HIS DEATH. 93 



the glimmering of the stars and the faint beams of 

 the horned moon, the young nobles of the household 

 were seen wandering like maniacs through the town. 

 On the roofs of their houses the Babylonians stood 

 grave and silent with folded hands, and eyes turned 

 towards heaven, as if awaiting a supernatural event. 

 High aloft in the air the trees of the hanging gardens 

 waved their moaning boughs, and the daughters of 

 Babylon sang the dirge of the dead. In that sorrow- 

 ful hour the conquerors could not be distinguished 

 from the conquered ; the Persians lamented their just 

 and merciful master ; the Macedonians their greatest, 

 bravest king. In an apartment of the palace an aged 

 woman was lying on the ground ; her hair was torn 

 and dishevelled ; a golden crown had fallen from her 

 head. " Ah ! who will now protect my girls ? " she said. 

 Then, veiling her face, and turning from her grand- 

 daughters, who wept at her feet, she stubbornly re- 

 fused both food and light. She who had survived 

 Darius, was unable to survive Alexander. In famine 

 and darkness she sat ; and on the fifth day she died. 



Alexander's body lay cold and stiff. The Egyptian 

 and Chaldaean embalmers were commanded to do 

 their work. Yet long they gazed upon that awful 

 corpse before they could venture to touch it with their 

 hands. Placed in a golden coffin, shrouded in a bed 

 of fragrant herbs, it remained two years at Babylon, 

 and was then carried to Egypt to be buried in the 

 oasis of Ammon. But Ptolemy stopped it on the 

 road, and interred it at Alexandria in a magnificent 

 temple, which he built for the purpose, and surrounded 

 with groves for the celebration of funereal rites and 

 military games. Long afterwards, when the dominion 

 of the Macedonians had passed away, there came 



