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with white plumes, was the special object of attack. cuirass was pierced by a javelin, at the joint, but thus far he was unhurt. Now he was assailed by two chiefs of great distinction. Evading one, he engaged the other. After a desperate struggle, in which his crest was shorn away, and his helmet cleft to his hair, he slew one of the chiefs, and was saved, at the moment of deadly peril, by the hand of his friend Clytus, who despatched the other.

While Alexander's cavalry were fighting with the utmost fury, the Macedonian phalanx and the infantry crossed the river, and now engaged the enemy. The effect of a leader's example was never more strikingly displayed. Alexander's exhibition of courage and prowess made every soldier a hero. They fought, indeed, like persons who knew nothing, and cared for nothing, but to destroy the enemy. Some of the Persians gave way and fled. Their hireling Greeks, however, maintained the fight, and Alexander's horse was killed under him—but not the celebrated Bucephalus. "When Greek meets Greek, then comes the tug of war." The fight was indeed severe, but at last Alexander triumphed. The victory was complete. The loss of the Persians was twenty-five thousand slain; that of the Macedonians less than fifty.

Alexander had now passed the gates of Asia, and had obtained entrance into the dominions of the enemy. He paused for a time, to pay the last honours to the dead. To each he erected a statue of brass, executed by Lysippus. Upon the arms which were taken and distributed among the troops, he caused this inscription to be made: "Won, by Alexander, of the barbarians in Asia."

We may remark that Bonaparte seems to have imitated the Macedonian conqueror in this kind of boasting. As he was on his march to Russia, he caused to be graven on a stone fountain at Coblentz, upon the Rhine, an inscription, as follows :— "Year MDCCCXII. Memorable for the Campaign against Russia, 1812."

The Russian commander, when Napoleon had been dethroned, passing through Coblentz with his troops, caused to be carved,

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immediately beneath, as follows:-" Seen and approved by the Russian Commander of the Town of Coblentz. Fanuary 1, 1814."

It is true that no such speedy retort awaited the Macedonian conqueror; yet he was bound upon an errand which was, ere long, to put a period to his proud career.

Alexander soon pushed on to the East, and, meeting Darius near the Gulf of Issus, now Skanderoon-and forming the north-eastern point of the Mediterranean-a tremendous engagement took place, 333 B.C. Darius was defeated, and more than one hundred thousand of his soldiers lay dead on the field. Darius escaped with difficulty, leaving his tent, and even his wife and daughter, in the hands of the enemy. When the fighting was over, Alexander went to see the tent of Darius. It was, indeed, a curiosity to one like the Macedonian king, little acquainted with Eastern refinements. He gazed for a moment at the luxurious baths of Darius-his vases, boxes, vials, and basins, all of wrought gold; he inhaled the luscious perfumes, and surveyed the rich silk drapery and gorgeous furniture of the tent, and then exclaimed, contemptuously, "This, then, it seems, is to be a king;" intimating that, if these were the only distinctions of a sovereign, the title deserved contempt.

While Alexander was thus occupied, he was told that the wife and daughter of Darius were his captives. The queen was one of the loveliest women ever known, and the daughter was also exceedingly beautiful. Though Alexander was told of all this, he sent word to the afflicted ladies that they need have no fear; and he caused them to be treated with the utmost delicacy and attention. He refrained from using his power in any way to their annoyance, and thus displayed one of the noblest graces of a gentleman and a man—a nice regard for the feelings of the gentler sex. This anecdote of the conqueror has shed more honour upon his name, for two thousand years, than the victory of the Issus; nor will it cease to be cited in his praise as long as history records his name.

The historians represent Alexander as simple in his tastes and habits, at this period. He was temperate in eating, drank wine with great moderation, and, if he sat long at table, it was