gers, as if seized with horror. The celerity and
faultless order with which the raising of the oars was executed and
vessel after vessel brought to a stand would have been a credit to an
honourable captain, but the manoeuvre introduced one of the basest
acts ever recorded in history; and the women, who had witnessed many
a naumachza and understood its meaning, exclaimed as if with a single
voice: "Treachery! They are going over to the enemy!"

Mark Antony's fleet, created for him by Cleopatra, surrendered, down to
the last galley, to Caesar's heir, the victor of Actium; and the man to
whom the sailors had vowed allegiance, who had drilled them, and only
yesterday had urged them to offer a gallant resistance, saw from one
of the downs on the shore the strong weapons on which he had based the
fairest hopes, not shattered, but delivered into the hands of the enemy!

The surrender of the fleet to the foe--he knew it--sealed his
destruction; and the women on the shore of the Serpent Island, who were
so closely connected with those on whom this misfortune fell, suspected
the same thing. The hearts of both were stirred, and their eyes grew dim
with tears of indignation and sorrow. They were Alexandrians, and did
not desire to be ruled by Rome. Cleopatra, daughter of the Macedonian
house of the Ptolemies, had the sole right to govern the city of
her ancestors, founded by the great Macedonian. The sorrow they had
themselves endured through her sank into insignificance beside the
tremendous blow of Fate which in this hour reached the Queen.

The Roman and Egyptian fleet returned to the harbour as one vast
squadron under the same commander, and anchored in the roadstead of the
city, which was now its precious booty.

Barine had seen enough, and returned to the house with drooping head.
Her heart was heavy, and her anxiety for the man she loved hourly
increased.

It seemed as if the very day-star shrank from illuminating so infamous
a deed with friendly light; for the dazzling, searching sun of the first
of August veiled its radiant face with a greyish-white mist, and
the desecrated sea wrinkled its brow, changed its pure azure robe to
yellowish grey and blackish green, while the white foam hissed on the
crests of the angry waves.

As twilight began to approach, the anxiety of the deserted wife became
unendurable. Not only Helena's wise words of caution, but the sight of
her child, failed to exert their usual influence; and B