152 THE HISTORY OF HERODOTUS.

vivors of the Khyber Pass massacre in 1841 draw together for a last stand on the hillock at Gundamuck, whence a single officer escaped to Peshawur to tell that the British army was exterminated. The four hundred Thehans saved themselves by a timely surrender; the remaining four thousand Greeks were buried in a hail-shower of missiles. Herodotus awards the palm of valour to a Spartan wit, who, when he was told that the Persian arrows would darken the air, said, "Then we shall have but a shadow-fight" (or sham-fight). Such a man would have appreciated the ghastly witticisms of the guillotine in the French Revolution. Xerxes, with an indecency towards the dead quite opposed to all Persian usage, had the head of Leonidas cut off, and fixed upon a pole. The Greek combined fleet was commanded by the Spartan Eurybiades. The Spartans would only co- operate on condition that the command should be theirs, though they only furnished ten ships, while the Athen- ians mustered one hundred and twenty-seven. Spar- tan provincialism forms a strong contrast to the national patriotism of the little state of Plataea, which threw itself heart and soul into the cause of Greek inde- pendence. Though landsmen, the Plataeans helped to man the Athenian fleet. They were afterwards re- warded by vile ingratitude from Sparta, and lukewarm friendship from Athens. The whole naval strength counted two hundred and seventy-one three-banked galleys. The Persian dis- aster in the storm had now been balanced by a Greek disaster in the field ; and the barometer of Hel- lenic confidence fell again. There was even talk of