rusted to their fidelity. You alone
remain faithful and true. As for myself, I might yield to the
conqueror, and have him assign to me some province or kingdom to
govern as his subordinate; but I will never submit to such a
degradation. I can die in the struggle, but never will yield. I will
wear no crown which another puts upon my brow, nor give up my right to
reign over the empire of my ancestors till I give up my life. If you
agree with me in this determination, let us act energetically upon it.
We have it in our power to terminate the injuries we are suffering, or
else to avenge them."

The army responded most cordially to this appeal. They were ready,
they said, to follow him wherever he should lead. All this apparent
enthusiasm, however, was very delusive and unsubstantial. A general
named Bessus, combining with some other officers in the army,
conceived the plan of seizing Darius and making him a prisoner, and
then taking command of the army himself. If Alexander should pursue
him, and be likely to overtake and conquer him, he then thought that,
by giving up Darius as a prisoner, he could stipulate for liberty and
safety, and perhaps great rewards, both for himself and for those who
acted with him. If, on the other hand, they should succeed in
increasing their own forces so as to make head against Alexander, and
finally to drive him away, then Bessus was to usurp the throne, and
dispose of Darius by assassinating him, or imprisoning him for life in
some remote and solitary castle.

Bessus communicated his plans, very cautiously at first, to the
leading officers of the army. The Greek soldiers were not included in
the plot. They, however, heard and saw enough to lead them to suspect
what was in preparation. They warned Darius, and urged him to rely
upon them more than he had done; to make them his body-guard; and to
pitch his tent in their part of the encampment. But Darius declined
these proposals. He would not, he said, distrust and abandon his
countrymen, who were his natural protectors, and put himself in the
hands of strangers. He would not betray and desert his friends in
anticipation of their deserting and betraying him.

In the mean time, as Alexander advanced toward Ecbatana, Darius and
his forces retreated from it toward the eastward, through the great
tract of country lying south of the Caspian Sea. There is a
mountainous region here, with a defile traversing it, through which it
would be necessary