University of Virginia Library

Scene VIII.—The Causeway between Old Tyre and New Tyre.

Hephestion, Craterus, Seleucus.
Cra.
We've waited for the king, and for a wind:
The wind is ours at last.

Sel.
And in fit time
The king, that's wafted still by fortunate winds.

Alex.
(arriving).
The wind is fair, and all the gods are with us!
Bear up, my Cypriot and Sidonian fleets;
I've bought you with a price! cut well the seas,
And as the sword into the scabbard glides,
So rush into their harbours! The boarding ships,
You're sure they lie beside our mole, Seleucus,
And moor'd by chains, not ropes? Those Tyrian divers
Will cut them else adrift.

Sel.
They tried it thrice,
You baffled them. We're ready, sire.

Heph.
Lo, there!
They drag their prisoners round yon city's walls—
Each after each they bend them to the block;—
They hurl their headless trunks into the flood!

Sel.
Hark to that shout!

Alex.
Our fleets have forced the harbours!
Up with the engines and the storming-parties!
I cross the right-hand galley with Admetus;
You, Cœnus, with Lysander, cross the left.
Forth with the landing-planks and scaling-ladders!
On, on, and up!

[Alexander is the first to mount the walls.
Hamilcar
(from the tower).
Men of Phœnicia,
still the heights are ours.
Hurl on them sleet of fire!

Hanno.
'Tis life or death!

Alex.
(striking him down).
Then take thy death!

Heph.
And take, Hamilcar, thine!

[His sword breaks; he closes with Hamilcar, and flings him from the right-hand tower into the sea. At the same moment Cœnus gains the left-hand tower.
Alex.
'Tis won! They fly!