redit this report when he first heard it. He
dispatched a galley with thirty oars along the shore, up the Gulf of
Issus, to ascertain the truth. The galley soon came back and reported
that, beyond the Gates of Syria, they saw the whole country, which was
nearly level land, though gently rising from the sea, covered with the
vast encampments of the Persian army.

The king then called his generals and counselors together, informed
them of the facts, and made known to them his determination to return
immediately through the Gates of Syria and attack the Persian army.
The officers received the intelligence with enthusiastic expressions
of joy.

It was now near the evening. Alexander sent forward a strong
reconnoitering party, ordering them to proceed cautiously, to ascend
eminences and look far before them, to guard carefully against
surprise, and to send back word immediately if they came upon any
traces of the enemy. At the present day the operations of such a
reconnoitering party are very much aided by the use of spy-glasses,
which are made now with great care expressly for military purposes.
The instrument, however, was not known in Alexander's day.

When the evening came on, Alexander followed the reconnoitering party
with the main body of the army. At midnight they reached the defile.
When they were secure in the possession of it, they halted. Strong
watches were stationed on all the surrounding heights to guard against
any possible surprise. Alexander himself ascended one of the
eminences, from whence he could look down upon the great plain beyond,
which was dimly illuminated in every part by the smouldering fires of
the Persian encampment. An encampment at night is a spectacle which is
always grand, and often sublime. It must have appeared sublime to
Alexander in the highest degree, on this occasion. To stand stealthily
among these dark and somber mountains, with the defiles and passes
below filled with the columns of his small but undaunted army, and to
look onward, a few miles beyond, and see the countless fires of the
vast hosts which had got between him and all hope of retreat to his
native land; to feel, as he must have done, that his fate, and that of
all who were with him, depended upon the events of the day that was
soon to dawn--to see and feel these things must have made this night
one of the most exciting and solemn scenes in the conqueror's life. He
had a soul to enjoy its excitement and sublimity. He