ey might
advance with the utmost celerity. To get as efficient a corps as
possible, Alexander dismounted five hundred of the cavalry, and gave
their horses to five hundred men--officers and others--selected for
their strength and courage from among the foot soldiers. All were
ambitious of being designated for this service. Besides the honor of
being so selected, there was an intense excitement, as usual toward
the close of a chase, to arrive at the end.

This body of horsemen were ready to set out in the evening. Alexander
took the command, and, following the guides, they trotted off in the
direction which the guides indicated. They traveled all night. When
the day dawned, they saw, from an elevation to which they had
attained, the body of the Persian troops moving at a short distance
before them, foot soldiers, chariots, and horsemen pressing on
together in great confusion and disorder.

As soon as Bessus and his company found that their pursuers were close
upon them, they attempted at first to hurry forward, in the vain hope
of still effecting their escape. Darius was in a chariot. They urged
this chariot on, but it moved heavily. Then they concluded to abandon
it, and they called upon Darius to mount a horse and ride off with
them, leaving the rest of the army and the baggage to its fate. But
Darius refused. He said he would rather trust himself in the hands of
Alexander than in those of such traitors as they. Rendered desperate
by their situation, and exasperated by this reply, Bessus and his
confederates thrust their spears into Darius's body, as he sat in his
chariot, and then galloped away. They divided into different parties,
each taking a different road. Their object in doing this was to
increase their chances of escape by confusing Alexander in his plans
for pursuing them. Alexander pressed on toward the ground which the
enemy were abandoning, and sent off separate detachments after the
various divisions of the flying army.

In the mean time Darius remained in his chariot wounded and bleeding.
He was worn out and exhausted, both in body and mind, by his
complicated sufferings and sorrows. His kingdom lost; his family in
captivity; his beloved wife in the grave, where the sorrows and
sufferings of separation from her husband had borne her; his cities
sacked; his palaces and treasures plundered; and now he himself, in
the last hour of his extremity, abandoned and betrayed by all in whom
he had placed his con