ill fall, but when I know
not. Perchance, I shall wake in some dead hour of midnight to hear the
stealthy steps of the slayers and be hurried forth. Perchance, they are
now at hand. Then will come the secret cell! the horror! the nameless
coffin! and at last it will be done! Oh, let it come! let it come
swiftly!

All is written; I have held back nothing--my sin is sinned--my vengeance
is finished. Now all things end in darkness and in ashes, and I prepare
to face the terrors that are to come in other worlds than this. I go,
but not without hope I go: for, though I see Her not, though no more She
answers to my prayers, still I am aware of the Holy Isis, who is with me
for evermore, and whom I shall yet again behold face to face. And then
at last in that far day I shall find forgiveness; then the burden of
my guilt will roll from me and innocency come back and wrap me round,
bringing me holy Peace.

Oh! dear land of Khem, as in a dream I see thee! I see Nation after
Nation set its standard on thy shores, and its yoke upon thy neck! I
see new Religions without end calling out their truths upon the banks of
Sihor, and summoning thy people to their worship! I see thy temples--thy
holy temples--crumbling in the dust: a wonder to the sight of men
unborn, who shall peer into thy tombs and desecrate the great ones
of thy glory! I see thy mysteries a mockery to the unlearned, and thy
wisdom wasted like waters on the desert sands! I see the Roman Eagles
stoop and perish, their beaks yet red with the blood of men, and the
long lights dancing down the barbarian spears that follow in their
wake! And then, at last, I see Thee once more great, once more free, and
having once more a knowledge of thy Gods--ay, thy Gods with a changed
countenance, and called by other names, but still thy Gods!

The sun sinks over Abouthis. The red rays of Ra flame on temple roofs,
upon green fields, and the wide waters of father Sihor. So as a child
I watched him sink; just so his last kiss touched the further pylon's
frowning brow; just that same shadow lay upon the tombs. All is
unchanged! I--I only am changed--so changed, and yet the same!

Oh, Cleopatra! Cleopatra! thou Destroyer! if I might but tear thy vision
from my heart! Of all my griefs, this is the heaviest grief--still must
I love thee! Still must I hug this serpent to my heart! Still in my
ears must ring that low laugh of triumph--the murmur of the falling
fountain--the song of th