you say, and if they are in good heart, we shall soon know it.
[32] Now, if they cannot find us and imagine that we have disappeared
from fear of them, you may take it as certain that they will be quit of
the terror we have inspired. Courage will spring up in its place, and
grow the greater the longer we lie hid. But if we march straight on
then, we shall find them still mourning for the dead whom we have slain,
still nursing the wounds we have inflicted, still trembling at the
daring of our troops, still mindful of their own discomfiture and
flight. [33] Gobryas," he added, "be assured of this; men in the mass,
when aflame with courage, are irresistible, and when their hearts fail
them, the more numerous they are the worse the panic that seizes them.
[34] It comes upon them magnified by a thousand lies, blanched by a
thousand pallors, it gathers head from a thousand terror-stricken looks,
until it grows so great that no orator can allay it by his words, no
general arouse the old courage by a charge, or revive the old confidence
by retreat; the more their leader cheers them on, the worse do the
soldiers take their case to be. [35] Now by all means let us see exactly
how things stand with us. If from henceforward victory must fall
to those who can reckon the largest numbers, your fears for us are
justified, and we are indeed in fearful danger; but if the old rule
still holds, and bat