fail them; for the
Taochi inhabited strong fastnesses, in which they had laid up all their
supplies. 2. Having at length, however, arrived at one place which had
no city or houses attached to it, but in which men and women and a great
number of cattle were assembled, Cheirisophus, as soon as he came before
it, made it the object of an attack; and when the first division that
assailed it began to be tired, another succeeded, and then another; for
it was not possible for them to surround it in a body, as there was a
river about it. 3. When Xenophon came up with his rear-guard, peltasts,
and heavy-armed men, Cheirisophus exclaimed, "You come seasonably, for
we must take this place, as there are no provisions for the army, unless
we take it."

4. They then deliberated together, and Xenophon asking what hindered
them from taking the place, Cheirisophus replied, "The only approach to
it is the one which you see; but when any of our men attempt to pass
along it, the enemy roll down stones over yonder impending rock, and
whoever is struck, is treated as you behold;" and he pointed, at the
same moment, to some of the men who had had their legs and ribs broken.
5. "But if they expend all their stones," rejoined Xenophon, "is there
anything else to prevent us from advancing? For we see, in front of us,
only a few men, and but two or three of them armed. 6. The space, too,
through which we have to pass under exposure to the stones, is, as you
see, only about a hundred and fifty feet in length; and of this about a
hundred feet is covered with large pine trees in groups, against which
if the men place themselves, what would they suffer either from the
flying stones or the rolling ones? The remaining part of the space is
not above fifty feet, over which, when the stones cease, we must pass at
a running pace." 7. "But," said Cheirisophus, "the instant we offer to
go to the part covered with trees, the stones fly in great numbers."
"That," cried Xenophon, "would be the very thing we want, for thus they
will exhaust their stones the sooner. Let us then advance, if we can, to
the point whence we shall have but a short way to run, and from which we
may, if we please, easily retreat."

8. Cheirisophus and Xenophon, with Callimachus of Parrhasia, one of the
captains, who had that day the lead of all the other captains of the
rear-guard, then went forward, all the rest of the captains remaining
out of danger. Next, about seventy of the men