336 THUCYDIDES
safely over the ditch, though with great exertion and only after a hard struggle ; for the ice in it was not frozen hard enough to bear, but was half water, as is commonly the case when the wind is from the east and not from the north. And the snow which the east wind brought in the night had greatly swollen the water, so that they could scarcely accomplish the passage. It was the violence of the storm, however, which enabled them to escape at all.
From the ditch the Plataeans, leaving on the right hand the shrine of Androcrates, ran all together along the road to Thebes. They made sure that no one would ever suspect them of having fled in the direction of their enemies. On their way they saw the Pelo- ponnesians pursuing them with torches on the road which leads to Athens by Cithaeron and Dryosce- phalae. For nearly a mile the Plataeans continued on the Theban road ; they then turned o£F and went by the way of the mountain leading to Erythrae and Hysiae, and so, getting to the hills, they escaped to Athens. Their number was two hundred and twelve, though they had been originally more, for some of them went back to the city and never got over the wall ; one who was an archer was taken at the outer ditch. The Peloponnesians at length gave up the pursuit and returned to their lines. But the Plataeans in the city, knowing nothing of what had happened, for those who had turned back had informed them that not one was left alive, sent out a herald at day- break, wanting to make a truce for the burial of the dead ; they then discovered the truth and returned. Thus the Plataeans scaled the wall and escaped. {Booh III, Chapters 20-2 J.,').
