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Changes to the text are noted at the end of the book.
THE STORY OF ALEXANDER
[Illustration:
THE STORY OF ALEXANDER TOLD BY ROBERT STEELE & DRAWN BY FRED MASON
London in the Strand
David Nutt
1894]
M. M. S.
A TOKEN OF
FRIENDSHIP AND ADMIRATION
AN OPEN LETTER
_MY DEAR GRACIE_
_When I promised some months ago to tell you a fairy story, I did
not remember that most of them have been so well told by my friend
Mr. Jacobs, and others, that it would be difficult to find any
fresh ones worth telling you._
_Then I remembered that there was a time, hundreds of years ago,
when folk here in England were fond of hearing and telling stories,
and when, in the long winter evenings, people gathered round the
castle-fire in the great hall, lord and lady, squires and dames,
pages, varlets, children, even the dogs, all of them listening
to the old chaplain who read them a never-ending tale of a brave
knight and a wicked enchanter; or, better still, to a travelling
tale-teller who brought the last story from France and Italy.
“Now,” thought I, “the tales that pleased these folk so well
would perhaps suit young people of to-day.” For the men who lived
then were large hearted and simple souled, and if it is true, as
our great English poet said, “Men are but children of a larger
growth”--and it was true of that time--perhaps the stories of the
men of those days would still have the power to please the children
of ours._
_Well, I began to turn over some of those big books you have seen
in my room, and to read their stories again to choose one for you,
and the first story I read was the History of Alexander the Great.
You must not be frightened about the tale, however; there are no
dates and summaries at the ends of the chapters to learn, and,
though I believe every word of it myself, I am afraid that if you
were to put some of it in your examination paper on Greek History,
the mistress who marked it would be annoyed, and I am certain that
you will not find the pictures like those of the Greeks in your
other books. This is only a tale, and the Alexander and Darius, the
Greeks and the Jews, it tells about, are not the ones you have read
of, but different people with the same names._
_The reason for choosing the story of Alexander to tell you is
this: it was the earliest and one of the most interesting of
the stories of the Middle Age. Everyone liked it, everyone knew
something about it, and everyone told it his own way. Even the
animals (in a tale of Reynard the Fox) liked it, and one of them
told it to the lion. All the English poets of those days knew and
loved it. If, then, you could read any of the Middle Age tales, you
could read this one._
_So you must now fancy that times are changed; you are sitting
in some great castle-hall, and all the people round you are in
dresses like those that Mr. Mason has drawn for you; perhaps you
are sitting on a throne like the queen in the picture, and I am
sitting on the stool before you, and I begin to tell you a story
of the bravest knight in the world, his wars, and the wonderful
things he saw and did. And as all the young folk gather round and
listen, if the older folk come with them and bring the great Latin
book to see if I tell the story right, when they can get it (for it
is very rare) they will find that I have taken the story-teller’s
privilege--I have left out much that was not interesting, and I
have told you some things the old story-tellers used to leave out._
_Perhaps you will find that there is too much fighting in the
story: if so, remember that it was nearly the only game people
played at in those days, so that it took the place of rowing or
tennis, cycling or cricket among the young people then. But the
fighting had this serious side to it--that a young lady might wake
any morning and find an army besieging her home, ready to burn it
down and carry her away prisoner. So, you see, everyone understood
about fighting and took an interest in hearing of it._
_And now I leave you with your story. If it pleases you, and shows
you who were the heroes of our ancestors, and what were the stories
they delighted in, it will have reached the object of_
_Your loving liegeman_
_R. S._
CONTENTS
PAGE
CHAPTER I. HOW ANECTANABUS WAS KING OF EGYPT,
AND WHY HE FLED INTO THE LAND OF MACEDON 1
CHAPTER II. OF OLYMPIAS AND ANECTANABUS, OF THE
MAGIC HE WROUGHT, AND OF THE BIRTH OF ALEXANDER 9
CHAPTER III. HOW ALEXANDER TAMED THE HORSE
BUCEPHALUS, AND HOW HE DID HIS FIRST DEED OF
ARMS 21
CHAPTER IV. TELLS OF THE EMBASSY OF DARIUS,
OF THE DEATH OF PHILIP, AND THE CROWNING OF
ALEXANDER 30
CHAPTER V. HOW ALEXANDER GATHERED AN ARMY
TOGETHER: HOW HE BUILT ALEXANDRIA AND LAID
SIEGE TO THE CITY OF TYRE 39
CHAPTER VI. TELLS OF THE FORAY OF KADESH, AND
OF ITS ENDING, AND OF THE TAKING OF THE CITY OF
TYRE 47
CHAPTER VII. HOW ALEXANDER CAME TO JERUSALEM,
HOW THE BISHOP MET HIM, AND WHAT THERE BEFELL
HIM 55
CHAPTER VIII. TELLS HOW DARIUS THE EMPEROR
SENT PRESENTS TO ALEXANDER, AND WHAT WAS THE
PRESENT SENT BACK TO HIM 63
CHAPTER IX. TELLS HOW ALEXANDER DESTROYED
THEBES AND HOW IT WAS REBUILT, AND OF HIS
RETURN TO PERSIA 73
CHAPTER X. HOW ALEXANDER DEFEATED THE PERSIANS,
AND HOW HE WENT TO THE FEAST OF DARIUS 82
CHAPTER XI. TELLS OF THE BATTLE BETWEEN ALEXANDER
AND DARIUS, AND OF THE SLAYING OF DARIUS 94
CHAPTER XII. HOW ALEXANDER MARRIED ROXANA,
THE DAUGHTER OF THE EMPEROR, AND HOW HE
DEFEATED PORUS THE KING OF INDIA 102
CHAPTER XIII. HOW ALEXANDER AND HIS MEN PASSED
THE NIGHT OF FEAR, AND HOW HE SAW THE GREATEST
AND THE LEAST THING ON EARTH 111
CHAPTER XIV. HOW ALEXANDER AND HIS ARMY
PASSED THROUGH THE VALLEY OF TERROR AND
SOUGHT THE WELLS OF LIFE 124
CHAPTER XV. HOW THE BRAHMANS CAME TO KING
ALEXANDER AND WHAT HE LEARNT FROM THEM: AND
OF THE COMING OF THE AMAZONS 138
CHAPTER XVI. HOW ALEXANDER PASSED THROUGH
THE LAND OF DARKNESS AND SLEW THE BASILISK 148
CHAPTER XVII. HOW ALEXANDER CAME TO THE TREES
OF THE SUN AND THE MOON, AND WHAT THEY TOLD
HIM 159
CHAPTER XVIII. HOW ALEXANDER SLEW PORUS AND
WON BACK THE WIFE OF CANDOYL AND WAS KNOWN
OF CANDACE WHEN HE CAME TO HER 171
CHAPTER XIX. TELLS HOW ALEXANDER DEFEATED
GOG AND MAGOG, HOW HE WENT UP INTO THE AIR
AND DOWN INTO THE SEA 188
CHAPTER XX. HOW ALEXANDER CAME TO HIS LIFE’S
END AND WAS BURIED, AND WHAT THEREON BEFELL 204
[Illustration]
CHAPTER I. HOW ANECTANABUS WAS KING OF EGYPT, AND WHY HE FLED INTO
THE LAND OF MACEDON.
Once upon a time a king reigned over the land of Egypt, whose name
was Anectanabus. In his time that land was the richest in the
world, and its people were wise and happy; but Anectanabus was the
wisest and the noblest of them, and under his rule all men, both
great and small, prospered. The field-workers ploughed and reaped,
the merchants travelled and chaffered, the wise men studied and
wrote and taught, and the great lords watched over the land, helped
the poor, and guarded all men. Shortly to say, the land of Egypt
was in those days the home of plenty and of peace, of mirth and of
game.
Now Anectanabus was, above all men, skilled in the arts of magic,
for he had learned the secrets of Egypt that were not written down
in books, but cut in the stone on the sides of the great temples,
and on the Pillars of the Sun: and when he was a young man he had
been taken into the secret chambers of the Pyramids, and had been
laid in the stone coffin of the gods, and there the secrets had
been whispered to him which the kings and priests of Egypt had
discovered for a thousand years. And chief of all his crafts, he
had the power of making images of men to do what he would, and
whatever the images did, that the men they were like to, did: and
he used this art to save his land from war. For if a fleet of
ships came to attack his land he would make images of them in wax
to float on water, and images of his own ships, and then he would
cause the ships of the enemy to turn and flee before his ships or
ever a blow was struck, and as he did, so it happened in the war.
Or if an army came against him, he caused it to flee in the same
way, so that no king of the countries about dared to come out and
make war on Egypt. And many other arts he used, but all for the
good of his land, so that men loved him and served him with joy.
It fell upon a day that Anectanabus was sitting in his palace hall
on his daïs, and round him were his dukes and princes, and the
great hall of the palace was filled with men in rich array. In that
land, the king showed himself to men but rarely, and when he did so
he was clothed in his noblest and fairest dress, with his crown on
his head, and his nobles and all men were dressed in their best,
so that the hall shone with gold, and sparkled and dazzled with
gems and stones, and the blue and scarlet and purple and green of
the nobles filled the place with a flood of colour. The chief men
of a certain city had petitioned the king about a certain matter,
and a great duke had just risen from his seat to speak about it,
when a cry was heard outside, and through the open doors, past
the great screen, a man in half armour covered with dust and foam
rushed into the presence of the king. Then the heralds hurried
up to him, and crossing their wands before him, asked of him his
errand, and why he entered the hall of the king in such unseemly
dress. But he, heeding their words never a whit, pressed forward,
called out with a loud voice, “O King, the Persians are on us,” and
straightway staggered, and fell down lifeless, for he had ridden
hard without rest and sleep with the message of the lord warden of
the sea.
A great silence fell on the hall, men looked on each other’s faces
but none spoke or moved; then the silence was broken by the shuffle
of the heralds bearing away the body of the messenger, and the
dukes drew up nearer to one another, but still no man spoke; for
the king’s face was dark and troubled, and he had asked none for
counsel. Now Anectanabus was troubled, not because he feared the
enemy, but because he had never before been taken by surprise, for
ever he knew by his magic art the words of the message before
they were uttered. So he sat silent for a while, but at last he
bethought himself, and rose and left the hall, going to a little
room behind the daïs, where he could be alone, for he sought to
know by his magic art who, and how many, and where were his foes.
But the great lords sat on in silence in the king’s hall, waiting
till some of them should be sent against the foe, and silently and
noiselessly the people passed out of the hall.
As soon as Anectanabus was alone in his room, he went to a coffer
of oak covered with broad bands of steel, and opened it with a
golden key which he drew from his breast. Then he drew out a robe
of fair white linen, and putting off his rich attire he clothed
himself in it, keeping on his golden crown. Taking some spices, he
threw them on a brazier of burning embers, and opened the casements
of the room, and round and round the brazier he went till a heavy
smoke filled the room, and hung over a great copper bowl of water
on the table in the middle of it. This done, Anectanabus took a
short wand of polished steel in his hand and pointing it across
the bowl to the four quarters of the earth--North, East, South,
West--he began to utter spells. And now it seemed as if the smoke
from the room gathered over the water, and disappeared, leaving the
room full of light, and the outside day darkened, and looking on
the surface of the water the king saw a fleet of ships coming in
full sail towards him. But what an endless number of them there
seemed to be,--ships large and small, beating the waves with their
oars, over their sides hanging the shields of dukes and earls and
knights, the sun shining from their weapons, the masts and pennons
rising like a forest, and high over all the banner of Persia
flying, the rising sun conquering the night. Then Anectanabus
touched the water with his wand, and all the ships vanished, and
the air of the room was clear and bright.
With a grave face and a heavy heart Anectanabus returned to his
lords, and ordered them to meet in arms on the sea-coast in seven
days, there to keep the land from Persians or any other foes, and
he dismissed them each to his place, after he had spoken brave
words to them, and reminded them of the victories they had won,
“and,” he said, “though the enemy be many, one lion puts many
deer to flight, and we may well destroy our foes as we have done
before.” But ever in his heart he feared, for that the foe had come
upon him by surprise, and his magic art had told him nothing of it.
In the night, when all men slept, he rose and went to the room in
which he wrought all his magic, and clothed himself in the white
robes, and brought forth his instruments from the oaken box, and
cast a yellow powder on the brazier. Then he filled the great
copper bowl with water, looking black in the dim light of the room,
and taking wax he moulded ships, some white, some black, and set
them to float on the water in the vessel. Next he drew from the
box a rod of palm-wood and touched them one by one, and as he did
so they separated and gathered into two fleets at either side of
the bowl. Then throwing some incense on the brazier, Anectanabus
began to mutter his magic words, and round and round the bowl he
walked, and the first time he threw in some gold, and the second
time a stone, and the third time some dust. Soon the two fleets
began to move towards one another, and Anectanabus began to invoke
destruction on the enemy as he was wont to do; but when the
battle was joined, he saw that the ships of Egypt were one by one
destroyed or taken, nor could any of his mightiest spells turn the
battle. So he saw that the gods had forsaken him, and that there
was no hope for him; and he deemed it better to go away and let his
kingdom fall into the hands of the Persians, than to resist them
without hope of victory, and to be made a slave at the end; and his
heart was great, and he had no son or daughter for whom to fight.
The next day he rose and went about with a light heart and a merry
cheer, and did the things that were to be done, and when night fell
he laid off the royal robes and the crown of Egypt, and dressed him
as one of the wise clerks of the land, and went to the barber and
caused him to shave off his beard, and cut his hair, so that no man
should know him, and he gathered store of gold and jewels, such as
he could carry, and his instruments of magic and of star-reading,
and called to him three of his servants who had served him all his
life, and when they were loaded with his gear, he slipped out at
a postern gate of the palace, and set off on foot into the world,
not knowing where he should go. Long would it be to tell what lands
he passed through, how he went from Egypt into Ethiopia, and from
thence he passed through many countries till at the last he came to
Macedon, where it fell that he settled and ended his days. But no
one ever thought him to be anything but some diviner or soothsayer,
nor wist the folk that he had been a mighty king of men.
The tale tells of the care he left behind him in his palace when
men found that he had gone. The princes sought their lord in his
private chambers, and when he was not to be seen there, knights and
barons ran about with tears on their cheeks, their ladies swooned,
and all men cursed the day. At the last, when they could get no
news, they joined in procession to the temple of Serapis, the
greatest of their gods, to ask his aid and counsel in their sore
strait, and there they burned rich incense, and offered many noble
gifts and sacrifices. Then the god gave them this answer: “Fear
not, O folk, for your king is safe. Ye shall be subject to the
Persians, nor may ye any way escape. But cease your sorrow; the son
of his works shall return, he shall avenge your defeat, he shall
destroy Persia, he shall be the noblest Emperor of the world.”
So this people made an image of Anectanabus in black marble,
dressed in his royal robes, sceptre in hand, and crown on head,
and beneath the statue was graved in golden letters the prophecy
of their god Serapis, that men might have it in mind in the evil
days that were on them. For the Persians conquered them, and year
by year they treated them more hardly, and life was bitter to them,
and the Egyptians looked back year after year to the happy days of
Anectanabus, the last king of Egypt, and waited in hope till he
should come back again.
[Illustration: ONE LION PVTTETH TO FLIGHT MANY DEER]
[Illustration]