Alexander : a history of the origin and growth of the art of war from ...

XLIII.TURNING BACK. JULY TO OCTOBER, B. C. 326.The Macedonian soldiers had determined to proceed no farther.They had,through their officers, certain rights of protest. These they concluded to enforce.For three months, rain had incessantly fallen, and with it the moraltone of the troops. They were ragged ; their arms were worn out ; of armorthere was scarcely any. They were not only unwilling, they were unfit, tomarch farther in advance — to the Ganges and the sea, as Alexander wishedthem to do. Alexander's eloquence on this occasion failed. The men did nothingmutinous ; they simply declined to advance. Alexander recognized theconditions. The sacrifices proved inauspicious. He agreed to return. It waswell that he turned hack.Much longer absence from Babylon would have seenhis empire crumble into anarchy for lack of the controlling hand. Returningto the Hydaspes, he built a fleet, sacrificed, formally invested Taxiles andPorus with viceregal authority over their respective territories, and began hisdescent to the Indus with a pomp and ceremony and splendor never before seen.A column marched on either bank ; another followed at two days' intervalthe king and eight thousand men, and the baggage and camp-followers, floateddown the river on a fleet of one thousand boats.Alexander had had much to contend with inthe jealousiesof his Macedonians. He could scarcely do a favor to anAsiatic without provoking the selfish protests of his countrymen.He had presented one thousand talents to Taxiles,whose land had furnished his army ten times as much. SaidMeleager :" Must we come so far as India to find a manworthy of such a gift ? " To accomplish his end, the kinghad grown to overlook these things, — to control his ancienttemper. " Let them grumble," said he, " so long as theyobey." And their obedience was marked. Near by or faraway, Alexander's lieutenants acted as ifthey were under hiseye. Of Caisar's or Napoleon's lieutenants one could not