The way was thus left clear for the gallant two hundred. Those who led
the party had secured possession of the passages through the towers,
and stood ready to bar the way against all assailants. Others who
followed brought ladders, and planting them at the foot of the towers,
mounted to the top, and kept off the Peloponnesians, when they
attempted to force an entrance, with a shower of javelins. Over the
intervening space now swarmed the main body of the Plataeans; and each
man, as he got over, halted at the edge of the outer ditch, and kept
up a hot fire of javelins and arrows, to cover the retreat of his
comrades, and repel any attack from below. When all the rest had
crossed the wall, those who held the towers began to descend; and this
was the most perilous part of the adventure, especially for those who
came last. All, however, succeeded in joining their comrades by the
ditch, and just at this moment the picked troop of three hundred, who
carried torches, came upon them. But fortune still favoured the
Plataeans; crouching in the deep shadow thrown by the high banks of
the ditch, they plied the enemy, who with their blazing torches
afforded an easy mark, with darts and arrows. And thus, fighting and
retreating at the same time, they made their way gradually across the
ditch, but not without a severe struggle, for the water was swollen by
the snow which had fallen in the night, and covered with rotten ice.
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