namely who were unable to complete the march--had to spend the night
out, without food and without fire; under the circumstances some of
the men perished.

On the heels of the army hung perpetually bands of the enemy,
snatching away disabled baggage animals and fighting with each other
over the carcases. And in its track not seldom were left to their fate
disabled soldiers, struck down with snow-blindness or with toes 12
mortified by frostbite. As to the eyes, it was some alleviation
against the snow to march with something black before them; for the
feet, the only remedy was to keep in motion without stopping for an
instant, and to loose the sandal at night. If they went to sleep with
the sandals on, the thong worked into the feet, and the sandals were
frozen fast to them. This was partly due to the fact that, since their
old sandals had failed, they wore untanned brogues made of
newly-flayed ox-hides. It was owing to some such dire necessity that a
party of men fell out and were left behind, and seeing a black-looking
patch of ground where the snow had evidently disappeared, they
conjectured it must have been melted; and this was actually so, owing
to a spring of some sort which was to be seen steaming up in a dell
close by. To this they had turned aside and sat down, and were loth to
go a step further. But Xenophon, with his rearguard, perceived them,
and begged and implored them by all manner of means not to be left
behind, telling them that the enemy were after them in large packs
pursuing; and he ended by growing angry. They merely bade him put a
knife to their throats; not one step farther would they stir. Then it
seemed best to frighten the pursuing enemy if possible, and prevent
their falling upon the invalids. It was already dusk, and the pursuers
were advancing with much noise and hubbub, wrangling and disputing
over their spoils. Then all of a sudden the rearguard, in the