The courtiers laughed at the confidence of the prince, but paying no attention to them, he ran toward the horse and seizing the bridle turned Bucephalus, so that he faced the sun. For the prince had noticed that the steed was afraid of his own shadow as it flitted backward and forward with his every movement. After speaking quietly to the horse and patting him, the prince flung aside the mantle he was wearing, and nimbly mounted on his back. Using neither whip nor spur, he let the animal choose his own pace. And Bucephalus was content to go at a quiet trot. [Illustration: He ran toward the horse and seized the bridle] Gradually Alexander urged him on to a gallop, with voice and spur. As the pace grew quicker and quicker, the king looked on in fear lest the lad should be thrown. But when he saw that the horse was well under control, and that Alexander had turned and was coming back, he burst into tears of joy, while the courtiers loudly applauded the prince. As he leaped from the horse, Philip kissed him and said, ‘O my son, look thee out a kingdom equal to and worthy of thyself, for Macedon is too little for thee.’ Soon after this the king sent for a famous philosopher, named Aristotle, to teach his son. Alexander was quick to learn, and his eager interest in his studies pleased Aristotle. In after days, when the prince had become a king and was adding kingdom after kingdom to his possessions, he wrote to his old tutor, ‘I assure you I had rather excel others in the knowledge of what is excellent than in the extent of my power and dominions.’ When Philip was murdered, Alexander was twenty years of age, ‘a stripling,’ Demosthenes said, making light of his youth. But had Demosthenes known the character of the prince, he would not have spoken thus slightingly of his years. The orator not only rejoiced when Philip was murdered, but he urged the people to rouse themselves and throw off the yoke of Macedon. The old days when the Athenians would not listen to Demosthenes were long past. Now his matchless eloquence could hold them spellbound, even when they refused to be guided by his advice. But in Athens, as in many other cities, discontent had long been smouldering, and fanned by his words it broke out into a blaze. The young king found that he must put down rebellion in Greece before he set out, as he wished to do, to conquer Persia. CHAPTER XCII ALEXANDER AND DIOGENES When Alexander marched at the head of his army into Thessaly, not a blow was struck. His presence seemed enough to gain the allegiance of the Thessalians. The king then went to Corinth, where ambassadors from many of the Greek states met him. Young as he was, they chose Alexander to be general over the Greek troops which were to go with the Macedonians to invade Asia.