Two or three led horses were always at hand, to furnish a means of escape in any difficulty.

The army, marshalled in its several corps, in part preceded the royal _cortege_, in part followed at a little distance behind it.
On entering the enemy's country, if a wooded tract presented itself, the corps of pioneers was thrown out in advance, and cleared away the obstructions.

When a river was reached too deep to be forded, the horses were detached from the royal and other chariots by grooms and attendants; the chariots themselves were embarked upon boats and rowed across the stream; while the horses, attached by ropes to a post near the stern of the boat, swam after it.

The horses of the cavalry were similarly drawn across by their riders.

The troops, both cavalry and infantry, and the attendants, a very numerous body, swam the stream, generally upon inflated skins, which they placed under them, holding the neck in their left hand, and sometimes increasing the inflation as they went by applying the orifice at the top of the neck to their mouths.
[PLATE CVIII., Fig.