all Greece with tales of Alexander's
energy and courage, and of the nobleness and generosity of his
character. It was the most effectual way possible of disseminating
through Europe the most brilliant accounts of what he had already
done.

Besides, it must have awakened a new bond of sympathy and
fellow-feeling between himself and his soldiers, and greatly increased
the attachment to him felt both by those who went and those who
remained. And though Alexander must have been aware of all these
advantages of the act, still no one could have thought of or adopted
such a plan unless he was accustomed to consider and regard, in his
dealings with others, the feelings and affections of the heart, and
to cherish a warm sympathy for them. The bridegroom soldiers, full of
exultation and pleasure, set forth on their return to Greece, in a
detachment under the charge of three generals, themselves bridegrooms
too.

Alexander, however, had no idea of remaining idle during the winter.
He marched on from province to province, and from city to city,
meeting with every variety of adventures. He went first along the
southern coast, until at length he came to a place where a mountain
chain, called Taurus, comes down to the sea-coast, where it terminates
abruptly in cliffs and precipices, leaving only a narrow beach between
them and the water below. This beach was sometimes covered and
sometimes bare. It is true, there is very little tide in the
Mediterranean, but the level of the water along the shores is altered
considerably by the long-continued pressure exerted in one direction
or another by winds and storms. The water was _up_ when Alexander
reached this pass; still he determined to march his army through it.
There was another way, back among the mountains, but Alexander seemed
disposed to gratify the love of adventure which his army felt, by
introducing them to a novel scene of danger. They accordingly defiled
along under these cliffs, marching, as they say, sometimes up to the
waist in water, the swell rolling in upon them all the time from the
offing.

Having at length succeeded in passing safely round this frowning
buttress of the mountains, Alexander turned northward, and advanced
into the very heart of Asia Minor. In doing this he had to pass _over_
the range which he had come _round_ before; and, as it was winter, his
army were, for a time, enveloped in snows and storms among the wild
and frightful defiles. They had here, i