But, alas! there was a mountain path through the chestnut woods above. Leonidas had put a guard of Phocian soldiers to watch it, and the Persians did not know of it till a wretch, for the sake of reward, came and offered to show them the way, so that they might fall on the defenders of the pass from behind.  In the stillness of the early dawn, the Phocians heard the trampling of a multitude on the dry chestnut leaves.  They stood to arms, but as soon as the Persians shot their arrows at them they fled away and left the path open.  Soon it was known in the camp that the foe were on the hills above.  There was still time to retreat, and Leonidas sent off all the allies to save their lives; but he himself and his 300 Spartans, with 700 Thespians, would not leave their post, meaning to sell their lives as dearly as possible.  The Delphic oracle had said that either Sparta or a king of Sparta must perish, and he was ready to give himself for his country.  Two young cousins of the line of Hercules he tried to save, by telling them to bear his messages home; but one answered that he had come to fight, not carry letters, and the other that they would fight first, and then take home the news.  Two more Spartans, whose eyes were diseased, were at the hot baths near.  One went back with the allies, the other caused his Helot to lead him to the camp, where, in the evening, all made ready to die, and Leonidas sat down to his last meal, telling his friends that on the morrow they should sup with Pluto.  One of these Thespians had answered, when he was told that the Persian arrows came so thickly as to hide the sky, “So much the better; we shall fight in the shade.”