only in the unattractive light in
which history represents him.

A person not initiated in romance would suppose that the real actions
of Alexander--the subjugator of Greece, the conqueror of Persia, the
captor of the great Darius, but the generous protector of his
family--might sufficiently immortalize him. By no means. He cuts a
considerable figure in many romances; but in one, appropriated more
exclusively to his exploits, he "surpasses himself." The world was
conquered:--from north to south, and from east to west his sovereignty
was acknowledged; so he forthwith flew up into the air to bring the
aerial potentates to his feet. But this experiment not answering, he
descended to the depths of the waters with much better success; for
immediately all their inhabitants, from the whale to the herring, the
cannibal shark, the voracious pike, the majestic sturgeon, the lordly
salmon, the rich turbot, and the delicate trout, with all their kith,
kin, relations, and allies, the lobster, the crab, and the muscle,

"The sounds and seas with all their finny drove"

crowd round him to do him homage: the oyster lays her pearl at his
feet, and the coral boughs meekly wave in token of subjection.
Doubtless in addition to the legitimate "battles" these exploits, if
not fully displayed, were intimated by symbols in the Tapestry.

The Tale of Troy was a very favourite subject for Tapestry, and was
found in many noble mansions, especially in France. It has indeed been
conjectured, and on sufficient grounds, that the whole Iliad had been
wrought in a consecutive series of hangings. Though during the early
part of the middle ages Homer himself was lost, still the "Tale of
Troy divine" was kept alive in two Latin works, which in 1260 formed
the basis of a prose romance by a Sicilian.

The great original himself however, had become the companion not only
of the studious and learned, but also of the fair and fashionable,
while yet the Flemish looms were in the zenith of their popularity.
This subject formed part of the decoration of Holyrood House, on the
occasion of the marriage of Henry the Seventh's daughter to James,
King of Scotland in 1503. We are told in an ancient record, that the
"hanginge of the queene's gret chammer represented the ystory of Troye
toune, that the king's grett chammer had one table, wer was satt, hys
chamerlayne, the grett sqyer, and many others, well served; the which
chammer was haunged about with the st