AND OF THE BIRTH OF ALEXANDER.
It fell on a day that as Anectanabus was travelling through the
land of Macedon, he came to the chief city of the land, and there
his yeomen took lodging for him, and he thought to dwell there some
days, for the city was fair and well placed on a fertile plain, and
it was in the month of May. And when he talked to the men of the
town he heard say that Philip, the king of the land, had gone out
to war, but that he had left there his queen Olympias to govern
the folk, and that the next day was, as it happened, the feast of
her birthday. Now this queen had custom on feast days to ride out
into the country near, and there sports and tournaments were held,
and all folk rejoiced before her. So Anectanabus thought in his
mind that he would go out and look upon her, for he had heard that
Olympias was the fairest woman in Greece,--nay, in all the world.
Early next day after meat, the queen mounted a white mule and rode
through the city to the plain, with her wise men and her maids
about her, and much she joyed to see the fair show that the city
made, for everywhere that she came the town was hung with rich
hangings and embroidery, and every man was eager to see the queen,
and at all corners were bands of maidens singing and beating drums
and timbrels. So the queen rode through the city, and when she
came to the plain, each man did his best in the sports, if by any
means he could gain a prize from her hands. Among the crowd of men
on the plain was Anectanabus, and he looked not at one thing or
another but only at the queen, so that at the last she turned and
saw him, and because he was unlike all other there in clothing and
in bearing she took notice of him and saw at once that he was a
stranger: and since he looked ever at her face nor looked away when
she turned to him, at the end she sent men to him to know who he
was. So he came and did her reverence, and she asked him who he was
and what he would, and he told her that he was a clerk, and that
he went from place to place, doing the will of the great gods: and
Olympias bade him come to her at the palace.
Now every day the queen sat on the royal seat in the great hall of
the palace, and men came to her and spoke before her of good and
bad, and among the rest next day came Anectanabus. And as the queen
looked upon him, he bowed him down, and said, “Hail, fair Queen of
Macedon;” and the queen noted his speech, for he spoke as one that
was a king and not as a clerk, though he were clothed in weeds of
drab and went with shaven crown. So she made him to sit down before
her on a silk-covered seat, and she began to question him full
fairly, whether he were of Egypt, and what manner of folk were in
that land, and what was the learning of its wise men--for she knew
by his tongue that he was an outlander, and be like an Egyptian.
And Anectanabus answered her and told her of the land of Egypt, and
of its wonders, and of its wisdom, how some men told the meaning of
dreams, and whether they were true or false, and when they should
come to pass; some men understood the song of the birds and the
voice of beasts; some could tell of the birth of children, and of
the length of life; some could declare the secret counsels of men,
which never were spoken to any one; and some could read the course
of the stars and the signs of heaven, and say what shall come to
pass in few years’ time--“and, fair Queen,” continued he, “I have
so clear a knowledge of all these arts, that I can prove myself
a master in each of them.” So saying, he leaned forward from his
seat, and stared in a study, still as a stone, at her face. Then
said the queen, “What art thou musing on, Master; why dost thou
sit so still?” “I am thinking, O Queen,” said he, “on the words of
my god, who long ago told me that I should sit in a strange land an
exile, and see the fairest queen on earth.” Then the queen prayed
him to show her how he sought out these things, and he drew out of
his bosom a little box with seven pieces of ivory in it, and he
showed her how by casting these he could tell what should happen
to men, and answer questions about their deeds. And he showed her
seven precious stones, on each of which a wondrous figure was
carved, which preserved men who wore them from all harm. And then
he drew out his table of ivory with three rings upon it, by which
he read the stars: the first ring was of brass, and on it were
marked the twelve houses of fate; the second was of bright silver,
and on it were marked wondrous beasts, the twelve signs of the
heavens; and the third was of red gold, and on it were marked the
sun and the moon; and as he showed them he told her the course of
the stars, and how they governed the life of men.
[Illustration: Anectanabus telleth the Queen’s fate.]
And Olympias said to him, “O Master, tell me the day on which my
lord that I love was born, and then I shall know thy skill.” “Small
skill were that,” said Anectanabus, “to tell the past; is there
naught of the future you would learn?” “Yea,” said the Queen, “tell
me what shall part Philip and me, for it is told me by my wise
women that if he returns from battle he shall take another wife,
and send me away for ever.” “Nay, not for ever,” said the Egyptian,
“not for ever, nor for long shall he put thee away, for will he
nill he, he must have thee for his queen.” Then Olympias wondered
greatly, and she asked Anectanabus how this should be, and the wise
man answered and told her, how that the great god of her country,
Ammon, should give her a fair son who should help her all his life,
and how that the god would protect her till her son was grown. Then
was the queen right glad, and she promised Anectanabus that when
these things should happen she would honour him all her life. Then
the wise man rose from his seat, and after looking on the queen for
a while, went from the hall to make his enchantments as at other
times.
Now that night the moon was at full, when all herbs have their
strongest might, so Anectanabus got him forth from the city into a
wild place, where no man might see him, and there he drew up herbs
for his enchantments, marking the fairest and best, and when the
hour of the moon was come he plucked them out by the roots, and
washed the earth from them in running water. Then he ground them
together in a mortar, and wrung out the juice, and he made an image
of the queen in white wax, and anointed it with the juice of the
plants he had gathered, and calling on the powers of the air with
is conjurations, he made a dream for the queen. So she, lying
in her palace alone, saw a huge dragon enter and circle the room
three times--then it came and stood before her, and, lo! it was a
man, but a man in shape like to her god; and the man told her that
she should have a son who should defend her in all her cares, and
override all her foes. Then the queen woke from her dream, and
stretched out her hands to the god she had seen, but the room was
dark, so, springing from her bed, she ran to the door, but that was
safely fast, and groping round she found naught in the room; and
sad that her dream was false, she fell asleep again thinking of the
wise Egyptian, who, mayhap, should tell her what it meant.
Early on the morrow the queen rose from her sleep, and sent her
housecarles for Anectanabus in haste; then when he came she took
him apart and told him all her dream. Then said he to the queen:
“If thou art willing, and not afraid, I can show thee this god face
to face, and thou waking; but thine eyes must be opened to see him.”
So was the queen glad, and she assigned him a room in her palace;
and the next night did Anectanabus, by his art magic, change
himself into a dragon such as the queen had seen in her dream, and
flying through the air with his heavy wings he came into the place
of the queen. Then she rose up to meet him, but the sight was so
terrible to her that she covered her face with her hands; but soon
she heard a voice bidding her look up, and lo! before her was the
figure of her god Ammon--a strong, fair man, bearing on his head
two horns. Then was she glad of her life, that she alone of all
living women had seen this thing; and he spoke to her of all the
things that Anectanabus had told her, and of how her son should
ride through the world.
So fell she to sleep, and when she woke in the morning light there
was none there, and the doors of the palace were fast, and great
thanks she gave to Anectanabus for his magic, for she wist not that
her god was but a show of the wise Egyptian.
But in that same night that the queen had dreamed, the Egyptian
had so wrought his enchantments that in the hour of Philip’s star
he too had fallen asleep, and he dreamed that a dragon had taken
him up through the air, and had borne him off to his own palace,
and to the room in which Olympias, his queen, lay sleeping. Then
tried he to draw near her, but she felt not his touch nor heard
his voice; and suddenly he was ware of a god in the room in the
shape of Ammon, and the god came to the queen and laid his hand
on her, and waked her, and sealed her with a gold seal. So Philip
drew near, and saw that on this seal were three things graved--the
head of a mighty lion, the burst of the morning sun rising over
the world, and a sharp, keen blade of a sword; and he heard the
god say: “Woman, thy son that I give thee shall be thy defender.”
Now Philip when he woke, was so sore troubled by his dream that he
called on his diviners to say to him what it should mean. Then said
the chief of the magicians: “O King, this thy dream means that thy
wife shall give thee a son fair and mighty. And because on the seal
thou sawest a lion’s head, as the lion is the chief of all beasts,
this son shall be a chief and a master among all chieftains. And
since on the seal was the burst of the sunrise, so shall this son
ride through the world, and everywhere shall he be exalted till he
comes to the Land of the East; and the biting brand showeth that by
his sword shall nations out of number be conquered and bow to him.
But for the dragon that bore thee from hence to thy own land, he
shall be to thee for an aid, and that right soon.” And then was the
king glad in his heart.
But Anectanabus knew by his box of stones how that Philip should
be sore beset on a certain day, and so, going out into a desert
place, he called up to him by art magic a great bird from the sea,
with broad wings, great beak, and strong claws like iron. And as
it drew near him it circled him seven times, and then sunk down at
his feet. Then the Egyptian took and rubbed him with the juice of
the plants he had gathered, from wingtip to wingtip, and from head
to tail, and then with his mightiest spells he sent him forth over
land and sea. And lo! he seemed no more a sea bird, but a mighty
dragon flying through the air. But far away Philip was in deadly
battle, for he had been all day fighting, and now was he wearied,
and a great stone had struck him, so that he reeled to the ground,
and his men were at point to fly, and his foes were clamouring with
joy, and their eyes were burning to slay, when the great dragon
flew towards them, and men paused to see what should happen, and
lo! it fell on the foemen, and first on him who had struck down
Philip, and men’s swords fell on it and were shivered, and none
dared to see its face, and the men of Macedon took fresh heart, and
Philip sprang up shouting, “The God, the Gods for us!” and the foe
were routed and their king slain, and far away the great dragon
rose in the air and disappeared, no man knowing whither.
So Philip came home with much joy, honoured of men, and when he met
his queen he kissed her fair, and they spoke of their dreams, and
of what the god had promised them. And it fell that two wonders
happened to them. For one day as they sat at meat in the hall, and
folk around them great and small, a great dragon came into the
palace, and men fled, save some that drew sword and turned pale,
but the king cried out: “Faith, but this is the noble dragon that
turned the fight for us that other even.” Then the king was glad,
but the great worm came slowly up the hall till it reached the
queen, and there it raised its head on her knees, and she knew it
for the dragon that had come to her, and lifted its head and kissed
it, and all men looked for some change; but the dragon turned and
went its way out as it came in, and those outside saw nought save
the Egyptian diviner standing at the gate.
And one other day, as Philip sat in his great hall, with all his
nobles and chief men round him, there came a singing-bird into the
hall and sang a sweet song, and circled his head, and came and sat
on his knee, and there dropped an egg and flew away. Then as the
king sat and looked, the egg rolled from his knee and fell to the
ground, and there it broke, and a little worm came out and crawled
about, but soon it died. Then a great clerk near him said: “This
signifieth, O king, that thy blithe lady’s son shall walk the world
and win it, and die a bitter death before he may return.” These
were the wonders that happened ere the birth of Alexander.
* * * * *
Now drew on the time when this noble child was to be born, and as
he came to earth temples and towers tumbled on heaps, thunder rang
through the welkin, darkness fell over the earth, the wind rose
and blew, the lightning flashed over the land, and great stones
fell from the sky. Then Philip feared, and said: “Surely this son
that is born shall do great things, and men will call me the father
of this child”; and with that he went to Olympias and comforted
her. But the child grew, nor was he like to father nor mother. His
hair was yellow-tawny, like a lion’s, his eyes were bright and
glistening, piercing like blazing stars; grim and fierce was his
look, one of his eyes black as a coal, the other yellow like gold;
his voice was loud, even from his first cry, nor could any hear it
without inward fear. Alexander was his name, and the wisest man
of all the world, Aristotle, was his tutor, nor would he learn of
other. Clever and wise was he, nor did he sit with the crowd of
boys, but on a bench beside his master, for it became not a king’s
son to sit down undistinguished from other boys. In four or five
years he learnt more than many scholars learn in seventy winters.
And when he was eleven years old he set him to learn the art and
craft of battle, to wield a spear and a lance, to ride a noble
steed in armour, so that in a few years was none equal to him, and
in adventures of arms he surpassed all men.
It fell on a day that Philip the king was with him, and greatly did
he praise him for his deeds, and much was his heart moved towards
him; but he said: “Sorely my mind is troubled that nought of me
hast thou in look, nor height, nor colour, whereby men may know
that thou art my son”: for Philip was tall and black and dark-eyed.
Then was the noble queen Olympias grieved when she heard tell of
the king’s saying, and she sent for Anectanabus, the Egyptian,
and he came, but with little speed, for he was now old and grey.
And when he was before her, she asked him what should fall of the
king’s speech, for ever she had feared the doom that was to come;
but he comforted her, and bade her fear not, for he read day and
night the stars for her, and none of the king’s thoughts were
against her.
So he went out, and Alexander with him, and as they went, ever
the Egyptian looked at the stars, and down at the ground, and
sighed. So Alexander asked him at what planet was he looking, and
Anectanabus showed it him. Then he asked him why he sighed, and
the Egyptian said: “My hour draws near, the son of my works shall
slay me! Look over our heads and see that red star shine--the star
of Hercules, how bitterly it moves, but noble Mercury shines ever,
and great Jove, how jollily he shines--the doom of my destiny is
on me.” And as he said the word, Alexander stumbled forward, and
pushing the unhappy Egyptian, he fell from the wall of the town
where they were walking into the ditch which surrounded it, and
with a cry sank. The youth plunged in after him, but when he found
his body the old man was dead, and with what grief we cannot tell,
Alexander carried home the body of Anectanabus to the palace of his
mother. Let others tell the story of her grief, of her tears, and
of the splendid tomb of the exiled king--I cannot.
[Illustration]