but slew them whenever they attempted to return. But the beasts at last, quite wearied out with wounds and toil, were no longer able to push with their usual force, but only made a hideous noise, and, moving their fore-feet heavily, passed out of the battle.” “Although his forces were scattered all around him, the courage of the Indian king remained unconquerable. Exposed ‘as a mark at which every one levelled,’ he had received nine wounds, before and behind; but he still continued to hurl his javelins at the enemy, till they might be said ‘to drop from his faint arm, rather than be delivered.’ The governor of Porus’s elephant at last put the beast to flight, and Alexander himself slowly followed him upon a wounded horse. At length Porus, exhausted by his wounds, slid down from the back of the elephant; and the Indian guide, thinking the king desired to alight, commanded the animal to kneel down. The whole of the elephants were accustomed to imitate the movements of that upon which the king rode; and in like manner they instantly knelt down, and thus became a prey to the conquerors. Their habitual obedience to their masters involved their common ruin.” An interesting medal is known to antiquarians, which is supposed to commemorate this victory of Alexander over Porus. On one side is shown the head of Alexander, covered with an elephant’s head-skin, and on the other a representation of Minerva, armed with a helmet, shield, and spear, and before her an eagle holding lightning in its talons. Whether Alexander used the elephants he captured, or not, is not known; but he preserved them, and created a new office,—the _elephantarch_, or governor of the elephants, whose business it was to take entire charge of them. At the death of Alexander, great numbers of elephants were owned by the Macedonians; and his successors, who had, perhaps, more faith in them for purposes of war, often used them in many of the sanguinary engagements of their time. Many of the elephants of King Porus were afterwards employed by Eumenes; and, in his fiercely contested battle with Antigonus, elephants were used on both sides. In the attack made upon the city of Megapolis by Polysperchon, the latter employed sixty-five elephants which were considered invincible; but the foot-soldiers of the other army stole out, and built ditches in front of them, placing upright spears and spikes in them, and covering all with grass and leaves. When the elephants and the army charged, the great animals fell into the traps, and during the confusion the entire force was routed.