XLVI. When, after making these preparations, and offering prayer to the gods, he was beheld leading his troops through the city to attack the enemy, the Syracusans raised a shout of joy, with a confused murmur of prayers, entreaties and congratulations, addressing Dion as their saviour and their tutelary god, and calling the foreign soldiers their brethren and fellow-citizens. All of them, even the most selfish and cowardly, now appeared to hold Dion's life dearer than his own or that of his fellow-citizens, as they saw him lead the way to danger through blood and fire, and over the corpses which lay in heaps in the streets. The enemy, too, presented a formidable appearance, for they were exasperated to fury, and had established themselves in a strong position, hard even to approach, amidst the ruins of the rampart by which the citadel had been cut off from the town; while the progress of the mercenary troops was rendered difficult and dangerous by the flames of the burning houses by which they were surrounded. They were forced to leap over heaps of blazing beams, and to run from under great masses of falling ruins, struggling forwards through thick smoke and choking dust, and yet striving to keep their ranks unbroken. When at length they reached the enemy, only a few could fight on either side, because of the narrowness of the path, but the Syracusans, pushing confidently forward with loud shouts, forced the troops of Nypsius to give way. Most of them escaped into the citadel, which was close at hand: but all the stragglers who were left outside, were pursued and put to death by the Peloponnesians. The Syracusans could not spare any time to enjoy their victory and to congratulate one another after such great successes, but betook themselves at once to extinguishing their burning houses, and with great exertions put out the fire during the night.