ne as much for any slave. Now, too, that the danger is past, I leave
thee."

"Thou hadst done better to let me die, Charmion," I said after a while,
"for life to me can now be only one long shame. Tell me, then, when
sails Cleopatra for Cilicia?"

"She sails in twenty days, and with such pomp and glory as Egypt has
never seen. Of a truth, I cannot guess where she has found the means to
gather in this store of splendour, as a husbandman gathers his golden
harvest."

But I, knowing whence the wealth came, groaned in bitterness of spirit,
and made no answer.

"Goest thou also, Charmion?" I asked presently.

"Ay, I and all the Court. Thou, too--thou goest."

"I go? Nay, why is this?"

"Because thou art Cleopatra's slave, and must march in gilded chains
behind her chariot; because she fears to leave thee here in Khem;
because it is her will, and there is an end."

"Charmion, can I not escape?"

"Escape, thou poor sick man? Nay, how canst thou escape? Even now thou
art most strictly guarded. And if thou didst escape, whither wouldst
thou fly? There's not an honest man in Egypt but would spit on thee in
scorn!"

Once more I groaned in spirit, and, being so very weak, I felt the tears
roll adown my cheek.

"Weep not!" she said hastily, and turning her face aside. "Be a man, and
brave these troubles out. Thou hast sown, now must thou reap; but
after harvest the waters rise and wash away the rotting roots, and then
seed-time comes again. Perchance, yonder in Cilicia, a way may be found,
when once more thou art strong, by which thou mayst fly--if in truth
thou canst bear thy life apart from Cleopatra's smile; then in some far
land must thou dwell till these things are forgotten. And now my task is
done, so fare thee well! At times I will come to visit thee and see that
thou needest nothing."

So she went, and I was nursed thenceforward, and that skilfully, by the
physician and two women-slaves; and as my wound healed so my strength
came back to me, slowly at first, then most swiftly. In four days from
that time I left my couch, and in three more I could walk an hour in the
palace gardens; another week and I could read and think, though I went
no more to Court. And at length one afternoon Charmion came and bade me
make ready, for the fleet would sail in two days, first for the coast of
Syria, and thence to the gulf of Issus and Cilicia.

Thereon, with all formality, and in writing, I craved leave of Cleopatra
that