Alexander, like most cruel monarchs after having satiated their lust for blood, gave himself up to very inordinate luxuries, which in the end produced an attack of ague, very severe in its character. This disease ultimately proved fatal to Alexander, who died in the camp while he was besieging a castle of the Gerasenes beyond Jordan. Alexander reigned twenty-seven years; he left two sons, Hyrcanus and Aristobulus; he bequeathed the government to his wife Alexandra, during her life time, and to be disposed of at her death to which of her sons she pleased. Alexandra in a flood of tears, expressed to her dying husband her justly apprehended dread of the Pharisees, who had grown into a powerful party at that time in Jerusalem. Alexander listened to his wife with considerable emotion, while he employed his last moments in contriving an expedient for the removal of her fears. The dying man then addressed his wife in the following words: "Alexandra, you are not unacquainted with the cause of our mutual enmity. I am well convinced that your security and happiness, when I am dead, must rise or fall, as you make them your friends or your foes. I advise you, therefore, to keep my death a secret from the army, till they have taken the fort, then lead them in triumph to Jerusalem; carry my body with you, and as soon as you arrive assemble the heads and the leaders of that party, and lay it before them; tell them you submit it wholly to them, after the injuries it had done them, to give it burial, or cast it ignominiously on the highway; as for your part, you are devoted to them, they shall always be your first advisers, at the head of your council; you will do nothing without their consent and approbation; begin instantly to show them some marks of your favor and friendship, upon which they will order my body a royal burial, and they will support you and your sons in the peaceful enjoyment of the kingdom." Alexandra followed the advice of her husband, and kept his death a secret from the world, till the castle was taken. She then led the army back to Jerusalem, and gave the body of her deceased husband to the Pharisees, to act with it as they pleased, at the same time declared herself ready to be guided by them in the management of all the affairs of the government. This declaration on the part of Alexandra, gained for her the confidence of the Pharisees, who granted to her late husband an honorable funeral.