stamped like madmen, some fell on their knees and thanked the gods, others
were mute with gratitude, and stared as if bewildered!

"Never was such a scene seen! as soon as the soldiers recovered something
like reason, a trophy on a heap of stones and shields, was erected. The
army descended the Colchian Mountains, and reached Trapezus, the modern
Trebizon, after a march of 1,155 leagues, during two hundred and fifteen
days, where they embarked for their native country.

"The moment I have taken is when Xenophon seeing the sea has rode forward
to shout it to the army. He is waving his helmet with one hand, and
pointing to the sea with the other, mounted on a skew-bald charger.

"Below the army are rushing up--in the centre is an officer, on a blood
Arab, carrying his wife. A veteran soldier on his left is supporting an
exhausted youth who has sunk on his shield, and pointing out the path to
the army. On the right, is a young man carrying up on his back his aged
father who has lost his helmet--the trumpeter lower down, is blowing a
blast to collect the rear guard which are mounting behind him, while near
the mare's head is the Greek band with trumpets and cymbals encouraging
the men. The army is rushing up under an opening of the rock to the left,
while the advanced guard of cavalry are trotting down the shelving top of
a precipice, the horses excited and snuffing up the sea air with ecstasy."

It would, however, be difficult to convey, by description, the
overpowering energy and mighty struggle of the scene before us, or the
masterly skill with which the painter has brought within a few square feet
of canvass, one of the most astounding events in the history of man. Its
moral tendency should be a lasting lesson of the secret spring of
honourable success in life--decision of character and well-directed