back, under the car, to the charioteer, who walked behind. Xerxes's own
chariot came next, drawn by very splendid horses, selected especially
for their size and beauty. His charioteer, a young Persian noble, sat by
his side.

Then came great bodies of troops. There was one corps of two thousand
men, the life-guards of the king, who were armed in a very splendid and
costly manner, to designate their high rank in the army, and the exalted
nature of their duty as personal attendants on the sovereign. One
thousand of these life-guards were foot soldiers, and the other
thousand horsemen. After the life-guards came a body of ten thousand
infantry, and after them ten thousand cavalry. This completed what was
strictly the Persian part of the army. There was an interval of about a
quarter of a mile in the rear of these bodies of troops, and then came a
vast and countless multitude of servants, attendants, adventurers, and
camp followers of every description--a confused, promiscuous,
disorderly, and noisy throng.

The immediate destination of this vast horde was Abydos; for it was
between Sestos, on the European shore, and Abydos, on the Asiatic, that
the bridge had been built. To reach Abydos, the route was north, through
the province of Mysia. In their progress the guides of the army kept
well inland, so as to avoid the indentations of the coast, and the
various small rivers which here flow westward toward the sea. Thus
advancing, the army passed to the right of Mount Ida, and arrived at
last on the bank of the Scamander. Here they encamped. They were upon
the plain of Troy.

The world was filled, in those days, with the glory of the military
exploits which had been performed, some ages before, in the siege and
capture of Troy; and it was the custom for every military hero who
passed the site of the city to pause in his march and spend some time
amid the scenes of those ancient conflicts, that he might inspirit and
invigorate his own ambition by the associations of the spot, and also
render suitable honors to the memories of those that fell there. Xerxes
did this. Alexander subsequently did it. Xerxes examined the various
localities, ascended the ruins of the citadel of Priam, walked over the
ancient battle fields, and at length, when his curiosity had thus been
satisfied, he ordered a grand sacrifice of a thousand oxen to be made,
and a libation of corresponding magnitude to be offered, in honor of the
shades of the dead he