Now marshal your archers in a fourfold line in such fashion that at the first break of dawn they can take cover behind the rocks and shoot, every man of them without piercing his fellow.

Do you bide here with the centre where your standard can be seen by all to north and south.

I and my companion will lead your vanguard farther on to where the ridge draws nearer to the Nile, so that with their arrows they can hold back and slay any who strive to escape down stream.

The rest is in your hands, for we are guides, not generals.

Summon your captains and issue your commands." So we went back again and I called the officers together and told them what they were to do, then despatched them to their regiments.
Presently the vanguard of ten thousand men drew away and vanished, and with them the white-robed guides on whom I never looked again.