Darius, at this, beat his face and
wept aloud, saying, "Alas for the fortune of Persia! that the wife and
sister of the king should not only have been taken captive while she
lived, but also have been buried unworthily of her rank when she
died." To this the eunuch answered, "You have no cause to lament the
evil fortune of Persia on account of your wife's burial, or of any
want of due respect to her. Our lady Statira, your children, and your
mother, when alive wanted for nothing except the light of your
countenance, which our lord Oromasdes will some day restore to them,
nor was she treated without honour when she died, for her funeral was
even graced by the tears of her enemies. Alexander is as gracious a
conqueror as he is a terrible enemy."
These words roused other suspicions in the mind of Darius: and,
leading the eunuch into an inner chamber in his tent, he said to him,
"If you have not, like the good luck of Persia, gone over to Alexander
and the Macedonians, and if I am still your master Darius, tell me, I
conjure you by the name of great Mithras our lord, and by the right
hand of a king, which I give thee, do I lament over the least of
Statira's misfortunes when I weep for her death, and did she not in
her life make us more miserable by her dishonour, than if she had
fallen into the hands of a cruel enemy? For what honest communication
can a young conqueror have with the wife of his enemy, and what can be
the meaning of his showing such excessive honour to her after her
death?" While Darius was yet speaking, Teireus threw himself at his
feet, and besought him to be silent, and not to dishonour Alexander
and his dead wife and sister by such suspicions, nor yet to take away
from himself that thought which ought to be his greatest consolation
in his misfortunes, which was that he had been conquered by one who
was more than man.
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