The new orders of Alexander were received in the camp with pride and gladness; and with alacrity were collected every kind of material;--timbers from the captured houses on shore, and new-felled trees for piles and outward dams,--old vessels, and decayed merchant-galleys, left upon the beach by the Tyrians as useless, were filled with stone, and sunk for the foundation, upon which the superstructure was to be erected,--the sunken galleys, also, arrested the progress of the sea-sand in its passage between the Island and the beach, and thus aided the formation of the base. The different portions of the army were then engaged in bringing thousands, and tens of thousands, of sacks and loads of earth and stone,--every activity and energy were manifested by men and officers, encouraged as they were by the personal presence of the Princely Engineer. At first the bold attempt only excited the increased derision and laughter of the haughty Tyrians; but that mockery of the lip, was gradually changed to a clouded brow, as the Mole advanced, though with slow degrees, towards the Island. At every foot of progressive movement the difficulty of the Macedonian was increased; for, as the passage narrowed, the waters doubled their rapid rate, and nearly destroyed the advancing work. The People of the Metropolis, with the King and Nobles, viewed from the walls the first month's labour with doubts and fears,--a second and a third month passed, when the causeway reached arrow-distance from the Island. At this point of advance, Alexander, still anxious to obtain his rich prize unharmed, and believing that the Tyrians were now convinced of his resolution to conquer, despatched in a royal barge several Envoys to propose terms of capitulation. As the boat advanced to the edge of the walls, and was approaching a port-gate, and when directly beneath the overhanging parapet of a watch-tower,--a ponderous mass of stone was suddenly hurled from the rampart, upon the unsuspecting victims beneath,--a crush was heard,--the shriek of Life at the approach of sudden Death,--the splash and gurgling of the waters,--and all had ceased. Envoys and attendants had sunk, never to rise until that Day, when even "the Sea shall give up its dead!"