Long and doubtful was the fight; Day after day the hostile army poured Its choicest warriors, but in vain; they fell, Or fled inglorious. Foul treachery At last prevailed; a steep and dangerous path, Known only to the wandering mountaineers, By difficult ascent led to the rear Of the heroic Greeks. The morning dawned, And the brave chieftain, when he raised his head From the cold rock on which he rested, viewed Banner and helmet, and the waving fire From lance and buckler, glancing high amidst Each pointed cliff and copse which stretch along Yon mountain's bosom. Then he saw his fate; But saw it with an unaverted eye: Around his spear he called his countrymen, And with a smile that o'er his rugged cheek Pass'd transient, like the momentary flash Streaking a thunder-cloud--"But we will die" (He cried) "like Grecians; we will leave our sons A bright example. Let each warrior bind Firmly his mail, and grasp his lance, and scowl From underneath his helm a frown of death Upon his shrinking foe; then let him fix His firm, unbending knee, and where he fights There fall." They heard, and, on their shields Clashing the war-song with a noble rage, Rushed headlong in the conflict of the fight, And died, as they had lived, triumphantly. The Greek historian Diodorus, followed by the biographer Plutarch and the Latin historian Justin, states that Leonidas made the attack on the Persian camp during the night, and in the darkness and in the confusion of the struggle nearly penetrated to the royal tent of Xerxes. On this basis of supposed facts the poet CROLY wrote his stirring poem descriptive of the conflict; but the statement of Diodorus, which is irreconcilable with Herodotus, is generally discredited by modern writers. Monuments to the memory of the Greeks who fell were erected on the battle-ground, and many were the epitaphs written to commemorate the heroism of the famous three hundred; but the oldest, best, and most celebrated of these is the inscription that was placed on their altar-tomb, written by the poet SIMON'IDES, of Ce'os. It consists of only two lines in the Original Greek. [Footnote: The following is the original Greek of the epitaph: O xeiu hangeddeiy Dakedaimouiois hoti taede keimetha, tois keiuoy hraemasi peithomeuoi.] All Greece for centuries had them by heart; but in the lapse of time she forgot them, and then, in the language of "Christopher North," "Greece was living Greece no more." There have been no less than three Latin and eighteen English versions of this epitaph; and herewith we give three of the latter: Go, stranger, and to Laç-e-dæ'mon tell That here, obedient to her laws, we fell. Stranger, to Sparta say that here we rest In death, obedient to her high behest. Go, tell the Spartans, thou who passest by, That here, obedient to their laws, we lie.