ring misfortune upon her; but when her request was followed by an
imperative command, and the goblet was entrusted to her, Anubis himself
believed that this one vessel did possess the magic power attributed to
it. He deemed that the drinking-cup afforded the strongest proof of the
magic art, far transcending human ability, of the great goddess by whose
aid King Nektanebus--who, according to tradition, was the father of
Alexander the Great--was said to have made the vessel in the Isis island
of Philoe.

Anubis had intended to remind Cleopatra of his refusal, and show her the
great danger incurred by mortals who strove to use powers beyond their
sphere. It had been his purpose to bid her remember Phaeton, who had
almost kindled a conflagration in the world, when he attempted, in the
chariot of his father, Phoebus Apollo, to guide the horses of the sun.
But this was unnecessary, for he had scarcely assented to the question
ere, with passionate vehemence, she ordered him to destroy before her
eyes the cup which had brought so much misfortune.

The priest feigned that her desire harmonized with a resolution which he
had himself formed. In fact, before her arrival, he had feared that
the goblet might be used in some fatal manner if Octavianus should take
possession of the city and country, and the wonder-working vessel should
fall into his hands. Nektanebus had made the cup for Egypt. To wrest
it from the foreign ruler was acting in the spirit of the last king in
whose veins had flowed the blood of the Pharaohs, and who had toiled
with enthusiastic devotion for the independence and liberty of his
people. To destroy this man's marvellous work rather than deliver it
to the Roman conqueror seemed to the chief priest, after the Queen's
command, a sacred duty, and as such he represented it to be when he
commanded the smelting furnace to be fired and the cup transformed into
a shapeless mass before the eyes of Cleopatra.

While the metal was melting he eagerly told the Queen how easily she
could dispense with the vessel which owed its magic power to the mighty
Isis.

The spell of woman's charms was also a gift of the goddess. It would
suffice to render Antony's heart soft and yielding as the fire melted
the gold. Perhaps the Imperator had forfeited, with the Queen's respect,
her love--the most priceless of blessings. He, Anubis, would regard this
as a great boon of the Deity; "for," he concluded, "Mark Antony is the
cliff which