ony! Oh, I die!--come, Antony--and give me peace!"

Even in my fury I had quailed beneath her scorn, for home flew the
arrows of her winged words. Alas! and alas! it was _true_--the shaft of
my vengeance fell upon my own head; never had I loved her as I loved her
now. My soul was rent with jealous torture, and thus I swore she should
not die.

"Peace!" I cried; "what peace is there for thee? Oh! ye Holy Three,
hear now my prayer. Osiris, loosen Thou the bonds of Hell and send
forth those whom I shall summon! Come Ptolemy, poisoned of thy sister
Cleopatra; come Arsinoe, murdered in the sanctuary by thy sister
Cleopatra; come Sepa, tortured to death of Cleopatra; come Divine
Menkau-ra, whose body Cleopatra tore and whose curse she braved for
greed; come one, come all who have died at the hands of Cleopatra! Rush
from the breast of Nout and greet her who murdered you! By the link of
mystic union, by the symbol of the Life, Spirits, I summon you!"

Thus I spoke the spell; while Charmion, affrighted, clung to my robe,
and the dying Cleopatra, resting on her hands, swung slowly to and fro,
gazing with vacant eyes.

Then the answer came. The casement burst asunder, and on flittering
wings that great bat entered which last I had seen hanging to the
eunuch's chin in the womb of the pyramid of _Her_. Thrice it circled
round, once it hovered o'er dead Iras, then flew to where the dying
woman stood. To her it flew, on her breast it settled, clinging to that
emerald which was dragged from the dead heart of Menkau-ra. Thrice the
grey Horror screamed aloud, thrice it beat its bony wings, and lo! it
was gone.

Then suddenly within that chamber sprang up the Shapes of Death. There
was Arsinoe, the beautiful, even as she had shrunk beneath the butcher's
knife. There was young Ptolemy, his features twisted by the poisoned
cup. There was the majesty of Menkau-ra, crowned with the uraeus crown;
there was grave Sepa, his flesh all torn by the torturer's hooks;
there were those poisoned slaves; and there were others without number,
shadowy and dreadful to behold! who, thronging that narrow chamber,
stood silently fixing their glassy eyes upon the face of her who slew
them!

"Behold! Cleopatra!" I said. "_Behold thy peace, and die!_"

"Ay!" said Charmion. "Behold and die! thou who didst rob me of my
honour, and Egypt of her King!"

She looked, she saw the awful Shapes--her Spirit, hurrying from the
flesh, mayhap could hear wo