pt? As Caesar's son I ought to have ruled Rome; but the
immortals knew what they were doing when they prompted my father to
disinherit me. To govern the world one must have less need of sleep.
Really--you know it--I always feel tired, even when I am well. People
must let me alone! Your father, too, Antyllus, is laying down his arms
and letting things go as they will."

"Ah, so he is!" cried Antony's son indignantly. "But just wait! The
sleeping lion will wake again, and, when he uses his teeth and paws--"

"My mother will run away, and your father will follow her," replied
Caesarion with a melancholy smile, wholly untinged by scorn. "All is
lost. But conquered kings and queens are permitted to live. Caesar's
son will not be exhibited to the Quirites in the triumphal procession.
Rhodon says that there would be an insurrection if I appeared in the
Forum. If I go there again, it certainly will not be in Octavianus's
train. I am not suited for that kind of ignominy. It would stifle me
and, ere I would grant any man the pleasure of dragging the son of
Caesar behind him to increase his own renown, I would put an end--ten,
nay, a hundred times over, in the good old Roman fashion, to my life,
which is by no means especially attractive. What is sweeter than sound
sleep, and who will disturb and rouse me when Death has lowered his
torch before me? But now I think I shall be spared this extreme.
Whatever else they may inflict upon me will scarcely exceed my powers of
endurance. If any one has learned contentment it is I. The King of kings
and Co-Regent of the Great Queen has been trained persistently, and with
excellent success, to be content. What should I be, and what am I? Yet
I do not complain, and wish to accuse no one. We need not summon
Octavianus, and when he is here let him take what he will if he only
spares the lives of my mother, the twins, and little Alexander, whom I
love, and bestows on me the estate--the main thing is that it must be
full of fishponds--of which I spoke. The private citizen Caesarion, who
devotes his time to fishing and the books he likes to read, will gladly
be allowed to choose a wife to suit his own taste. The more humble her
origin, the more easily I shall win the consent of the Roman guardian."

"Do you know, Caesarion," interrupted Antony's unruly son, leaning back
on the cushions and stretching his feet farther in front of him, "if
you were not the King of kings I should be inclined to call