to the jaws of the pass against the
immovable foe; but neither detachment could make any impression. The
long spears, large shields, and heavy armor of the Greeks, their skilful
tactics, and steady array, were far more than a match for the inferior
equipments and discipline of the Asiatics. Though the attack was made
with great gallantry, both on this day and the next, it failed to
produce the slightest effect. Very few of the Greeks were either slain
or wounded; and it seemed as if the further advance of a million of men
was to be stopped by a force less than a hundredth part of their number.

But now information reached Xerxes which completely changed the face
of affairs. There was a rough mountain-path leading from Trachis up
the gorge of the Asopus and across Callidromus to the rear of the Greek
position, which had been unknown to the Greeks when they decided on
making their first stand at Thermopylae, and which they only discovered
when their plans no longer admitted of alteration. It was, perhaps,
not much more than a goat-track, and apparently they had regarded it as
scarcely practicable, since they had thought its defence might be safely
entrusted to a thousand Phocians. Xerxes, however, on learning the
existence of the track, resolved at once to make trial of it. His
Persian soldiers were excellent mountaineers. He ordered Hydarnes to
take the "Immortals," and, guided by a native, to proceed along the path
by night, and descend with early dawn into the rear of the Greeks, who
would then be placed between two fires. The operation was performed with
complete success. The Phocian guard, surprised at the summit, left the
path free while they sought a place of safety. The Greeks in the pass
below, warned during the night of their danger, in part fled, in part
resolved on death. When morning came, Leonidas, at the head of about
half his original army, moved forward towards the Malian plain, and
there met the advancing Persians. A bloody combat ensued, in which the
Persians lost by far the greater number; but the ranks of the Greeks
were gradually thinned, and they were beaten back step by step into the
narrowest part of the pass, where finally they all perished, except the
four hundred Thebans, who submitted and were made prisoners.

So terminated the first struggle on the soil of Greece, between the
invaders and the invaded. It seemed to promise that, though at vast
cost, Persia would be victorious. If her loss in t