Alexander had been patient with Philotas and his punishment was just, but now the king did a cruel deed. For thinking that his old and faithful general Parmenio might have shared in the treachery of his son, he sent a messenger to slay him. The king’s despatch was taken to Parmenio and put into his hand. As he began to read it he was stabbed in the back. From this time the king’s temper grew less and less controlled. At one of the royal feasts he lost it altogether. A guest sang a song which made a jest of some Macedonians who had been beaten by the Persians. The old soldiers were indignant, the more so that Alexander paid no heed to their anger and bade the singer sing on. Clitus, the king’s foster-brother, had a quick temper, and he cried out, ‘It is not well done to expose the Macedonians before their enemies; since though it was their unhappiness to be overcome, yet are they much better men than those who laugh at them.’ ‘Clitus pleads his own cause,’ said the king, ‘when he names cowardice misfortune.’ The king spoke half in jest, half in anger, for he knew well that Clitus and all his Macedonians were brave men and no cowards. But Clitus sprang to his feet at Alexander’s words and cried, ‘Yet, O king, it was my cowardice that once saved your life from the Persians, and it is by the wounds of Macedonians that you are now the great king.’ ‘Speak not so boldly,’ answered the king, and in his voice there was a threat, ‘or think not you will long enjoy the power to do so.’ Clitus was now too angry to care what he said, and he spoke to the king yet more bitterly, until Alexander could brook no more. He took an apple from the table before him, and flinging it at his foster-brother, felt for his sword. But one of his guards, foreseeing what might happen, had removed it. His guests now gathered around the king, trying to soothe his anger. Alexander pushed them aside, and ordered one of his guard to sound the alarm. This would have assembled the whole army and the man hesitated, whereupon Alexander struck him on the face. Meanwhile a friend had hurried Clitus out of the room, but he slipped back again by another door, and boldly taunted the king with the way in which he treated his old soldiers. Then in a passion Alexander snatched a spear from one of his guards, rushed upon Clitus and stabbed him to death. A moment later the king’s anger faded away, and he looked in horror upon the dead body of his foster-brother. He seized the spear again and tried to kill himself, but his guards wrenched it away, and led him to his own room. There he lay all through the long night and all through the following day, weeping for his foster-brother whom he had slain. CHAPTER C PORUS AND HIS ELEPHANT The Macedonians had now for some time been longing to march homeward rather than into new and unknown lands. But Alexander’s ambition was not yet satisfied, and in 327 B.C. he determined to march into India, to add that land also to his conquests.