est part of
the pass, where they had fought on the preceding days, and there made
their last stand. Their spears were broken, their swords were dulled;
but even had their weapons been still of the best, it would have availed
them little, for the Persians, all too well acquainted now with the
Greek daring, refused to close with their enemies. In their well-nigh
useless armour, which had been hacked from their limbs during their
earlier encounters, the Greeks stood on a little hillock and braved the
shower of Persian arrows and javelins. By the time the sun went down
there remained not one of all the Grecian band, but before their death
they had succeeded in slaying twenty thousand of the enemy. Xerxes
inquired of Demaratus, in whose word he had come to have more confidence
since witnessing the events of the last three days, whether there were
many more men at Sparta like these; and when he was told that there were
thousands, he realized that perhaps even his mighty army might not be a
match for them. That all Greeks were not like the Spartans who had
fallen at Thermopylae; that all Greek leaders were not as brave and as
devoted as Leonidas--these facts Xerxes did not realize. The struggle
which had proved so fatal to so many of his men had shown him that he
was not so irresistible, and had thereby done much for the Greeks.

[Illustration: THEIR LAST ENCOUNTER]

Where the Greeks fell they were buried, and in after years pillars were
set up to commemorate their bravery. One, in honor of those who fell
before the allies were sent away, bore the words:

"Four times a thousand men from Pelops' land
Three thousand times a thousand did withstand."

While over the Spartans by themselves there stood another column which
bore the words,

"Go tell the Spartans, thou that passeth by,
That here, obedient to their law, we lie."

MARCO BOZZARIS

_By_ FITZ-GREENE HALLECK

NOTE.--Marco Bozzaris, a Greek patriot of Suli, threw himself heart
and soul into the Greek struggle for freedom. On August 20, 1823,
he led a night attack against the Turks, who were encamped on the
site of ancient Plataea. The Greek army was but a handful in
comparison with that of the Turks, but the Turks were thrown into
utter confusion, and the attacking party won a complete victory.
Bozzaris, however, was killed in the final attack.

At midnight, in his guarded tent,
The Turk was d