ished, since Chosroes bent all his efforts towards avoiding a
general engagement; but on the seventh day Bahram surprised him by an
attack after night had fallen,a threw his troops into confusion, and
then, by a skilful appeal to their feelings, induced them to desert
their leader and come over to his side. Chosroes was forced to fly. He
fell back on Ctesiphon; but despairing of making a successful defence,
with the few troops that remained faithful to him, against the
overwhelming force which Bahram had at his disposal, he resolved to
evacuate the capital, to quit Persia, and to throw himself on the
generosity of some one of his neighbors. It is said that his choice
was long undetermined between the Turks, the Arabs, the Khazars of
the Caucasian region, and the Romans. According to some writers, after
leaving Ctesiphon, with his wives and children, his two uncles, and an
escort of thirty men, he laid his reins on his horse's neck, and left it
to the instinct of the animal to determine in what direction he should
flee. The sagacious beast took the way to the Euphrates; and Chosroes,
finding himself on its banks, crossed the river, and, following up its
course, reached with much difficulty the well-known Roman station of
Circesium. He was not unmolested in his retreat. Bahram no sooner heard
of his flight than he sent off a body of 4000 horse, with orders to
pursue and capture the fugitive. They would have succeeded, had not
Bindoes devoted himself on behalf of his nephew, and, by tricking the
officer in command, enabled Chosroes to place such a distance between
himself and his pursuers that the chase had to be given up, and the
detachment to return, with no more valuable capture than Bindoes, to
Ctesiphon.

Chosroes was received with all honor by Probus, the governor of
Circesium, who the next day communicated intelligence of what had
happened to Comentiolus, Prefect of the East, then resident at
Hierapolis. At the same time he sent to Comentiolus a letter which
Chosroes had addressed to Maurice, imploring his aid against his
enemies. Comentiolus approved what had been done, despatched a courier
to bear the royal missive to Constantinople, and shortly afterwards, by
the direction of the court, invited the illustrious refugee to remove
to Hierapolis, and there take up his abode, till his cause should be
determined by the emperor. Meanwhile, at Constantinople, after the
letter of Chosroes had been read, a serious debate a