The speaking was ended; they got up and retired; then they burnt the 1 wagons and the tents, and after sharing with one another what each needed out of their various superfluities, they threw the remnant into the fire.  Having done that, they proceeded to make their breakfasts.  While they were breakfasting, Mithridates came with about thirty horsemen, and summoning the generals within earshot, he thus addressed them:  “Men of Hellas, I have been faithful to Cyrus, as you know well, and to-day I am your well-wisher; indeed, I am here spending my days in great fear:  if then I could see any salutory course in prospect, I should be disposed to join you with all my retainers.  Please inform me, then, as to what you propose, regarding me as your friend and well-wisher, anxious only to pursue his march in your company.”  The generals held council, and resolved to give the following answer, Cheirisophus acting as spokesman:  “We have resolved to make our way through the country, inflicting the least possible damage, provided we are allowed a free passage homewards; but if any one tries to hinder 3 us, he will have to fight it out with us, and we shall bring all the force in our power to bear.”  Thereat Mithridates set himself to prove to them that their deliverance, except with the king’s good pleasure, was hopeless.  Then the meaning of his mission was plain.  He was an agent in disguise; in fact, a relation of Tissaphernes was in attendance to keep a check on his loyalty.  After that, the generals resolved that it would be better to proclaim open war, without truce or herald, as long as they were in the enemy’s country; for they used to come and corrupt the soldiers, and they were even successful with one officer—­Nicarchus[1], an Arcadian, who went off in the night with about twenty men.

[1] Can this be the same man whose escape is so graphically described
    above?

After this, they breakfasted and crossed the river Zapatas, marching in regular order, with the beasts and mob of the army in the middle.  They had not advanced far on their route when Mithridates made his appearance again, with about a couple of hundred horsemen at his back, and bowmen and slingers twice as many, as nimble fellows as a man might hope to see.  He approached the Hellenes as if he were friendly; but when they had got fairly to close quarters, all of a sudden some of them, whether mounted or on foot, began shooting with their bows and arrows, and another set with slings, wounding the men.  The rearguard of the Hellenes suffered for a while severely without being able to retaliate, for the Cretans had a shorter range than the Persians, and at the same time, being light-armed troops, they lay cooped up within the ranks of the heavy infantry, while the javelin men again did not shoot far enough to reach the enemy’s slingers.  This being so, Xenophon thought there was nothing for it but to charge, and charge they did; some of the heavy and light infantry, who were guarding the rear, with him; but for all their charging they did not catch a single man.