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progeny of Carthage; or the untamed savages of the Lybian deserts. 

 At present, thou art at the pinnacle of human glory, and terrible at 

 the head of a brave, though reduced, army. But who can say what 

 dreadful reverses the Fates may ordain for thee among the Gangetic 

 Indians? Remember, prince, that moderation in prosperity is a 

 virtue, above all others, transcendently bright and eminent; and 

 that vicissitude is the inevitable doom of mortality*." 



The other generals afterwards joined in the representations of 

 Cosnus, and the whole army confirmed the truth of them by renew- 

 ed sighs and murmurs. Alexander, more irritated than convinced by 

 all the arguments used to persuade him to retreat, abruptly broke up 

 the assembly, and retired into his tent, where he shut himself up for 

 three days in sullen reserve ; refusing to see even his most intimate 

 friends. He did this, as well to avoid farther solicitation, as in 

 hopes, that, seeing him so fixed in his determination, the army might 

 be induced to recede from their own. At the end of that period 

 he again appeared in public, but found the troops still obstinately 

 bent not to proceed, and the general murmur greatly increased. 

 Matters were now growing too serious for Alexander longer to 

 persist in his rash resolve. He disdained, however, the appear- 

 ance of a forced compliance with the wishes of his army ; and, 

 therefore, ordered sacrifices to be offered for their safe passage and 

 future progress. But the omens being represented by Aristander 

 (probably at his own instigation) as utterly inauspicious, the king 

 affected to pay that submission to the decrees of the gods which he 

 refused to yield to the remonstrances of man. Upon the professed 

 ground of Heaven being inimical to his farther progress, he issued 

 orders for the return of the army, which were no sooner proclaimed, 

 than the sky was rent with the loudest acclamations of joy ; the 



* Arrian, lib. v. cap. 27. Curtius, lib. ix. cap. 3. 



