hich has been used as the bivouac of an army. The army itself,
however, was gone.

The pursuers were now too much fatigued to go any further without
rest. Alexander remained here, accordingly, through the day, to give
his men and his horses refreshment and repose. That night they set
forward again, and the next day at noon they arrived at another
encampment of the Persians, which they had left scarcely twenty-four
hours before. The officers of Alexander's army were excited and
animated in the highest degree, as they found themselves thus drawing
so near to the great object of their pursuit. They were ready for any
exertions, any privation and fatigue, any measures, however
extraordinary, to accomplish their end.

Alexander inquired of the inhabitants of the place whether there were
not some shorter road than the one along which the enemy were moving.
There was one cross-road, but it led through a desolate and desert
tract of land, destitute of water. In the march of an army, as the men
are always heavily loaded with arms and provisions, and water can not
be carried, it is always considered essential to choose routes which
will furnish supplies of water by the way. Alexander, however,
disregarded this consideration here, and prepared at once to push into
the cross-road with a small detachment. He had been now two years
advancing from Macedon into the heart of Asia, always in quest of
Darius as his great opponent and enemy. He had conquered his armies,
taken his cities, plundered his palaces, and made himself master of
his whole realm. Still, so long as Darius himself remained at liberty
and in the field, no victories could be considered as complete. To
capture Darius himself would be the last and crowning act of his
conquest. He had now been pursuing him for eighteen hundred miles,
advancing slowly from province to province, and from kingdom to
kingdom. During all this time the strength of his flying foe had been
wasting away. His armies had been broken up, his courage and hope had
gradually failed, while the animation and hope of the pursuer had been
gathering fresh and increasing strength from his successes, and were
excited to wild enthusiasm now, as the hour for the final consummation
of all his desires seemed to be drawing nigh.

Guides were ordered to be furnished by the inhabitants, to show the
detachment the way across the solitary and desert country. The
detachment was to consist of horsemen entirely, that th