saddle, must needs ride out too, and so
put on his armour for the first time, and could scarcely believe it was
true, he had longed so often and so ardently to wear it all. And right
beautiful it was, and right well it fitted the lad, the armour that his
grandsire had had made for him. So he put on the whole accoutrement,
mounted his charger, and galloped to the front. And Astyages, though he
wondered who had sent the boy, bade him stay beside him, now that he
had come. Cyrus, as he looked at the horsemen facing them, turned to
his grandfather with the question, "Can those men yonder be our enemies,
grandfather, those who are standing so quietly beside their horses?"
"Enemies they are too for all that," said the king. "And are those
enemies too?" the boy asked, "those who are riding over there?" "Yes,
to be sure." "Well, grandfather, a sorry set they look, and sorry jades
they ride to ravage our lands! It would be well for some of us to charge
them!" "Not yet, my boy," answered his grandfather, "look at the mass
of horsemen there. If we were to charge the others now, these friends of
theirs would charge us, for our full strength is not yet on the field."
"Yes, but," suggested the boy, "if you stay here yourself, ready to
receive our supporters, those fellows will be afraid to stir either, and
the cattle-lifters will drop their booty quick enough, as soon as they
find they are attacked."

[20] Astyages felt there was much in what the boy said, and thinking all
the while what wonderful sense he showed and how wide-awake he was, gave
orders for his son to take a squadron of horse and charge the raiders.
"If the main body move to attack," he added, "I will charge myself and
give them enough to do here." Accordingly Cyaxares took a detachment of
horse and galloped to the field. Cyrus seeing the charge, darted forward
himself, and swept to the van, leading it with Cyaxares close at his
heels and the rest close behind them. As soon as the plunderers saw
them, they left their booty and took to flight. [21] The troopers, with
Cyrus at their head, dashed in to cut them off, and some they overtook
at once and hewed down then and there; others slipped past, and then
they followed in hot pursuit, and caught some of them too. And Cyrus was
ever in the front, like a young hound, untrained as yet but bred from
a gallant stock, charging a wild-boar recklessly; forward he swept,
without eyes or thought for anything but the quarry to be ca