History of Armenia, by Father Michael Chamich; from B. C. 2247 to ...

HISTORY OF ARMENIA. 337
their situation here, prepared to attack them.
He divided his troops into three bodies. One
he placed
in ambush opposite the front of the
enemy's army, in order that they might fall
on them on any advantage being obtained,
otherwise act as circumstances might require.
The second was directed to attack the left
flank, and the third the right. On the dawn
of the next morning, whilst the
or
Persians were
marshalling their men in order of battle,
Vardan, at the head of his third division,
began a furious assault on their right flank,
which put them into considerable disorder.
^Vhile they were endeavouring to
recover the
surprise into which this sudden attack had
thrown them, the second division of the
Armenian forces assaulted their left flank.
This
renewed all their former disorder, and the
elephants, with which their army was crowded,
becoming unmanageable, their chief officers
also
confounded by the peculiar nature of the
Armenians' order of battle, the assailants
cut down their foes with immense slaughter.
In this juncture Deren the Persian general,
seeing the confusion that prevailed in
the ranks
of his army, made a desperate charge alone,
against the division where Vardan commanded
in person; and by his valour in some measure
restored confidence to his
X X
men, who then ad-