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But soon the quarrels in the royal household broke out afresh. With a strange lack of caution, the sons of Mariamne again indulged their dissatisfaction by the use of intemperate language, which the artful Antipater managed to report to Herod, exaggerated or distorted, as best suited his purpose. Knowing not whom to trust, the king had no rest night or day. At length he ordered some of the confidential slaves of the young princes to be put to the torture, and they, to obtain relief from their agony, made false declarations respecting Alexander, who was immediately flung into prison and loaded with chains.

There the wretched young man had recourse to a strange expedient. He sent four papers to his father, in which he accused himself of all kinds of treasonable practices, but added that Pheroras, Salome, and several of the king’s most intimate friends, were his accomplices. The whole court was now a scene of suspicion and distrust. Herod knew not which way to look or whom to believe. In a state of phrenzy he day after day caused persons of all grades to be apprehended; some of these he executed; others he tortured to compel them to confess, and with such severity that several of them died under the hands of their tormentors. In the midst of these troubles, Archelaus, king of Cappadocia, and father-in-law of Alexander, arrived at Jerusalem, and succeeded in obtaining his release, and restoration to Herod’s favour.