CHAPTER IX
THE DOOM OF THEBES
The plain where once the sons of Niobe lay weltering had borne its lastharvest of slaughter. On every side Leonidas and Clearchus noted theghastly evidences of battle. Darkness fell before Ptolemy's troopreached the shattered gates of Thebes. Men with torches in their handswandered through the streets strewn with corpses, seeking plunder amongthe dead or searching for the bodies of friends. Neither sex nor agehad been spared when Perdiccas hewed his way into the city. The veryaltars of the Gods were crimsoned with the vengeance taken by thePhocians, the Plataeans, and the B[oe]otians for the centuries of crueloppression that they had suffered from the rapacious brood of theDragon.
Mothers lay dabbled in blood, with their infants beside them, struckdown in flight. The market-place was heaped with bodies, showing howdesperate had been the final stand of the Theban soldiers. The streetswere littered with household gear that had been dragged in wantonnessfrom despoiled homes.
The plundering was not yet finished. Bands of soldiers were stillsearching for booty in the remoter quarters of the city, where theirprogress could be traced by the sound of their drunken laughter,mingled with the screams of their victims.
Macedonian guards paced the walls and cut off all hope of escape. Thewretched inhabitants, driven into the highways, sought concealment indark angles and narrow lanes, cowering in silence.
Here and there a woman, rendered desperate by her anguish, walked withdishevelled hair, heedless of insult, seeking her children among theslain in the hope that she might find them still alive.
Clearchus felt his heart grow faint at the thought that Artemisia mightbe exposed to the frightful chances of such a sack. Ph[oe]bus himself,he thought, might be unable to protect her, since here the temples ofthe Gods had been profaned. An old man in priestly robes stood outbefore them with trembling hands upraised.
"Vengeance, O Zeus!" he cried aloud. "Vengeance upon those who haveviolated the sanctuary of Dionysus, thy son! May they--"
"Silence, Graybeard!" growled a soldier, striking him across the mouthwith his fist.
The old man reeled from the blow and shrank away into the shadow.
"You'll choke if you ever try to drink wine again, Glaucis!" a comradecried, laughing.
"Dionysus will forgive me soon enough for a sacrifice," Glaucisreturned. "Never fear!"
Ptolemy learned that Alexander had gone to the Cadmea and thither heled Clearchus and Leonidas after he had dismissed his men, eager totake their share in the pillage. They found the young king in a large,bare room in the lower part of the citadel. He had not yet laid asidehis armor, which was dented and scratched by use.
When they entered, he was giving orders to his captains, who stoodgrouped about him. Clearchus looked at him with eager interest. Hesaw a well-proportioned, athletic figure, no taller than his own. Thehandsome beardless face glowed with the warm blood of youth and a smileparted the full red lips. There was no trace of fatigue in the youngking's attitude, despite the labors of the day, and his movements werealert and decisive. He looked even more youthful than his twenty-oneyears as he stood among his leaders, some of whom were veterans ofPhilip's campaigns, grizzled with service. But in spite of his youth,there was a confidence in his bearing that left no doubt of who wasmaster.
Clearchus felt himself strangely drawn to the young man whom allHellas, with the exception of Sparta, acknowledged as its champion, andwho was about to assail that great power beyond the Hellespont, whoselimits were unknown and before whom Greece had stood in dread since thedays of Great Cyrus. The Athenian found the "boy king" very differentfrom the arrogant, mean-spirited upstart that the orators of his cityhad painted him.
"Stop the plundering," Alexander said to his captains. "Even theB[oe]otians must be satisfied by this time. Let the men go back to thecamp, and see that order is maintained. The AEtolians and the Elaeansare on the march and reenforcements are coming from Athens. There maybe more work to do to-morrow."
As the officers left him to execute his commands, Alexander turned toPtolemy with hands outstretched.
"I am glad to see you safe!" he said. "You charged bravely before thegate, and I feared that something might have happened that woulddeprive me of your aid when we march into Persia."
Ptolemy's bronzed face reddened with pleasure as he heard the praise ofthe young king.
"I went in pursuit of the enemy's cavalry," he said.
"Is it likely that any of those who escaped will be able to rally?"Alexander asked.
"They are scattered in every direction and think only of flight,"Ptolemy replied.
"That is well," Alexander said. "We shall be the better able to dealwith the others when they come. Who are these that you have brought tome?"
He turned toward the two young men, who had been standing at a littledistance, and looked them frankly in the eyes.
"This is Clearchus, an Athenian, and this, Leonidas of Sparta," Ptolemyreplied, presenting them in turn.
Alexander's face clouded at the names of the two most powerful of thestates that opposed him in Greece, and Ptolemy hastened to add: "Theysaved my life when my horse stumbled in the pursuit, and they have arequest to make of you."
"You have done me a great service," Alexander said kindly. "What is itthat you desire?"
"We ask clemency for the family of Jason, on behalf of Chares, his son,whom we left behind in Athens," Clearchus replied.
"And why is he not in Thebes?" Alexander asked quickly.
"Because he did not know that you were coming," Clearchus said. "Hadhe been aware of the danger, he would not have been absent. We heardof your arrival while we were in Delphi, and we made all haste toremind you that Jason was a guest-friend of your father, Philip."
"Orders have been given that the guest-friends of Macedon shall bespared, both in their lives and their property," Alexander replied."What did you in Delphi?"
Clearchus told him briefly how Artemisia had been stolen and of theresponse of the oracle.
"Love must be a strong passion," the young king said thoughtfully.
"I would give all that I possess to recover Artemisia," Clearchusreplied. "Nor would I be willing to exchange my hope of finding herfor the wisdom of Aristotle or even for the hopes of Alexander."
"So you know Aristotle," Alexander said. "He is a wonderful man. WereI not Alexander, I would envy him." He looked curiously at Clearchus ashe spoke, as though he were considering something that he did notunderstand. "So that is what they call love," he continued, "and I andmy army are the Whirlwind of which the God spoke." He beckoned to anattendant. "Call Aristander!" he said.
He made Clearchus repeat his story to the famous soothsayer.Aristander listened attentively, stroking his chin with the tips of hisfingers as his custom was.
"What do you think of it?" Alexander asked, when Clearchus hadfinished. Everybody knew the confidence that he placed in the words ofthe prophet and that he never took an important step against his advice.
"Full credit must be given to the oracle," Aristander said, turning hisblue eyes upon the young king, "and I think that the priests of thetemple were right in their interpretation, since the message broughtand the title given could have had no other meaning. As the maid wascarried away by sea, she was probably taken to some island or to one ofthe cities on the coast of Asia. The Whirlwind's track must needs leadthither, and since the maid is to be set free, it is clear that theWhirlwind shall prevail."
"Then the oracle is propitious!" Alexander exclaimed. "What is yourplan?" he added to Clearchus.
"I shall obey the oracle and follow in thy track," the Athenianreplied. "If thou wilt permit me, I myself will become a part of theWhirlwind."
Alexander looked at him with the unquenchable fire of enthusiasm in hiseyes.
"Thou art welcome!" he said. "And you, my friend of stubborn Sparta?"he continued to Leonidas.
"I go with Clearchus," the Spartan responded briefly.
"You shall be of my Companions," Alexander cried, placing his hand upona shoulder of each. "The world grows old and we have been wasting ourstrength in foolish quarrels with each other while the tiger has beenlying there across the water, waiting to devour us. We shall show himthat the spirit of Hellas still lives, although Troy has fallen, and wewill do deeds that shall be sung by some new Homer as worthy too of aplace beside those of Achilles and Ajax and Agamemnon. Yes, and wewill bring back a fleece more precious than that which the Argonautssought. I promise you that the Whirlwind's track shall be long enoughand broad enough to lead you to your heart's desire, whatever it maybe. Ptolemy, I count these men among my friends and I give them intoyour charge."
Clearchus and Leonidas felt their hearts swell at the young king'swords and his lofty generosity, but before they could thank him, theywere interrupted by a commotion at the door.
"Out of the way! I will see him! I care not how late it is," an angryvoice exclaimed.
"It is Chares, son of Jason," Clearchus said. "How comes he here?"
Alexander quietly signed to the guard, and the Theban strode into theroom, clad in armor that clashed noisily as he walked. He lookedneither to the right nor left, but went straight to Alexander.
"I am come to remind the King of Macedon of the ties of hospitality,"he said boldly, in a voice more fitted to a demand than a petition.
Alexander measured his great stature with admiration in his glance,noting that the armor, gold-inlaid, was crusted with mud and grime likehis own.
"Thy name might be Hector," he said.
The Theban, ignorant of the young king's train of thought and of whathad gone before, imagined that he saw mockery in this remark. His faceflushed darkly.
"My name is Chares!" he said haughtily. "Jason, my father, was thefriend of Epaminondas, who furnished thy father with the weapons thatthou hast used against us this day. I come not to thee on my ownbehalf, but on that of my mother and sisters, who were shut in herewhen the attack came."
"You are too late!" the young king said composedly.
Chares staggered and his face blanched. "Too late!" he exclaimedhoarsely. "Does Alexander, then, make war upon women?"
"I say you came too late," Alexander replied, "and doubly so; for yourfriends, here, were more prompt than you, and yet even they were tardy."
"My friends!" Chares cried in bewilderment, seeing Leonidas andClearchus for the first time.
"Alexander speaks the truth," Clearchus said quickly. "We are all toolate, because he had already given orders for the safety of yourfamily."
"I ask your forgiveness; I spoke without understanding," Chares said,turning to the king.
"Thou hast courage," Alexander said with a smile, "but I would notchoose thee as my envoy on a delicate mission. Thou wert not here todefend thy home?"
"Because I knew not that there was need," Chares admitted. "I amsorry."
"And I am glad," the young king rejoined, "for hadst thou been insidethe walls, I fear I might have lost men whom I cannot spare. Didstthou come from Athens?"
"I left Athens with the army," Chares answered, "but it halted on thefrontier when news arrived that Thebes had fallen."
"Then there will be no more fighting!" Alexander exclaimed, turning toPtolemy. "I am glad of it. Greet thy mother for me, Chares, and tellher to fear nothing. Ptolemy will conduct you."
Escorted by the Macedonian captain, the three friends descended fromthe citadel. Order had been restored in the city as though by magic.Only the military patrols and the bodies of the dead remained in thestreets. The living had been driven into their houses, taking thewounded with them. The plunderers had retired to the camp outside thewalls.
Chares strode eagerly in advance, asking many questions regarding theexperiences of his friends in Delphi. The house of Jason, a mansionbuilt near the northern end of the city, had been saved by its locationfrom the desperate fighting that had taken place about the southerngate and in the market-place. They found a guard stationed at the door.
"You see that the king is as good as his word," Ptolemy said. "Youwill find nothing disturbed here."
"How could he have remembered his friends in the heat of the attack?"Chares asked.
"He forgets nothing," the captain replied, "neither friend nor enemy."
Chares urged the Macedonian to enter, but Ptolemy declined on theground of fatigue and left them. The slave at the gate went wild withjoy when he caught sight of his young master. He had been waiting inmomentary expectation of being summoned forth to the death that he wasconvinced awaited everybody in the city.
Chares hastened to the women's court, where he found his mother andsisters robed in white and surrounded by their maids, who were tryingto spin, although their fingers trembled so that they could hardly holdthe distaff. The widow of Jason, a woman with silvery hair and a facethat was still beautiful, sat calmly in the midst of the group,awaiting with quiet courage what might befall. She rose with composureto greet her son and his companions.
"You are safe, mother!" Chares exclaimed, clasping her in his arms."Alexander has given his word that you shall be unharmed!"
"You have seen him?" she returned. "That is well. You may go to yourrest. Nothing shall harm you," she added, dismissing her maidens.