turning himself to the Athenian horseman, he said, “Ye see how things are with us; go and tell this to your captains.” So the men departed; but the Spartans ceased not to dispute till the day began to dawn. And then Pausanias gave the signal to depart, expecting that Amompharetus, when he found that they had departed, would also leave his place and follow them. And in this he judged rightly, for the man, thinking that he had been in truth forsaken, commanded his men that they should take their arms and follow the rest of the army. This they did, and came up with them in the space of ten furlongs, near to the temple of Demeter of Eleusis; for the army had waited for them there. The Athenians also left their place, but these marched all along the plain, while the Spartans kept to the hill for fear of the horsemen of the Persians.
When Mardonius heard that the Greeks had departed in the night, and beheld their place that it was empty, he called the sons of Aleuas, and said to them, “What say ye now, seeing this place is empty? Ye would have it that the Spartans fled from no man; yet ye saw before how they would have left their station, and now in this night now passed they have fled altogether. You indeed I can excuse, for ye know nothing of the Persians; but I marvel at Artabanus that he feared these men, and would have had us follow a coward’s counsel, even to break up our camp, and to suffer ourselves to be besieged in the city of Thebes. Verily the King shall hear of this matter. And indeed we must not suffer them to do as they would, but must pursue after them till we overtake them, and exact punishment for all the wrong that they have done.”
When he had thus spoken he led the Persians across the Asopus, and followed the Spartans at full speed, as if they were verily flying from him; the Athenians he saw not, for they were hidden from him by the hills. And the other barbarians, when they saw the Persians moving, took up their standards and came after them, as quickly as they could, without any order, as though they would have swallowed up the Greeks.