ALEXANDER-CÆSAR-CHARLEMAGNE-COEUR DE LION-CHARLES XII. FREDERICK THE GREAT-NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. "By Jove, I am not covetous for gold; Nor care I who doth feed upon my cost; I am the most offending soul alive." MAN has been defined as being a talking animal, a laugh animal, a cooking animal: may he not with equal pro priety be described as a combative animal? Many of the world's greatest men have been fighters. Not pugilistsheroes of the ring, ambitious of the belt-but warriors, battle-field heroes, who have rushed upon their foes as if their serried ranks were but as so inany shocks of corn, and every man's sword a sickle that must help to gather in the harvest to that great granary, the grave; and death was out a reaping with a vengeance! The group of men now presented to our notice are warrior princes. History is full of the deeds of such— men who wore the helmet and wore the crown, or who held the crown by wearing the helmet; who were soldiers, brave of heart and strong of hand-admired of all those who can find true greatness in the power of might, and nobility in the strength of a man's right hand. To a few only of these warrior princes can we allude in this chapter, and to these few but briefly. Greece displays amid her chilvalry one well-known form, one immortal, illustrious name Alexander the Great. The sons of the later Greek emperors were said to be born in the purple; but the children of Greece, in her bright days, were born in the buckler. These Greeks were the models of human strength and courage; they were a match, and more than a match, for any number of barbarians; and that solid army of the famous Phalanx, composed of heroic units, moving shoulder to shoulder, with pikes advanced, encountered such vast military odds as are rarely elsewhere recorded in history. It was this spirit of individual heroism that carried on their march of armed progress in a storm of onset fierce and high, from the Taurian Gorge and Caspian Gate to the doomed walls of Tyre. Alexander was the incarnation of the genius of his country--its representative man. Alexander, son of Macedonian Philip, was born a.c. 356; Aristotle was his tutor; and, in his early youth, the future hero exhibited those abilities which subsequently made his name so famous in the world. When only sixteen, he acted as Regent in his father's absence; at twenty he ascended the throne, and made himself master of the whole of Greece. Some of the Grecian States, scornful of his youth, had attempted to renounce their allegiance; but they found their young king old in soldiership and prompt in action. Thebes he destroyed, sparing only the house of Pindar; against Persia he declared war, defeated Darius on the banks of the Granicus, and rapidly subdued ali Asia Minor. He again overcame Darius at Issus, and made captives of all his family; here he exhibited considerable magnanimity, treating his foes with extreme generosity. This victory was rapidly followed by the reduction of Tyre, Egypt, and Judea. In Egypt he founded a city, which still bears his name, and is one of the principal stations on the overland route to India. He penetrated to Lybia, and was there announced by the oracle of Ammon to be the earthborn son of Jupiter! On his return from Egypt, he obtained a fourth victory over Darius, and made himself master of the whole of Persia; he then overcame the Sycthians, defeated Porus, the Indian King; advancing as far as the Hyphasis, he found his soldiers unwilling to follow him, and he consequently retraced his steps-steps that had been marked by signal victories-and gave himself up to a life of voluptuous ease and effeminate indulgence; and so he died in the flower of his age, leaving his crown " to the most worthy." Look for a moment at this Alexander-a boy ambitious of doing great deeds; envious of his father's fame; shedding bitter tears lest there should be no world left for him to conquer. See him at the head of his victorious hosts, facing death, encountering difficulty, bearing privation, and coming off conqueror, his blushing honours thick upon him. See him, still young, sunk in sensual pleasure, his brow bound with mystic wreath; his robes of divers colours, fantastically displayed; his hair redolent of perfume; his face daubed with cosmetics; the wine-cup in his hand is this the ambitious boy, the great captain, the warrior prince? The contrast is striking and painful: this man, whom self-indulgence overcame in his thirtysecond year, was one whose generosity and prowess rivalled the greatest heroes of ancient or modern times, and in the race of military glory outstripped all competitors. Another hero of antiquity is the next to call for our attention-Julius Cæsar. This man was originally designed for the priesthood; he was to serve at his country's altar; and aspired to the highest office which the priesthood can bestow. But the personal enmity of his fatherin-law deprived him not only of his hope of preferment, bit of his own property; and, in consequence, he quitted the country, a disappointed man. Wearied, dejected, reckless, he accepted service under Nicomedes, and distinguished himself as a soldier at the battle of Mitylene. On his return to Rome he turned his attention to oratory, and became the talk of the city, so great were the abilities which he displayed. His orations were admired for two qualities which are seldom found together-strength and elegance; Cicero ranks him among the greatest orators that Rome ever produced; and Quintilius says that he spoke with the same force with which he fought, and, if he had devoted himself to the bar, would have been the only man capable of rivalling Cicero. On his voyage to Rhodes to complete his studies in rhetoric, he captured and crucified the crew of a pirate vessel. In the troublous state of Rome at that period, Cæsar joined the party of Marius, obtained through Cicero the friendship of Pompey, and served successively the offices of military tribune, quaestor and ædile. His military genius soon began to display itself; and, being set over the provinces of Gaul, he enlarged the Roman boundaries, and made his first invasion and temporary conquest of Britain. But rivalry was called forth by his successes. Envy, hatred, and malice set their faces steadily against him; it was decreed by the Senate that he should be deprived of his command; on hearing which Cæsar returned to Italy, paused for a while at the Rubicon, the assigned limit of his dominion, then resolutely crossed the stream, and marched against his country. In sixty days Cæsar subdued the whole of Italy, and entered Rome in triumph. Pompey, once his sworn friend, but latterly his bitterest foe, fled at his approach, was pursued, blockaded in Dyrrachium, and defeated at Pharsalia. Soon after this Cæsar was created Dictator, and commenced a long career of brilliant campaigns, in which he is reported to have conquered 300 nations, taken 300 cities, defeated 3,000,000 men, of whom 1,000,000 fell in the field! "I came, I saw, I conquered," were the words which described to the Senate his success over Pharnaces, and they applied with equal force to the majority of his campaigns. But his sun went down in darkness. His successes made for him many enemies; he had to pay the penalty of greatness-that of being hated and envied. A conspiracy was formed against him. One of the leading conspirators was his most intimate friend |