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the mountains near the lower part of the pass, at a place where it was
possible to descend to the defile below. This was the point which the
thousand Phocaeans had been ordered to take possession of and guard, when
the plan for the defense of the pass was first organized. They were
posted here, not with the idea of repelling any attack from the
mountains behind them--for the existence of the path was wholly unknown
to them--but only that they might command the defile below, and aid in
preventing the Persians from going through, even if those who were in
the defile were defeated or slain.

The Persian detachment toiled all night up the steep and dangerous
pathway, among rocks, chasms, and precipices, frightful by day, and now
made still more frightful by the gloom of the night. They came out at
last, in the dawn of the morning, into valleys and glens high up the
declivity of the mountain, and in the immediate vicinity of the Phocaean
encampment. The Persians were concealed, as they advanced, by the groves
and thickets of stunted oaks which grew here, but the morning air was so
calm and still, that the Phocaean sentinels heard the noise made by their
trampling upon the leaves as they came up the glen. The Phocaeans
immediately gave the alarm. Both parties were completely surprised. The
Persians had not expected to find a foe at this elevation, and the
Greeks who had ascended there had supposed that all beyond and above
them was an impassable and trackless desolation.

There was a short conflict, The Phocaeans were driven off their ground.
They retreated up the mountain, and toward the southward. The Persians
decided not to pursue them. On the other hand, they descended toward the
defile, and took up a position on the lower declivities of the mountain,
which enabled them to command the pass below; there they paused, and
awaited Xerxes's orders.

The Greeks in the defile perceived at once that they were now wholly at
the mercy of their enemies. They might yet retreat, it is true, for the
Persian detachment had not yet descended to intercept them; but, if they
remained where they were, they would, in a few hours, be hemmed in by
their foes; and even if they could resist, for a little time, the double
onset which would then be made upon them, their supplies would be cut
off, and there would be nothing before them but immediate starvation.
They held hurried councils to determine what to do.

There is some doubt as to wha