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submission of the people whom he governed to the great king. The 

 ambassadors were respectfully received, and magnificently enter- 

 tained : the required tribute also, with whatever reluctance, was 

 granted. At a banquet purposely provided for his Persian guests, 

 Amyntas was requested, in the hour of high festivity, to introduce 

 the women of the palace ; a custom consistent enough with the 

 luxury of Persian manners, but by no means compatible with the 

 strictness of those of Macedonia. Amyntas, however, fearful of 

 giving offence to the formidable power whom they represented, 

 indulged them in their desire, and the ladies were commanded to 

 join the company. Their exquisite beauty, added to the sparkling- 

 wine, so far inflamed his Persian guests, that they immediately 

 proceeded to violate hospitality by the most indecorous treatment 

 of the princesses. This being observed, with rage and indignation, 

 by the young Alexander, his son, he contrived some excuse for the 

 women to withdraw, and, in the mean time, caused an equal num- 

 ber of handsome youths to be dressed in women's apparel, and 

 armed with concealed poniards. When the intoxicated Persians 

 demanded the return of the illustrious females, these youths were 

 admitted, who, the instant they began to repeat their indecent 

 freedoms, fell upon them with their poinards, and laid them 

 prostrate at their feet. By an exertion of consummate policy on 

 the part of Alexander, the affair was hushed, and the kingdom 

 saved from that inevitable destruction which must have attended 

 the discovery*. It was this very Alexander, indeed, who after- 

 wards became the herald of the message sent by Mardonius, after 

 the disgraceful flight of Xerxes, alluded to in the preceding chapter, 

 and insidiously intended to separate Athens from the general 

 confederacy of which she was not only the head, but the inspiring 



* Herodot. lib. v. cap. 20. 



