rees,' Having this
said, and composed her countenance, she went to the ship with her little
grandson, and bade the pilot put out at once to sea. When she came to
Egypt, and understood that Ptolemy entertained proposals and overtures
of peace from Antigonus, and that Cleomenes, though the Achaeans invited
and urged him to an agreement, was afraid for her sake to come to any
without Ptolemy's consent, she wrote to him, advising him to do that
which was most becoming and most profitable for Sparta, and not, for the
sake of an old woman and a little child, stand always in fear of
Ptolemy. This character she maintained in her misfortunes."

Cleomenes, however, soon realized how little reliance is to be put in
the favors of princes. Antigonus of Syria took the part of Aratus
against him, and Ptolemy, who had been ever ready to help the valiant
Spartan, did not care to invite the hostility of a greater foe.
Cleomenes was defeated by Antigonus, and became an exile at the court of
Ptolemy, but it proved to be a prison instead of a home. Upon the death
of the elder Ptolemy, his son kept Cleomenes and his friends under
restraint, and, to please Antigonus, purposed putting them to death.
Cleomenes and his companions, knowing that a tragic end awaited them,
determined to break through their prison bars and to rouse the populace
to a revolt against Ptolemy. They easily made their escape, but the
people could not be persuaded to undertake any struggle for liberty; and
so the devoted band resolved to die. Then each one killed himself,
except Panteus, the youngest and handsomest of them all, who was
selected by Cleomenes to wait till the rest were dead, so that he might
perform for them the last offices. He carefully arranged all the bodies
of his comrades, and then, kissing his beloved king and throwing his
arms about him, slew himself. The news of this sad event, having spread
through the city, finally reached the aged mother, Cratesiclea, who,
though a woman of great spirit, could hardly bear up against the weight
of this affliction, especially as she knew that an equally tragic fate
awaited her grandchildren.

The Egyptian king ordered that Cleomenes's body should be flayed, and
that his children, his mother, and the women that were with her, should
be put to death. Among these was the wife of Panteus, still very young
and exquisitely beautiful, who had but lately been married. Her parents
would not suffer her to embark with Panteu