There was nothing for it but to reconquer the peak which they had thought already secured,--a terrible addition to the work of a day already overcrowded with toils and risks which cost many a brave soldier his life. Xenophon himself was at one time in great peril. In climbing one of the mountains, his shield-bearer became so frightened at the shower of stones and arrows pouring down from above, that he turned and fled, taking the shield with him. Xenophon was thus left unprotected, but happily one of the soldiers saw his danger, and hastening to his side, held his own shield so as to cover both. At last however the long march was over, and before nightfall, the hoplites had rejoined their comrades at the pass, from whence they soon reached some well-to-do mountain villages where there was food in abundance, and where they could shelter themselves in comfortable huts. Their loss that day had been very severe, and unhappily it had been impossible to carry off the dead. To repair such a misfortune, no sacrifice could be too great, and accordingly Cheirisophus and Xenophon sent a herald to the Carduchians, offering to restore the man who had acted as their guide, if the Carduchians, on their part, would give up the bodies of the fallen Hellenes. To this they agreed, and the Hellenes had the satisfaction of burying their comrades with the customary rites. It was however at no small cost that they had effected this exchange, for by so doing they had lost the services of the only man who could pilot them through this wild and unknown land. They were now without a guide, and from the nature of the country, no extensive view could anywhere be gained. They could but direct their course by the sun and stars, and they decided to continue marching northwards towards the source of the Tigris. The next three days were spent in much the same manner as the last, the Carduchians disputing every step of their march, and constantly assailing them with shots and stones hurled from a higher level. But at last, to their infinite joy, they came to the edge of the Carduchian country, and could look down upon the broad plains of Armenia stretched out before them. They had only been seven days, in all, in the land of the Carduchians, and yet, during that short time they had suffered so severely, that all their previous encounters, both with the Great King and with Tissaphernes, seemed in comparison but child’s play. XXXII THE CROSSING OF THE KENTRITES The Persian province of Armenia was divided from the land of the Carduchians by the river Kentrites. It was a fertile country, but for a distance of nearly twenty miles from the river there were no villages nor cultivated land, because the Armenians were determined that there should be nothing to tempt their warlike neighbours, the Carduchians, to enter their country in search of plunder.