At dead of the second night, collect in silence
before the gates of Croia!"
Thus speaking, Iskander called for his now refreshed charger, and,
accompanied by two hundred horsemen, bade farewell for a brief period
to his troops, and soon having crossed the mountains, descended into
the fertile plains of Epirus.
When the sun rose in the morning, Iskander and his friends beheld at
the further end of the plain a very fine city shining in the light. It
was surrounded with lofty turreted walls flanked by square towers, and
was built upon a gentle eminence, which gave it a very majestic
appearance. Behind it rose a lofty range of purple mountains of very
picturesque form, and the highest peaks capped with snow. A noble
lake, from which troops of wild fowl occasionally rose, expanded like a
sheet of silver on one side of the city. The green breast of the
contiguous hills sparkled with white houses.
"Behold Croia!" exclaimed Iskander. "Our old fathers could choose a
site, comrades. We shall see whether they expended their time and
treasure for strangers, or their own seed.
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