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Again the Scyths put faith in the promises of the Ionian chiefs, and
retraced their steps, hoping to fall in with the Persians. They
missed, however, the enemy's whole line of march; their own former
acts being to blame for it. Had they not ravaged all the pasturages of
that region, and filled in all the wells, they would have easily found
the Persians whenever they chose. But, as it turned out, the
measures which seemed to them so wisely planned were exactly what caused
their failure. They took a route where water was to be found and
fodder could be got for their horses, and on this track sought their
adversaries, expecting that they too would retreat through regions
where these things were to be obtained. The Persians, however, kept
strictly to the line of their former march, never for a moment
departing from it; and even so gained the bridge with difficulty. It
was night when they arrived, and their terror, when they found the
bridge broken up, was great; for they thought that perhaps the
Ionians had deserted them.
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