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ALEXANDER'S INDIAN CAMPAIGN

sacred shield brought from Ilion, while Leonnatos, although severely wounded like his surviving comrade, protected him from side attacks. The ladders having broken, the maddened Macedonians were for a time powerless to help their king, but at last a few managed to scramble up the earthen wall, while others broke in a gate, and so saved Alexander, who had fainted.

The barbed arrow was withdrawn by a bold operation which involved much bleeding and threatened immediate death, but gradually Alexander's strong constitution triumphed, and the dangerous wound was healed. The infuriated troops fell upon the unfortunate inhabitants, and slew them all—sparing neither man, woman, nor child. When convalescent, Alexander was carried to the Hydraotes, and conveyed by boat to the junction with the Akesines, where he met his fleet and army, under the command respectively of Nearchos and Hephaistion.

The survivors of the Malloi, whose nation had felt the full weight of Alexander's hand, now tendered their humble submission, and the Oxydrakai, whom fortunate procrastination had saved, feeling that resistance would be hopeless, purchased the conqueror's clemency by offers of tribute and the delivery of valuable gifts. Alexander, stern and even cruel to those who opposed him, but always courteous and generous to the submissive, readily accepted the proposals, presents, and excuses of the tribal envoys. The presents are said to have included 1030 four-horse chariots, one thousand bucklers of native manufacture, one hun-