I failed in this. Some other will succeed.

Yet they are right, in part. That day, far back,

When by the borderline I checked my steed....

Our spies had said the Parthian army lay

Encamped near by and ready for the fray.

We found no army; nothing but a track,

Thousands of footprints stamped in the red sand,

Where a great host had passed. A sudden fear

Seized on the legions and on every hand

The men shrank back.... No foe stood anywhere,