t of
platform there, to prevent the stones from sinking into the slime.
They built new towers and engines, covering them with green hides to
make them fire-proof; and thus they were soon advancing again, and
gradually drawing nearer to the city, and in a more threatening and
formidable manner than ever.

Alexander, finding that his efforts were impeded very much by the
ships of the Tyrians, determined on collecting and equipping a fleet
of his own. This he did at Sidon, which was a town a short distance
north of Tyre. He embarked on board this fleet himself, and came down
with it into the Tyrian seas. With this fleet he had various success.
He chained many of the ships together, two and two, at a little
distance apart, covering the inclosed space with a platform, on which
the soldiers could stand to fight. The men also erected engines on
these platforms to attack the city. These engines were of various
kinds. There was what they called the battering ram, which was a long
and very heavy beam of wood, headed with iron or brass. This beam was
suspended by a chain in the middle, so that it could be swung back and
forth by the soldiers, its head striking against the wall each time,
by which means the wall would sometimes be soon battered down. They
had also machines for throwing great stones, or beams of wood, by
means of the elastic force of strong bars of wood, or of steel, or
that of twisted ropes. The part of the machine upon which the stone
was placed would be drawn back by the united strength of many of the
soldiers, and then, as it recovered itself when released, the stone
would be thrown off into the air with prodigious velocity and force.

Alexander's double galleys answered very well as long as the water was
smooth; but sometimes, when they were caught out in a swell, the
rolling of the waves would rack and twist them so as to tear the
platforms asunder, and sink the men in the sea. Thus difficulties
unexpected and formidable were continually arising. Alexander,
however, persevered through them all. The Tyrians, finding themselves
pressed more and more, and seeing that the dangers impending became
more and more formidable every day, at length concluded to send a
great number of the women and children away to Carthage, which was a
great commercial city in Africa. They were determined not to submit to
Alexander, but to carry their resistance to the very last extremity.
And as the closing scenes of a siege, especial