not--how many-sided was
the man who could thus turn from weighing the fate of empires to
entering unfeignedly into a sharing of the hopes and fears of a very
young, and still quite unsophisticated, woman.

When the Imperator departed Drusus accompanied him to the palace.
Neither of the two, general nor subaltern, spoke for a long while; at
last Caesar remarked:--

"Do you know what is uppermost in my mind, after meeting women like
Fabia or Cornelia?"

Drusus shook his head.

"I believe that there are gods, who bring such creatures into the
world. They are not chance accretions of atoms." And then Caesar added,
half dreamily: "You ought to be a very happy man. I was once--it was
many years ago. Her name was Cornelia also."

* * * * *

Serious and more serious, grew the situation at Alexandria. King
Ptolemaeus and Pothinus came to the city from Pelusium. Caesar had
announced that he intended to examine the title of the young monarch
to the undivided crown, and make him show cause why he had expelled
Cleopatra. This the will of Ptolemaeus Auletes had enjoined the Roman
government to do; for in it he had commissioned his allies to see that
his oldest children shared the inheritance equally.

But Pothinus came to Alexandria, and trouble came with him. He threw
every possible obstacle in Caesar's way when the latter tried to
collect a heavy loan due the Romans by the late king. The etesian
winds made it impossible to bring up reenforcements, and Caesar's force
was very small. Pothinus grew more insolent each day. For the first
time, Drusus observed that his general was nervous, and suspicious
lest he be assassinated. Finally the Imperator determined to force a
crisis. To leave Egypt without humbling Pothinus meant a great
lowering of prestige. He sent off a private message to Palestine that
Cleopatra should come to Alexandria.

Cleopatra came, not in royal procession, for she knew too well the
finesse of the regent's underlings; but entered the harbour in
disguise in a small boat; and Apollodorus, her Sicilian confidant,
carried her into Caesar's presence wrapped in a bale of bedding which
he had slung across his back.

The queen's suit was won. Cleopatra and the Imperator met, and the two
strong personalities recognized each other's affinity instantly. Her
coming was as a thunder-clap to Pothinus and his puppet Ptolemaeus.
They could only cringe and acquiesce when Caesar ordered th