Now by good fortune his horse was fed, so he loosed him and sprang on his back, and out of the court like a spark from a fire, and no man could stop him. But when the alarm was given, Darius ordered all men to follow, and men rushed in all directions; they searched the rooms of the palace, they searched the stables, some clad them in armour and rode out into the night, and some to the city gates. But little avail they made, for there was no moon, and the clearness of the night served but to mislead them, and their shouts served to warn Alexander of where they were, and if they kept silence one rode against another, and many rode into the deep ditches of the fields or stumbled in the miry ways, and at last, one by one, they came in, and no man among them all had heard or seen aught of Alexander, and well was it for them that they had to face the wrath of Darius, rather than the sword of the Greek.
In that same hour that Alexander fled out of the palace of Darius a golden image of the emperor of Persia fell to the ground, and when men came to raise it they found it broken into fragments, and they feared greatly; and when Darius heard of it he fell aweeping, and he said: “Surely this tokens trouble to the empire, and death to me;” and he sat in sore grief thinking of the boldness of Alexander, and his courage left him, so that he became weak as a woman.
Of Roxana it is to be told how her heart was glad that she had seen the lord of Macedon, and great thanks she gave to the gods because he had seen her face, and noted how fair she was, for she had watched without looking at him the turning of his eyes toward her, and the joy of his heart in her beauty. That night she sat with her maidens, and ever she sent one or another for tidings of the herald, and none brought answer, and at the end one came and told how all the knights had come back from the pursuit. Then her maidens came round about her and praised her beauty above all other times, and she gave a great gift to that one who had brought the news of the safety of the Greek, howbeit the maiden knew not that it was the meed of her tidings, and thought it was the pay of her flattering words.
CHAPTER XI. TELLS OF THE BATTLE BETWEEN ALEXANDER AND DARIUS, AND OF THE SLAYING OF DARIUS.