ilties. Anubis told me of a queen in ancient times who would not
permit the inscriptions to record 'she,' but 'he came,' or 'he, the
ruler, conquered.' Fool! Whatever concerns me, my womanhood is not
less lofty than the crown. I was a woman ere I became Queen. The people
prostrate themselves before my empty litters; but when, in my youth, I
wandered in disguise with Antony through the city streets and visited
some scene of merrymaking, while the men gazed admiringly at me, and we
heard voices behind us murmur, 'A handsome couple!' I returned home full
of joy and pride. But there was something greater still for the woman
to learn, when the heart in the breast of the Queen forgot throne and
sceptre and, in the hours consecrated to Eros, tasted joys known
to womanhood alone. How can you men, who only command and desire,
understand the happiness of sacrifice? I am a woman; my birth does not
exalt me above any feeling of my sex; and what I now ask is not as Queen
but as woman."

"If that is the case," Alexas answered with his hand upon his heart,
"you impose silence upon me; for were I to confess to the woman
Cleopatra what agitates my soul, I should be guilty of a double crime--I
would violate a promise and betray the friend who confided his noble
wife to my protection."

"Now the darkness is becoming too dense for me," replied Cleopatra,
raising her head with repellent pride. "Or, if I choose to raise the
veil, I must point out to you the barriers--

"Which surround the Queen," replied the Syrian with an obsequious bow.
"There you behold the fact. It is an impossibility to separate the woman
from the princess. So far as I am concerned, I do not wish to anger the
former against the presumptuous adorer, and I desire to yield to the
latter the obedience which is her due. Therefore I entreat you to
forget the armlet and its many painful associations, and pass to the
consideration of other matters. Perhaps the fair Barine will voluntarily
confess everything, and even add how she managed to ensnare the amiable
son of the greatest of men, and the most admirable of mothers, the young
King Caesarion."

Cleopatra's eyes flashed more brightly, and she angrily exclaimed: "I
found the boy just now as though he were possessed by demons. He was
ready to tear the bandage from his wound, if he were refused the woman
whom he loved. A magic potion was the first thought, and his tutor of
course attributes everything to magic arts. Charmia