THE STORY OF ALEXANDER

M. M. S.

A TOKEN OF

FRIENDSHIP AND ADMIRATION

[Pg vii]

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[viii] 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[ix] 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.

[x] [xi]

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[2] 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[3] 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[4] 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[5] 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[6] 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,[7] 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[8] 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.

[9]

CHAPTER II.

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[10] 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[11] 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[12] 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.