that on which their men
were getting over, in order to divert the attention of the besiegers.
Accordingly they remained distracted at their several posts, without any
venturing to stir to give help from his own station, and at a loss
to guess what was going on. Meanwhile the three hundred set aside for
service on emergencies went outside the wall in the direction of the
alarm. Fire-signals of an attack were also raised towards Thebes; but
the Plataeans in the town at once displayed a number of others, prepared
beforehand for this very purpose, in order to render the enemy's signals
unintelligible, and to prevent his friends getting a true idea of what
was passing and coming to his aid before their comrades who had gone out
should have made good their escape and be in safety.

Meanwhile the first of the scaling party that had got up, after
carrying both the towers and putting the sentinels to the sword, posted
themselves inside to prevent any one coming through against them; and
rearing ladders from the wall, sent several men up on the towers, and
from their summit and base kept in check all of the enemy that came up,
with their missiles, while their main body planted a number of ladders
against the wall, and knocking down the battlements, passed over between
the towers; each as soon as he had got over taking up his station at the
edge of the ditch, and plying from thence with arrows and darts any who
came along the wall to stop the passage of his comrades. When all were
over, the party on the towers came down, the last of them not without
difficulty, and proceeded to the ditch, just as the three hundred came
up carrying torches. The Plataeans, standing on the edge of the ditch
in the dark, had a good view of their opponents, and discharged their
arrows and darts upon the unarmed parts of their bodies, while they
themselves could not be so well seen in the obscurity for the torches;
and thus even the last of them got over the ditch, though not without
effort and difficulty; as ice had formed in it, not strong enough to
walk upon, but of that watery kind which generally comes with a wind
more east than north, and the snow which this wind had caused to fall
during the night had made the water in the ditch rise, so that they
could scarcely breast it as they crossed. However, it was mainly the
violence of the storm that enabled them to effect their escape at all.

Starting from the ditch, the Plataeans went all together alon