her from despair began to bud in her soul.

Dolabella, an aristocratic Roman, a scion of the noble Cornelius family,
was in the Caesar's train, and had been presented to the Egyptian Queen.
In former years his father was a friend of Cleopatra; nay, she had placed
him under obligations by sending him, after the murder of Julius Caesar,
the military force at her command to be used against Cassius. True, her
legions, by messengers from Dolabella himself, were despatched in another
direction; but Cleopatra had not withdrawn her favour from Dolabella's
father on that account. The latter had known her in Rome before the death
of Caesar, and had enthusiastically described the charms of the
bewitching Egyptian sovereign. Though the youth found her only a mourning
widow, ill in body and mind, he was so strongly attracted and deeply
moved by her beauty, her brilliant intellect, her grace of bearing, her
misfortunes and sufferings, that he devoted many hours to her, and would
have considered it a happiness to render her greater services than
circumstances permitted. He often accompanied her to the children, whose
hearts had been completely won by his frank, cheerful nature; and so it
happened that he soon became one of the most welcome guests at Lochias.
He confided without reserve every feeling that stirred his soul to the
warm-hearted woman who was so many years his senior, and through him she
learned many things connected with Octavianus and his surroundings.
Without permitting himself to be used as a tool, he became an advocate
for the unfortunate woman whom he so deeply esteemed.

In intercourse with her he made every effort to inspire confidence in
Octavianus, who favoured him, enjoyed his society, and in whose
magnanimity the youth firmly believed.

He anticipated the best results from an interview between the Queen and
the Caesar; for he deemed it impossible that the successful conqueror
could part untouched, and with no desire to mitigate her sad fate, from
the woman who, in earlier years, had so fascinated his father, and whom
he himself, though she might almost have been his mother, deemed peerless
in her bewitching and gracious charm.

Cleopatra, on the contrary, shrank from meeting the man who had brought
so much misfortune upon Mark Antony and herself, and inflicted upon her
insults which were only too well calculated to make her doubt his
clemency and truth. On the other hand, she could not deny Dolabella's
asse