Page 794 the Cold: For hewing down the Trees with their Axes, they set the Heaps of Wood up and down on fire, so that you would have thought all the Wood had been on a • lame, and scarce any place left for the Army to lodge. This Heat presently enliven'd their benumb'd Limbs, and by degrees their Spirits, which the Cold had even clos'd up, began freely to pass Some were entertain'd in the Houses of the Barbarians which hid from them in the late Wood; but now their Necessity had discover'd others lodg'd in their Tents, which though wet, yet were more tolerable, the Fury of the Storm being something abated. This unhappy Accident swept away a thousand Soldiers and other mean Attendants upon the Camp. 'Tis reported, that some were found standing at the side of the Trees, and seem'd not only as if they had been alive, but as if they had been discoursing one with another in the same posture as they were in when they died.
Roxana, the Daughter of Oxyartes, was there likewise, a Virgin ripe for Marriage, whom Alexander's Fellow-Soldiers judg'd to be the most Beautiful Lady of all Asia next to the Wife of Darius; upon sight of her, Alexander fell deeply in Love, yet would not by any means use her dishonourably as a Captive; neither did he disdain to take her for his Wife. Which Act of Alexander (I conceive) was more worthy of Praise than Reprehension. And for Darius's Wife (who was esteem'd the most Beautiful Lady of all Asia) he neither was tainted so much as with an unlawful Desire towards her, or as a domineering Lord commanded her to his Bed, though he was then in the Heat of his Youth, and the highest pitch of Worldly Prosperity; which two Conditions are apt greatly to provoke Men to be very injurious to others: But he, out of a Reverence to her Person, spar'd her; herein evidencing his great Continency, and prompted likewise thereunto by a desire of his own Honour and Reputation.
IN the middle of the Spring, Alexander remov'd with his Army out of Bactria towards India, and left Amyntas there with three thousand five hundred Horse, and ten thousand Foot. Having pass'd the Caucasus, in ten days he came to Alexandria, which he had built in Paropanisus at his first Expedition into Bactria, and put out the Governour here for his ill Behaviour in the Place, and then Peopled the City with more Inhabitants out of the Neighbouring Countries, and such of his Macedonians as were grown unser • ceable for the War, and made Nicanor, one of his Associates, Governour of the City;-but appointed Tyriaspes Commander of the whole Region of Paropanisus, and of all that Territory or Province as far as the River Cophene. Thence he went to the City of Nicea, and there offer'd Sacrifice to Minerva, and then march'd to the River Cophene, and sending an Herauld, commanded Taxiles and the rest of the Governours of the Countries lying beyond the River to come to him. Taxiles and other petty Princes came first and met him, bringing him large Presents, such as were most esteem'd in India, promising likewise to send him five and twenty Elephants. He there divided his Army, and sent Hephestion and Perdiccas into the Country call'd Peucelaotis towards the River Indus, together with the Troops of Georgias, Clitus, and Meleager, and half the Horse of the Social Band, and all the Mercenary Horse, commanding them to take in by fair means or foul all the Towns which lay in their way, and that when they came to the Bank of the River Indus, they should prepare all things that were necessary to pass over. And with them was sent Taxiles and other Commanders of those Parts, to put in execution, when they came to the River Indus, what Alexander had commanded.
Astes, the Governour of the Country of Peucelaotis, offering to revolt, lost both himself and the City which he put himself into; for Hephestion came and besieg'd it, and after thirty days time took it, and killing Astes, made one Sangaeus Governour of it, who a