feel stands
on a higher eminence and wields higher powers than their own. They
like a leader. It is true, they must feel confident of his
superiority; but when this superiority stands out so clearly and
distinctly marked, combined, too, with all the graces and attractions
of youth and manly beauty, as it was in the case of Alexander, the
minds of men are brought very easily and rapidly under its sway.

The Thessalians gave Alexander a very favorable reception. They
expressed a cordial readiness to instate him in the position which his
father had occupied. They joined their forces to his, and proceeded
southward toward the Pass of Thermopylae.

Here the great council was held. Alexander took his place in it as a
member. Of course, he must have been an object of universal interest
and attention. The impression which he made here seems to have been
very favorable. After this assembly separated, Alexander proceeded
southward, accompanied by his own forces, and tended by the various
princes and potentates of Greece, with their attendants and
followers. The feelings of exultation and pleasure with which the
young king defiled through the Pass of Thermopylae, thus attended, must
have been exciting in the extreme.

The Pass of Thermopylae was a scene strongly associated with ideas of
military glory and renown. It was here that, about a hundred and fifty
years before, Leonidas, a Spartan general, with only three hundred
soldiers, had attempted to withstand the pressure of an immense
Persian force which was at that time invading Greece. He was one of
the kings of Sparta, and he had the command, not only of his three
hundred Spartans, but also of all the allied forces of the Greeks that
had been assembled to repel the Persian invasion. With the help of
these allies he withstood the Persian forces for some time, and as the
pass was so narrow between the cliffs and the sea, he was enabled to
resist them successfully. At length, however, a strong detachment from
the immense Persian army contrived to find their way over the
mountains and around the pass, so as to establish themselves in a
position from which they could come down upon the small Greek army in
their rear. Leonidas, perceiving this, ordered all his allies from
the other states of Greece to withdraw, leaving himself and his three
hundred countrymen alone in the defile.

He did not expect to repel his enemies or to defend the pass. He knew
that he must die, and all his