ttle; for he had been present during his
master's conversation with many ship-captains and messengers from Greece.
He even assumed the air of a loyal, strictly silent servant, who would
only venture to confirm and deny what the Alexandrians had already
learned. Yet his knowledge consisted merely of a confused medley of false
and true occurrences. While the Egyptian fleet had been defeated at
Actium, and Antony, flying with Cleopatra, had gone first to Taenarum at
the end of the Peloponnesian coast, he asserted that the army and fleet
had met on the Peloponnesian coast and Octavianus was pursuing Antony,
who had turned towards Athens, while Cleopatra was on her way to
Alexandria.

His "trustworthy intelligence" had been patched together from a few words
caught from Seleukus at table, or while receiving and dismissing
messengers. In other matters his information was more accurate.

While for several days the harbour of Alexandria had been closed, vessels
were permitted to enter Pelusium, and all captains of newly arrived ships
and caravans were compelled to report to Beryllus's master, the
commandant of the important frontier fortress.

He had quitted Pelusium the night before. The strong wind had driven the
trireme before it so swiftly that it was difficult for even the sea gulls
to follow. It was easy for the listeners to believe this; for the storm
outside howled louder and louder, whistling through the open hall where
the servants had gathered. Most of the lamps and torches had been blown
out, the pitch-pans only sent forth still blacker clouds of smoke, lit by
red and yellow flames, and the closed lanterns alone continued to diffuse
a flickering light. So the wide space, dim with smoke, was illumined only
by a dull, varying glimmer.

One of the porters had furnished wine to shorten the hours of waiting;
but it could only be drunk in secret, so there were no goblets. The jars
wandered from mouth to mouth, and every sip was welcome, for the wind
blew keenly, and besides, the smoke irritated their throats.

The freedman, Beryllus, was often interrupted by paroxysms of coughing,
especially from the women, while relating the evil omens which were told
to his master in Pelusium. Each was well authenticated and surpassed its
predecessor in significance.

Here one of Iras's maids interrupted him to tell the story of the
swallows on the "Antonius," Cleopatra's admiral galley. He could scarcely
report from Pelusium an om