At this speech Alexander could
no longer restrain his passion, but seized an apple from the table,
hurled it at Kleitus, and began to feel for his dagger. Aristophanes,
one of his body-guard, had already secreted it, and the rest now
pressed round him imploring him to be quiet. He however leaped to his
feet, and, as if in a great emergency, ehouted in the Macedonian
tongue to the foot-guards to turn out. He bade the trumpeter sound an
alarm, and as the man hesitated and refused, struck him with his fist.
This man afterwards gained great credit for his conduct, as it was
thought that by it he had saved the whole camp from being thrown into
an uproar. As Kleitus would not retract what he had said, his friends
seized him and forced him out of the room. But he re-entered by
another door, and in an offensive and insolent tone began to recite
the passage from the Andromache of Euripides, which begins,
"Ah me! in Greece an evil custom reigns," &c.
Upon this Alexander snatched a lance from one of his guards, and ran
Kleitus through the body with it, just as he was drawing aside the
curtain and preparing to enter the room. Kleitus fell with a loud
groan, and died on the spot. Alexander, when he came to himself, and
saw his friends all standing round in mute reproach, snatched the
spear out of the corpse, and would have thrust it into his own neck,
but was forcibly witheld by his guards, who laid hold of him and
carried him into his bed-chamber.
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