te into the unknown and unexplored regions beyond, leaving
the broad, and deep, and rapid stream to cut off the hopes of retreat,
implied the possession of extreme self-reliance, courage, and
decision.

Alexander collected all the canoes and boats which he could obtain up
and down the river. He built large rafts, attaching to them the skins
of beasts sewed together and inflated, to give them buoyancy. When
all was ready, they began the transportation of the army in the night,
in a place where the enemy had not expected that the attempt would
have been made. There were a thousand horses, with their riders, and
four thousand foot soldiers, to be conveyed across. It is customary,
in such cases, to swim the horses over, leading them by lines, the
ends of which are held by men in boats. The men themselves, with all
the arms, ammunition, and baggage, had to be carried over in the boats
or upon the rafts. Before morning the whole was accomplished.

The army landed in a field of grain. This circumstance, which is
casually mentioned by historians, and also the story of the wagons in
the passes of Mount Haemus, proves that these northern nations were not
absolute barbarians in the sense in which that term is used at the
present day. The arts of cultivation and of construction must have
made some progress among them, at any rate; and they proved, by some
of their conflicts with Alexander, that they were well-trained and
well-disciplined soldiers.

The Macedonians swept down the waving grain with their pikes, to open
a way for the advance of the cavalry, and early in the morning
Alexander found and attacked the army of his enemies, who were
utterly astonished at finding him on their side of the river. As may
be easily anticipated, the barbarian army was beaten in the battle
that ensued. Their city was taken. The booty was taken back across the
Danube to be distributed among the soldiers of the army. The
neighboring nations and tribes were overawed and subdued by this
exhibition of Alexander's courage and energy. He made satisfactory
treaties with them all; took hostages, where necessary, to secure the
observance of the treaties, and then recrossed the Danube and set out
on his return to Macedon.

He found that it was _time_ for him to return. The southern cities and
states of Greece had not been unanimous in raising him to the office
which his father had held. The Spartans and some others were opposed
to him. The party thus op