e tramp of sentinels. As I stood
they challenged and grounded their spears. Then the bolts were shot
back, the door opened, and radiant, clad in royal attire, came the
conquering Cleopatra. She came alone, and the door was shut behind her.
I stood like one distraught; but she swept on till she was face to face
with me.

"Greeting, Harmachis," she said, smiling sweetly. "So, my messenger has
found thee!" and she pointed to the corpse of Paulus. "Pah! he has an
ugly look. Ho! guards!"

The door was opened, and two armed Gauls stepped across the threshold.

"Take away this carrion," said Cleopatra, "and fling it to the kites.
Stay, draw that dagger from his traitor breast." The men bowed low, and
the knife, rusted red with blood, was dragged from the heart of Paulus
and laid upon the table. Then they seized him by the head and body and
staggered thence, and I heard their heavy footfalls as they bore him
down the stairs.

"Methinks, Harmachis, thou art in an evil case," she said, when the
sound of the footfalls had died away. "How strangely the wheel of
Fortune turns! But for that traitor," and she nodded towards the door
through which the corpse of Paulus had been carried, "I should now be as
ill a thing to look on as he is, and the red rust on yonder knife would
have been gathered from _my_ heart."

So it was Paulus who had betrayed me.

"Ay," she went on, "and when thou camest to me last night, I _knew_ that
thou camest to slay. When, time upon time, thou didst place thy hand
within thy robe, I knew that it grasped a dagger hilt, and that thou
wast gathering thy courage to the deed which thou didst little love
to do. Oh! it was a strange wild hour, well worth the living, and
I wondered greatly, from moment to moment, which of us twain would
conquer, as we matched guile with guile and force to force!

"Yea, Harmachis, the guards tramp before thy door, but be not deceived.
Did I not know that I hold thee to me by bonds more strong than prison
chains--did I not know that I am hedged from ill at thy hands by a fence
of honour harder for thee to pass than all the spears of all my legions,
thou hadst been dead ere now, Harmachis. See, here is thy knife," and
she handed me the dagger; "now slay me if thou canst," and she drew
near, tore open the bosom of her robe, and stood waiting with calm eyes.

"Thou canst not slay me," she went on; "for there are things, as I know
well, that no man--no man such as thou art--may do