ill of the mediator, she did not believe.

When he had retired, she exclaimed to Charmian: "Was I blind? This man
is a traitor! We shall discover it. Wherever Dion has taken his young
wife, let her be carefully concealed, not from me, but from this Syrian.
It is easier to defend one's self against the lion than the scorpion.
You, my friend, will see that Archibius seeks me this very day. I must
talk with him, and--you no longer have any thought of a parting? Another
will come soon enough, which will forever forbid these lips from kissing
your dear face."

As she spoke, she again clasped the companion of her childhood in
her arms, and when Iras entered to request an audience for Lucilius,
Antony's most faithful friend, Cleopatra, who had noticed the younger
woman's envious glance at the embrace, said: "Was I mistaken in fancying
that you imagined yourself slighted for Charmian, who is an older
friend? That would be wrong; for I love and need you both. You are
her niece, and indebted to her for much kindness from your earliest
childhood. So, even though you will lose the joy of revenge upon a hated
enemy, forget what has happened, as I did, and maintain your former
affectionate companionship. I will reward you for it with the only thing
that the daughter of the wealthy Krates cannot purchase, yet which she
probably rates at no low value--the love of her royal friend."

With these words she clasped Iras also in a close embrace, and when the
latter left the room to summon Lucilius, she thought: "No woman has ever
won so much love; perhaps that is why she possesses so great a treasure
of it, and can afford such unspeakable happiness by its bestowal. Or is
she so much beloved because she entered the world full of its wealth,
and dispenses it as the sun diffuses light? Surely that must be the
case. I have reason to believe it, for whom did I ever love save the
Queen? No one, not even myself, and I know no one in whose love for me
I can believe. But why did Dion, whom I loved so fervently, disdain me?
Fool! Why did Mark Antony prefer Cleopatra to Octavia, who was not less
fair, whose heart was his, and whose hand held the sovereignty of half
the world?"

Passing on as she spoke, she soon returned, ushering the Roman Lucilius
into the presence of the Queen. A gallant deed had bound this man to
Antony. After the battle of Philippi, when the army of the republicans
fled, Brutus had been on the point of being seized by the enemy