CHAPTER IX.

STORMING OF THE MALLIAN STRONGHOLD.

On the following day, dividing the army into two parts, he himself

assaulted the wall at the head of one, and Perdiccas led on the

other. Upon this the Indians did not wait to receive the attack of

the Macedonians, but abandoned the walls of the city and fled for

safety into the citadel. Alexander and his troops therefore split

open a small gate, and got within the city long before the others;

for those who had been put under Perdiccas were behind time, having

experienced difficulty in scaling the walls, as most of them did not

bring ladders, thinking that the city had been captured, when they

observed that the walls were deserted by the defenders. But when the

citadel was seen to be still in the possession of the enemy, and many

of them were observed drawn up in front of it to repel attacks, some

of the Macedonians tried to force an entry by undermining the wall,

and others by placing scaling ladders against it, wherever it was

practicable to do so. Alexander, thinking that the men who carried the

ladders were too slow, snatched one from a man who was carrying it,

placed it against the wall, and began to mount it, crouching under his

shield. After him mounted Peucestas, the man who carried the sacred

shield which Alexander took from the temple of the Trojan Athena and

used to keep with him, and have it carried before him in all his

battles.[745] After Peucestas, by the same ladder ascended Leonnatus

the confidential body-guard; and up another ladder went Abreas, one of

the soldiers who received double pay for distinguished services.[746]

The king was now near the battlement of the wall, and leaning his

shield against it was pushing some of the Indians within the fort,

and had cleared that part of the wall, by killing others with his

sword. The shield-bearing guards becoming very anxious for the king’s

safety, pushed each other with ardour up the same ladder and broke it;

so that those who were already mounting fell down and made the ascent

impracticable for the rest. Alexander then, standing upon the wall,

was being assailed all round from the adjacent towers; for none of the

Indians dared approach him. He was also being assailed by the men in

the city, who were throwing darts at him from no great distance; for

a mound of earth happened to have been heaped up there opposite the

wall. Alexander was conspicuous both by the brightness of his weapons

and by his extraordinary display of audacity. He therefore perceived

that if he remained where he was, he would be incurring danger without

being able to perform anything at all worthy of consideration; but

if he leaped down within the fort he might perhaps by this very act

strike the Indians with terror, and if he did not, but should only

thereby be incurring danger, at any rate he would die not ignobly

after performing great deeds of valour worthy of recollection by men

of after times.[747] Forming this resolution, he leaped down from the

wall into the citadel; where, supporting himself against the wall, he

struck with his sword and killed some of the Indians who came to close

quarters with him, including their leader, who rushed upon him too

boldly. Another man who approached him he kept in check by hurling a

stone at him, and a third in like manner. Those who advanced nearer to

him he again kept off with his sword; so that the barbarians were no

longer willing to approach him, but standing round him cast at him from

all sides whatever any one happened to have or could get hold of at the

time.