the
Persian kings. What a present! The killer of a son sending the dead
body, in a splendid coffin, to the mother, as a token of respectful
regard!

Alexander pressed on to the northward and eastward in pursuit of
Bessus, who had soon collected the scattered remains of his army, and
was doing his utmost to get into a posture of defense. He did not,
however, overtake him till he had crossed the Oxus, a large river
which will be found upon the map, flowing to the northward and
westward into the Caspian Sea. He had great difficulty in crossing
this river, as it was too deep to be forded, and the banks and bottom
were so sandy and yielding that he could not make the foundations of
bridges stand. He accordingly made floats and rafts, which were
supported by skins made buoyant by inflation, or by being stuffed with
straw and hay. After getting his army, which had been in the mean time
greatly re-enforced and strengthened, across this river, he moved on.
The generals under Bessus, finding all hope of escape failing them,
resolved on betraying him as he had betrayed his commander. They sent
word to Alexander that if he would send forward a small force where
they should indicate, they would give up Bessus to his hands.
Alexander did so, intrusting the command to an officer named Ptolemy.
Ptolemy found Bessus in a small walled town whither he had fled for
refuge, and easily took him prisoner. He sent back word to Alexander
that Bessus was at his disposal, and asked for orders. The answer was,
"Put a rope around his neck and send him to me."

When the wretched prisoner was brought into Alexander's presence,
Alexander demanded of him how he could have been so base as to have
seized, bound, and at last murdered his kinsman and benefactor. It is
a curious instance in proof of the permanence and stability of the
great characteristics of human nature, through all the changes of
civilization and lapses of time, that Bessus gave the same answer that
wrong-doers almost always give when brought to account for their
wrongs. He laid the fault upon his accomplices and friends. It was not
his act, it was theirs.

Alexander ordered him to be publicly scourged; then he caused his face
to be mutilated in a manner customary in those days, when a tyrant
wished to stamp upon his victim a perpetual mark of infamy. In this
condition, and with a mind in an agony of suspense and fear at the
thought of worse tortures which he knew were to come, Alex