both sides; nor will it be easy for him to cut in twain any individual company marching in column. If, too, any particular company should be pressed, the neighbouring company will come to the rescue, or if at any point any single company succeed in reaching the height, from that moment not one man of the enemy will stand his ground."
This proposal was carried, and they formed into columns by companies (1). Then Xenophon, returning from the right wing to the left, addressed the soldiers. "Men," he said, "these men whom you see in front of you are the sole obstacles still interposed between us and the haven of our hopes so long deferred. We will swallow them up whole, without cooking (2), if we can."
(1) For this formation, see "The Retreat of the Ten Thousand; a
military study for all time," by Lieut.-General J. L. Vaughan,
C.B.
(2) Or, "we will gobble them up raw." He is thinking of the Homeric
line ("Iliad", iv. 35) "Perchance wert thou to enter within the
gates and long walls and devour Priam raw, and Priam's sons and
all the Trojans, then mightest thou assuage thine anger."—Leaf.
The several divisions fell into position, the companies were formed into columns, and the result was a total of something like eighty companies of