r one end of the
rampart which had been thrown up. When the men found that they had
forced their way through, they raised loud shouts of exultation and
triumph, and immediately rushed forward toward the city. For a moment
it seemed that for the Spartans all was lost; but the tide of victory
was soon suddenly turned by a very unexpected incident. An arrow
pierced the breast of the horse on which Pyrrhus was riding, and gave
the animal a fatal wound. The horse plunged and reared in his agony
and terror, and then fell, throwing Pyrrhus to the ground. This
occurrence, of course, arrested the whole troop in their progress. The
horsemen wheeled suddenly about, and gathered around Pyrrhus to rescue
him from his danger. This gave the Spartans time to rally, and to
bring up their forces in such numbers that the Macedonian soldiers
were glad to be able to make their way back again, bearing Pyrrhus
with them beyond the lines. After recovering a little from the
agitation produced by this adventure, Pyrrhus found that his troops,
discouraged, apparently, by the fruitlessness of their efforts, and
especially by this last misfortune, were beginning to lose their
spirit and ardor, and were fighting feebly and falteringly all along
the line. He concluded, therefore, that there was no longer any
prospect of accomplishing his object that day, and that it would be
better to save the remaining strength of his troops by withdrawing
them from the field, rather than to discourage and enfeeble them still
more by continuing what was now very clearly a useless struggle. He
accordingly put a stop to the action, and the army retired to their
encampment.

Before he had opportunity to make a third attempt, events occurred
which entirely changed the whole aspect of the controversy. The reader
will recollect that Areus, the king of Sparta, was absent in Crete at
the time of Pyrrhus's arrival, and that the command of the army
devolved, during his absence, on Acrotatus, his son; for the kings of
the other line, for some reason or other, took a very small part in
the public affairs of the city at this time, and are seldom mentioned
in history. Areus, as soon as he heard of the Macedonian invasion,
immediately collected a large force and set out on his return to
Sparta, and he entered into the city at the head of two thousand men
just after the second repulse which Acrotatus had given to their
enemies. At the same time, too, another body of re-enforcement