Now this letter reached the dukes soon after they had fought a great battle with Alexander’s men and had been defeated; so when they had broken the king’s broad seal and turned the leaf to read the letter, they looked on one another, and they thought that Darius could not know what manner of man Alexander was, or how hard it was to stand before him in battle. So Sir Priam the duke wrote to Darius by a special messenger that this child, whom they had been ordered to seize, had wasted all their lands, and had passed through the province, and that when they had raised an army to meet him, neither prince nor soldier could face him sword in hand: and the letter ended by begging the king to come at once to their aid with as many men as he could, that the honour of Persia might not be put to shame.
So Darius called a council to advise him as to the best means of meeting Alexander, but before they were met another messenger came with tidings that the Greeks had crossed the river that was called the boundary of Persia, and that they were now in the Emperor’s own land. And when this was told the council all men wondered how that Alexander should be so bold as to enter Persia, or to disobey the letter of Darius, and they advised the king to write once again to him, reproving him, and that if he still disobeyed, that he should be crushed to the earth, and the king did so, for he knew not how a man could disobey his order.
The tale tells that when this letter reached Alexander it found him in great grief, for messengers had come from Macedon telling that his mother was like to die, and Alexander had bidden his men strike their tents and return home to Macedon. So the messengers drew near trembling, and gave the letter of Darius to Alexander, and with it was a glove full of poppy seeds, which are almost the smallest of all seeds. So Alexander read the letter and he laughed out, for Darius had told him that even the gods obeyed him on earth, and now bade him return to Macedonia ere his wrath should arise. “And as a token,” added Darius, “I send thee this glove full of seeds, count them if thou canst, and thou hast the number of knights in my army. But the seeds are numberless, and so are the soldiers I rule.”