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+The Project Gutenberg EBook The Sisters, by Georg Ebers, v4
+#26 in our series by Georg Ebers
+
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+Title: The Sisters, v4
+
+Author: Georg Ebers
+
+Release Date: April, 2004  [EBook #5464]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on May 12, 2002]
+
+Edition: 10
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+Language: English
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+
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SISTERS, BY EBERS, V4 ***
+
+
+
+This eBook was produced by David Widger <widger@cecomet.net>
+
+
+
+[NOTE: There is a short list of bookmarks, or pointers, at the end of the
+file for those who may wish to sample the author's ideas before making an
+entire meal of them.  D.W.]
+
+
+
+
+
+THE SISTERS
+
+By Georg Ebers
+
+Volume 4.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+A paved road, with a row of Sphinxes on each side, led from the Greek
+temple of Serapis to the rock-hewn tombs of Apis, and the temples and
+chapels built over them, and near them; in these the Apis bull after its
+death--or "in Osiris" as the phrase went--was worshipped, while, so long
+as it lived, it was taken care of and prayed to in the temple to which it
+belonged, that of the god Ptah at Memphis.  After death these sacred
+bulls, which were distinguished by peculiar marks, had extraordinarily
+costly obsequies; they were called the risen Ptah, and regarded as the
+symbol of the soul of Osiris, by whose procreative power all that dies or
+passes away is brought to new birth and new life--the departed soul of
+man, the plant that has perished, and the heavenly bodies that have set.
+Osiris-Sokari, who was worshipped as the companion of Osiris, presided
+over the wanderings which had to be performed by the seemingly extinct
+spirit before its resuscitation as another being in a new form; and
+Egyptian priests governed in the temples of these gods, which were purely
+Egyptian in style, and which had been built at a very early date over the
+tomb-cave of the sacred bulls.  And even the Greek ministers of Serapis,
+settled at Memphis, were ready to follow the example of their rulers and
+to sacrifice to Osiris-Apis, who was closely allied to Serapis--not only
+in name but in his essential attributes.  Serapis himself indeed was a
+divinity introduced from Asia into the Nile valley by the Ptolemies, in
+order to supply to their Greek and Egyptian subjects alike an object of
+adoration, before whose altars they could unite in a common worship.
+They devoted themselves to the worship of Apis in Osiris at the shrines,
+of Greek architecture, and containing stone images of bulls, that stood
+outside the Egyptian sanctuary, and they were very ready to be initiated
+into the higher significance of his essence; indeed, all religious
+mysteries in their Greek home bore reference to the immortality of the
+soul and its fate in the other world.
+
+Just as two neighboring cities may be joined by a bridge, so the Greek
+temple of Serapis--to which the water-bearers belonged--was connected
+with the Egyptian sanctuary of Osiris-Apis by the fine paved road for
+processions along which Klea now rapidly proceeded.  There was a shorter
+way to Memphis, but she chose this one, because the mounds of sand on
+each side of the road bordered by Sphinxes--which every day had to be
+cleared of the desert-drift--concealed her from the sight of her
+companions in the temple; besides the best and safest way into the city
+was by a road leading from a crescent, decorated with busts of the
+philosophers, that lay near the principal entrance to the new Apis tombs.
+
+She looked neither at the lion-bodies with men's heads that guarded the
+way, nor at the images of beasts on the wall that shut it in; nor did she
+heed the dusky-hued temple-slaves of Osiris-Apis who were sweeping the
+sand from the paved way with large brooms, for she thought of nothing but
+Irene and the difficult task that lay before her, and she walked swiftly
+onwards with her eyes fixed on the ground.
+
+But she had taken no more than a few steps when she heard her name called
+quite close to her, and looking up in alarm she found herself standing
+opposite Krates, the little smith, who came close up to her, took hold of
+her veil, threw it back a little before she could prevent him, and asked:
+
+"Where are you off to, child?"
+
+"Do not detain me," entreated Klea.  "You know that Irene, whom you are
+always so fond of, has been carried off; perhaps I may be able to save
+her, but if you betray me, and if they follow me--"
+
+"I will not hinder you," interrupted the old man.  "Nay, if it were not
+for these swollen feet I would go with you, for I can think of nothing
+else but the poor dear little thing; but as it is I shall be glad enough
+when I am sitting still again in my workshop; it is exactly as if a
+workman of my own trade lived in each of my great toes, and was dancing
+round in them with hammer and file and chisel and nails.  Very likely you
+may be so fortunate as to find your sister, for a crafty woman succeeds
+in many things which are too difficult for a wise man.  Go on, and if
+they seek for you old Krates will not betray you."
+
+He nodded kindly at Klea, and had already half turned his back on her
+when he once more looked round, and called out to her:
+
+"Wait a minute, girl--you can do me a little service.  I have just fitted
+a new lock to the door of the Apis-tomb down there.  It answers
+admirably, but the one key to it which I have made is not enough; we
+require four, and you shall order them for me of the locksmith Heri, to
+be sent the day after to-morrow; he lives opposite the gate of Sokari--
+to the left, next the bridge over the canal--you cannot miss it.  I hate
+repeating and copying as much as I like inventing and making new things,
+and Heri can work from a pattern just as well as I can.  If it were not
+for my legs I would give the man my commission myself, for he who speaks
+by the lips of a go-between is often misunderstood or not understood at
+all."
+
+"I will gladly save you the walk," replied Klea, while the Smith sat down
+on the pedestal of one of the Sphinxes, and opening the leather wallet
+which hung by his side shook out the contents.  A few files, chisels, and
+nails fell out into his lap; then the key, and finally a sharp, pointed
+knife with which Krates had cut out the hollow in the door for the
+insertion of the lock; Krates touched up the pattern-key for the smith in
+Memphis with a few strokes of the file, and then, muttering thoughtfully
+and shaking his head doubtfully from side to side, he exclaimed:
+
+"You still must come with me once more to the door, for I require
+accurate workmanship from other people, and so I must be severe upon my
+own."
+
+"But I want so much to reach Memphis before dark," besought Klea.
+
+"The whole thing will not take a minute, and if you will give me your arm
+I shall go twice as fast.  There are the files, there is the knife."
+
+"Give it me," Klea requested.  "This blade is sharp and bright, and as
+soon as I saw it I felt as if it bid me take it with me.  Very likely I
+may have to come through the desert alone at night."
+
+"Aye," said the smith, "and even the weakest feels stronger when he has a
+weapon.  Hide the knife somewhere about you, my child, only take care not
+to hurt yourself with it.  Now let me take your arm, and on we will go--
+but not quite so fast."
+
+Klea led the smith to the door he indicated, and saw with admiration how
+unfailingly the bolt sprang forward when one half of the door closed upon
+the other, and how easily the key pushed it back again; then, after
+conducting Krates back to the Sphinx near which she had met him, she went
+on her way at her quickest pace, for the sun was already very low, and it
+seemed scarcely possible to reach Memphis before it should set.
+
+As she approached a tavern where soldiers and low people were accustomed
+to resort, she was met by a drunken slave.  She went on and past him
+without any fear, for the knife in her girdle, and on which she kept her
+hand, kept up her courage, and she felt as if she had thus acquired a
+third hand which was more powerful and less timid than her own.  A
+company of soldiers had encamped in front of the tavern, and the wine of
+Kbakem, which was grown close by, on the eastern declivity of the Libyan
+range, had an excellent savor.  The men were in capital spirits, for at
+noon today--after they had been quartered here for months as guards of
+the tombs of Apis and of the temples of the Necropolis--a commanding
+officer of the Diadoches had arrived at Memphis, who had ordered them to
+break up at once, and to withdraw into the capital before nightfall.
+They were not to be relieved by other mercenaries till the next morning.
+
+All this Klea learned from a messenger from the Egyptian temple in the
+Necropolis, who recognized her, and who was going to Memphis,
+commissioned by the priests of Osiris-Apis and Sokari to convey a
+petition to the king, praying that fresh troops might be promptly sent to
+replace those now withdrawn.
+
+For some time she went on side by side with this messenger, but soon she
+found that she could not keep up with his hurried pace, and had to fall
+behind.  In front of another tavern sat the officers of the troops, whose
+noisy mirth she had heard as she passed the former one; they were sitting
+over their wine and looking on at the dancing of two Egyptian girls, who
+screeched like cackling hens over their mad leaps, and who so effectually
+riveted the attention of the spectators, who were beating time for them
+by clapping their hands, that Klea, accelerating her step, was able to
+slip unobserved past the wild crew.  All these scenes, nay everything she
+met with on the high-road, scared the girl who was accustomed to the
+silence and the solemn life of the temple of Serapis, and she therefore
+struck into a side path that probably also led to the city which she
+could already see lying before her with its pylons, its citadel and its
+houses, veiled in evening mist.  In a quarter of an hour at most she
+would have crossed the desert, and reach the fertile meadow land, whose
+emerald hue grew darker and darker every moment.  The sun was already
+sinking to rest behind the Libyan range, and soon after, for twilight is
+short in Egypt, she was wrapped in the darkness of night.  The westwind,
+which had begun to blow even at noon, now rose higher, and seemed to
+pursue her with its hot breath and the clouds of sand it carried with it
+from the desert.
+
+She must certainly be approaching water, for she heard the deep pipe of
+the bittern in the reeds, and fancied she breathed a moister air.  A few
+steps more, and her foot sank in mud; and she now perceived that she was
+standing on the edge of a wide ditch in which tall papyrus-plants were
+growing.  The side path she had struck into ended at this plantation, and
+there was nothing to be done but to turn about, and to continue her walk
+against the wind and with the sand blowing in her face.
+
+The light from the drinking-booth showed her the direction she must
+follow, for though the moon was up, it is true, black clouds swept across
+it, covering it and the smaller lights of heaven for many minutes at a
+time.  Still she felt no fatigue, but the shouts of the men and the loud
+cries of the women that rang out from the tavern filled her with alarm
+and disgust.  She made a wide circuit round the hostelry, wading through
+the sand hillocks and tearing her dress on the thorns and thistles that
+had boldly struck deep root in the desert, and had grown up there like
+the squalid brats in the hovel of a beggar.  But still, as she hurried on
+by the high-road, the hideous laughter and the crowing mirth of the
+dancing-girls still rang in her mind's ear.
+
+Her blood coursed more swiftly through her veins, her head was on fire,
+she saw Irene close before her, tangibly distinct--with flowing hair and
+fluttering garments, whirling in a wild dance like a Moenad at a
+Dionysiac festival, flying from one embrace to another and shouting and
+shrieking in unbridled folly like the wretched girls she had seen on her
+way.  She was seized with terror for her sister--an unbounded dread such
+as she had never felt before, and as the wind was now once more behind
+her she let herself be driven on by it, lifting her feet in a swift run
+and flying, as if pursued by the Erinnyes, without once looking round her
+and wholly forgetful of the smith's commission, on towards the city along
+the road planted with trees, which as she knew led to the gate of the
+citadel.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+In front of the gate of the king's palace sat a crowd of petitioners who
+were accustomed to stay here from early dawn till late at night, until
+they were called into the palace to receive the answer to the petition
+they had drawn up.  When Klea reached the end of her journey she was so
+exhausted and bewildered that she felt the imperative necessity of
+seeking rest and quiet reflection, so she seated herself among these
+people, next to a woman from Upper Egypt.  But hardly had she taken her
+place by her with a silent greeting, when her talkative neighbor began to
+relate with particular minuteness why she had come to Memphis, and how
+certain unjust judges had conspired with her bad husband to trick her--
+for men were always ready to join against a woman--and to deprive her of
+everything which had been secured to her and her children by her
+marriage-contract.  For two months now, she said, she had been waiting
+early and late before the sublime gate, and was consuming her last ready
+cash in the city where living was so dear; but it was all one to her, and
+at a pinch she would sell even her gold ornaments, for sooner or later
+her cause must come before the king, and then the wicked villain and his
+accomplices would be taught what was just.
+
+Klea heard but little of this harangue; a feeling had come over her like
+that of a person who is having water poured again and again on the top of
+his head.  Presently her neighbor observed that the new-comer was not
+listening at all to her complainings; she slapped her shoulder with her
+hand, and said:
+
+"You seem to think of nothing but your own concerns; and I dare say they
+are not of such a nature as that you should relate them to any one else;
+so far as mine are concerned the more they are discussed, the better."
+
+The tone in which these remarks were made was so dry, and at the same
+time so sharp, that it hurt Klea, and she rose hastily to go closer to
+the gate.  Her neighbor threw a cross word after her; but she did not
+heed it, and drawing her veil closer over her face, she went through the
+gate of the palace into a vast courtyard, brightly lighted up by cressets
+and torches, and crowded with foot-soldiers and mounted guards.
+
+The sentry at the gate perhaps had not observed her, or perhaps had let
+her pass unchallenged from her dignified and erect gait, and the numerous
+armed men through whom she now made her way seemed to be so much occupied
+with their own affairs, that no one bestowed any notice on her.  In a
+narrow alley, which led to a second court and was lighted by lanterns,
+one of the body-guard known as Philobasilistes, a haughty young fellow in
+yellow riding-boots and a shirt of mail over his red tunic, came riding
+towards her on his tall horse, and noticing her he tried to squeeze her
+between his charger and the wall, and put out his hand to raise her veil;
+but Klea slipped aside, and put up her hands to protect herself from the
+horse's head which was almost touching her.
+
+The cavalier, enjoying her alarm, called out: "Only stand still--he is
+not vicious."
+
+"Which, you or your horse?" asked Klea, with such a solemn tone in her
+deep voice that for an instant the young guardsman lost his self-
+possession, and this gave her time to go farther from the horse.  But the
+girl's sharp retort had annoyed the conceited young fellow, and not
+having time to follow her himself, he called out in a tone of
+encouragement to a party of mercenaries from Cyprus, whom the frightened
+girl was trying to pass:
+
+"Look under this girl's veil, comrades, and if she is as pretty as she is
+well-grown, I wish you joy of your prize."  He laughed as he pressed his
+knees against the flanks of his bay and trotted slowly away, while the
+Cypriotes gave Klea ample time to reach the second court, which was more
+brightly lighted even than the first, that they might there surround her
+with insolent importunity.
+
+The helpless and persecuted girl felt the blood run cold in her veins,
+and for a few minutes she could see nothing but a bewildering confusion
+of flashing eyes and weapons, of beards and hands, could hear nothing but
+words and sounds, of which she understood and felt only that they were
+revolting and horrible, and threatened her with death and ruin.  She had
+crossed her arms over her bosom, but now she raised her hands to hide her
+face, for she felt a strong hand snatch away the veil that covered her
+head.  This insolent proceeding turned her numb horror to indignant rage,
+and, fixing her sparkling eyes on her bearded opponents, she exclaimed:
+
+"Shame upon you, who in the king's own house fall like wolves on a
+defenceless woman, and in a peaceful spot snatch the veil from a young
+girl's head.  Your mothers would blush for you, and your sisters cry
+shame on you--as I do now!"
+
+Astonished at Klea's distinguished beauty, startled at the angry glare in
+her eyes, and the deep chest-tones of her voice which trembled with
+excitement, the Cypriotes drew back, while the same audacious rascal that
+had pulled away her veil came closer to her, and cried:
+
+"Who would make such a noise about a rubbishy veil!  If you will be my
+sweetheart I will buy you a new one, and many things besides."
+
+At the same time he tried to throw his arm round her; but at his touch
+Klea felt the blood leave her cheeks and mount to her bloodshot eyes, and
+at that instant her hand, guided by some uncontrollable inward impulse,
+grasped the handle of the knife which Krates had lent her; she raised it
+high in the air though with an unsteady arm, exclaiming:
+
+"Let me go or, by Serapis whom I serve, I will strike you to the heart!"
+
+The soldier to whom this threat was addressed, was not the man to be
+intimidated by a blade of cold iron in a woman's hand; with a quick
+movement he seized her wrist in order to disarm her; but although Klea
+was forced to drop the knife she struggled with him to free herself from
+his clutch, and this contest between a man and a woman, who seemed to be
+of superior rank to that indicated by her very simple dress, seemed to
+most of the Cypriotes so undignified, so much out of place within the
+walls of a palace, that they pulled their comrade back from Klea, while
+others on the contrary came to the assistance of the bully who defended
+himself stoutly.  And in the midst of the fray, which was conducted with
+no small noise, stood Klea with flying breath.  Her antagonist, though
+flung to the ground, still held her wrist with his left hand while he
+defended himself against his comrades with the right, and she tried with
+all her force and cunning to withdraw it; for at the very height of her
+excitement and danger she felt as if a sudden gust of wind had swept her
+spirit clear of all confusion, and she was again able to contemplate her
+position calmly and resolutely.
+
+If only her hand were free she might perhaps be able to take advantage of
+the struggle between her foes, and to force her way out between their
+ranks.
+
+Twice, thrice, four times, she tried to wrench her hand with a sudden
+jerk through the fingers that grasped it; but each time in vain.
+Suddenly, from the man at her feet there broke a loud, long-drawn cry of
+pain which re-echoed from the high walls of the court, and at the same
+time she felt the fingers of her antagonist gradually and slowly slip
+from her arm like the straps of a sandal carefully lifted by the surgeon
+from a broken ankle.
+
+"It is all over with him!" exclaimed the eldest of the Cypriotes.  "A man
+never calls out like that but once in his life!  True enough--the dagger
+is sticking here just under the ninth rib!  This is mad work!  That is
+your doing again, Lykos, you savage wolf!"
+
+"He bit deep into my finger in the struggle--"
+
+"And you are for ever tearing each other to pieces for the sake of the
+women," interrupted the elder, not listening to the other's excuses.
+"Well, I was no better than you in my time, and nothing can alter it!
+You had better be off now, for if the Epistrategist learns we have fallen
+to stabbing each other again--"
+
+The Cypriote had not ceased speaking, and his countrymen were in the very
+act of raising the body of their comrade when a division of the civic
+watch rushed into the court in close order and through the passage near
+which the fight for the girl had arisen, thus stopping the way against
+those who were about to escape, since all who wished to get out of the
+court into the open street must pass through the doorway into which Klea
+had been forced by the horseman.  Every other exit from this second court
+of the citadel led into the strictly guarded gardens and buildings of the
+palace itself.
+
+The noisy strife round Klea, and the cry of the wounded man had attracted
+the watch; the Cypriotes and the maiden soon found themselves surrounded,
+and they were conducted through a narrow side passage into the court-yard
+of the prison.  After a short enquiry the men who had been taken were
+allowed to return under an escort to their own phalanx, and Klea gladly
+followed the commander of the watch to a less brilliantly illuminated
+part of the prison-yard, for in him she had recognized at once Serapion's
+brother Glaucus, and he in her the daughter of the man who had done and
+suffered so much for his father's sake; besides they had often exchanged
+greetings and a few words in the temple of Serapis.
+
+"All that is in my power," said Glaucus--a man somewhat taller but not so
+broadly built as his brother--when he had read the recluse's note and
+when Klea had answered a number of questions, "all that is in my power I
+will gladly do for you and your sister, for I do not forget all that I
+owe to your father; still I cannot but regret that you have incurred such
+risk, for it is always hazardous for a pretty young girl to venture into
+this palace at a late hour, and particularly just now, for the courts are
+swarming not only with Philometor's fighting men but with those of his
+brother, who have come here for their sovereign's birthday festival.  The
+people have been liberally entertained, and the soldier who has been
+sacrificing to Dionysus seizes the gifts of Eros and Aphrodite wherever
+he may find them.  I will at once take charge of my brother's letter to
+the Roman Publius Cornelius Scipio, but when you have received his answer
+you will do well to let yourself be escorted to my wife or my sister, who
+both live in the city, and to remain till to-morrow morning with one or
+the other.  Here you cannot remain a minute unmolested while I am away--
+Where now--Aye!  The only safe shelter I can offer you is the prison down
+there; the room where they lock up the subaltern officers when they have
+committed any offence is quite unoccupied, and I will conduct you
+thither.  It is always kept clean, and there is a bench in it too."
+
+Klea followed her friend who, as his hasty demeanor plainly showed, had
+been interrupted in important business.  In a few steps they reached the
+prison; she begged Glaucus to bring her the Roman's answer as quickly as
+possible, declared herself quite ready to remain in the dark--since she
+perceived that the light of a lamp might betray her, and she was not
+afraid of the dark--and suffered herself to be locked in.
+
+As she heard the iron bolt creak in its brass socket a shiver ran through
+her, and although the room in which she found herself was neither worse
+nor smaller than that in which she and her sister lived in the temple,
+still it oppressed her, and she even felt as if an indescribable
+something hindered her breathing as she said to herself that she was
+locked in and no longer free to come and to go.  A dim light penetrated
+into her prison through the single barred window that opened on to the
+court, and she could see a little bench of palm-branches on which she sat
+down to seek the repose she so sorely needed.  All sense of discomfort
+gradually vanished before the new feeling of rest and refreshment, and
+pleasant hopes and anticipations were just beginning to mingle themselves
+with the remembrance of the horrors she had just experienced when
+suddenly there was a stir and a bustle just in front of the  prison--and
+she could hear, outside, the clatter of harness and words of command.
+She rose from her seat and saw that about twenty horsemen, whose golden
+helmets and armor reflected the light of the lanterns, cleared the wide
+court by driving the men before them, as the flames drive the game from a
+fired hedge, and by forcing them into a second court from which again
+they proceeded to expel them.  At least Klea could hear them shouting 'In
+the king's name' there as they had before done close to her.  Presently
+the horsemen returned and placed themselves, ten and ten, as guards at
+each of the passages leading into the court.  It was not without interest
+that Klea looked on at this scene which was perfectly new to her; and
+when one of the fine horses, dazzled by the light of the lanterns, turned
+restive and shied, leaping and rearing and threatening his rider with a
+fall--when the horseman checked and soothed it, and brought it to a
+stand-still--the Macedonian warrior was transfigured in her eyes to
+Publius, who no doubt could manage a horse no less well than this man.
+
+No sooner was the court completely cleared of men by the mounted guard
+than a new incident claimed Klea's attention.  First she heard footsteps
+in the room adjoining her prison, then bright streaks of light fell
+through the cracks of the slight partition which divided her place of
+retreat from the other room, then the two window-openings close to hers
+were closed with heavy shutters, then seats or benches were dragged about
+and various objects were laid upon a table, and finally the door of the
+adjoining room was thrown open and slammed to again so violently, that
+the door which closed hers and the bench near which she was standing
+trembled and jarred.
+
+At the same moment a deep sonorous voice called out with a loud and
+hearty shout of laughter:
+
+"A mirror--give me a mirror, Eulaeus.  By heaven!  I do not look much
+like prison fare--more like a man in whose strong brain there is no lack
+of deep schemes, who can throttle his antagonist with a grip of his fist,
+and who is prompt to avail himself of all the spoil that comes in his
+way, so that he may compress the pleasures of a whole day into every
+hour, and enjoy them to the utmost!  As surely as my name is Euergetes
+my uncle Antiochus was right in liking to mix among the populace.  The
+splendid puppets who surround us kings, and cover every portion of their
+own bodies in wrappings and swaddling bands, also stifle the expression
+of every genuine sentiment; and it is enough to turn our brain to reflect
+that, if we would not be deceived, every word that we hear--and, oh dear!
+how many words we must needs hear-must be pondered in our minds.  Now,
+the mob on the contrary--who think themselves beautifully dressed in a
+threadbare cloth hanging round their brown loins--are far better off.
+If one of them says to another of his own class--a naked wretch who wears
+about him everything he happens to possess--that he is a dog, he answers
+with a blow of his fist in the other's face, and what can be plainer than
+that!  If on the other hand he tells him he is a splendid fellow, he
+believes it without reservation, and has a perfect right to believe it.
+
+"Did you see how that stunted little fellow with a snub-nose and bandy-
+legs, who is as broad as he is long, showed all his teeth in a delighted
+grin when I praised his steady hand?  He laughs just like a hyena, and
+every respectable father of a family looks on the fellow as a god-
+forsaken monster; but the immortals must think him worth something to
+have given him such magnificent grinders in his ugly mouth, and to have
+preserved him mercifully for fifty years--for that is about the rascal's
+age.  If that fellow's dagger breaks he can kill his victim with those
+teeth, as a fox does a duck, or smash his bones with his fist."
+
+"But, my lord," replied Eulaeus dryly and with a certain matter-of-fact
+gravity to King Euergetes--for he it was who had come with him into the
+room adjoining Klea's retreat, "the dry little Egyptian with the thin
+straight hair is even more trustworthy and tougher and nimbler than his
+companion, and, so far, more estimable.  One flings himself on his prey
+with a rush like a block of stone hurled from a roof, but the other,
+without being seen, strikes his poisoned fang into his flesh like an
+adder hidden in the sand.  The third, on whom I had set great hopes, was
+beheaded the day before yesterday without my knowledge; but the pair whom
+you have condescended to inspect with your own eyes are sufficient.  They
+must use neither dagger nor lance, but they will easily achieve their end
+with slings and hooks and poisoned needles, which leave wounds that
+resemble the sting of an adder.  We may safely depend on these fellows."
+
+Once more Euergetes laughed loudly, and exclaimed: What criticism!
+Exactly as if these blood-hounds were tragic actors of which one could
+best produce his effects by fire and pathos, and the other by the
+subtlety of his conception.  I call that an unprejudiced judgment.  And
+why should not a man be great even as a murderer?  From what hangman's
+noose did you drag out the neck of one, and from what headsman's block
+did you rescue the other when you found them?
+
+"It is a lucky hour in which we first see something new to us, and,
+by Heracles!  I never before in the whole course of my life saw such
+villains as these.  I do not regret having gone to see them and talked to
+them as if I were their equal.  Now, take this torn coat off me, and help
+me to undress.  Before I go to the feast I will take a hasty plunge in my
+bath, for I twitch in every limb, I feel as if I had got dirty in their
+company.
+
+"There lie my clothes and my sandals; strap them on for me, and tell me
+as you do it how you lured the Roman into the toils."
+
+Klea could hear every word of this frightful conversation, and clasped
+her hand over her brow with a shudder, for she found it difficult to
+believe in the reality of the hideous images that it brought before her
+mind.  Was she awake or was she a prey to some horrid dream?
+
+She hardly knew, and, indeed, she scarcely understood half of all she
+heard till the Roman's name was mentioned.  She felt as if the point of a
+thin, keen knife was being driven obliquely through her brain from right
+to left, as it now flashed through her mind that it was against him,
+against Publius, that the wild beasts, disguised in human form, were
+directed by Eulaeus, and face to face with this--the most hideous, the
+most incredible of horrors--she suddenly recovered the full use of her
+senses.  She softly slipped close to that rift in the partition through
+which the broadest beam of light fell into the room, put her ear close to
+it, and drank in, with fearful attention, word for word the report made
+by the eunuch to his iniquitous superior, who frequently interrupted him
+with remarks, words of approval or a short laugh-drank them in, as a man
+perishing in the desert drinks the loathsome waters of a salt pool.
+
+And what she heard was indeed well fitted to deprive her of her senses,
+but the more definite the facts to which the words referred that she
+could overhear, the more keenly she listened, and the more resolutely she
+collected her thoughts.  Eulaeus had used her own name to induce the
+Roman to keep an assignation at midnight in the desert close to the Apis-
+tombs.  He repeated the words that he had written to this effect on a
+tile, and which requested Publius to come quite alone to the spot
+indicated, since she dare not speak with him in the temple.  Finally he
+was invited to write his answer on the other side of the square of clay.
+As Klea heard these words, put into her own mouth by a villain, she could
+have sobbed aloud heartily with anguish, shame, and rage; but the point
+now was to keep her ears wide open, for Euergetes asked his odious tool:
+
+"And what was the Roman's answer?"  Eulaeus must have handed the tile to
+the king, for he laughed loudly again, and cried out:
+
+"So he will walk into the trap--will arrive by half an hour after
+midnight at the latest, and greets Klea from her sister Irene.  He
+carries on love-making and abduction wholesale, and buys water-bearers
+by the pair, like doves in the market or sandals in a shoe maker's stall.
+Only see how the simpleton writes Greek; in these few words there are two
+mistakes, two regular schoolboys' blunders.
+
+"The fellow must have had a very pleasant day of it, since he must have
+been reckoning on a not unsuccessful evening--but the gods have an ugly
+habit of clenching the hand with which they have long caressed their
+favorites, and striking him with their fist.
+
+"Amalthea's horn has been poured out on him today; first he snapped up,
+under my very nose, my little Hebe, the Irene of Irenes, whom I hope to-
+morrow to inherit from him; then he got the gift of my best Cyrenaan
+horses, and at the same time the flattering assurance of my valuable
+friendship; then he had audience of my fair sister--and it goes more to
+the heart of a republican than you would believe when crowned heads are
+graciously disposed towards him--finally the sister of his pretty
+sweetheart invites him to an assignation, and she, if you and Zoe speak
+the truth, is a beauty in the grand style.  Now these are really too many
+good things for one inhabitant of this most stingily provided world; and
+in one single day too, which, once begun, is so soon ended; and justice
+requires that we should lend a helping hand to destiny, and cut off the
+head of this poppy that aspires to rise above its brethren; the thousands
+who have less good fortune than he would otherwise have great cause to
+complain of neglect."
+
+"I am happy to see you in such good humor," said Eulaeus.
+
+"My humor is as may be," interrupted the king.  "I believe I am only
+whistling a merry tune to keep up my spirits in the dark.  If I were on
+more familiar terms with what other men call fear I should have ample
+reason to be afraid; for in the quail-fight we have gone in for I have
+wagered a crown-aye, and more than that even.  To-morrow only will decide
+whether the game is lost or won, but I know already to-day that I would
+rather see my enterprise against Philometor fail, with all my hopes of
+the double crown, than our plot against the life of the Roman; for I was
+a man before I was a king, and a man I should remain, if my throne, which
+now indeed stands on only two legs, were to crash under my weight.
+
+"My sovereign dignity is but a robe, though the costliest, to be sure, of
+all garments.  If forgiveness were any part of my nature I might easily
+forgive the man who should soil or injure that--but he who comes too near
+to Euergetes the man, who dares to touch this body, and the spirit it
+contains, or to cross it in its desires and purposes--him I will crush
+unhesitatingly to the earth, I will see him torn in pieces.  Sentence is
+passed on the Roman, and if your ruffians do their duty, and if the gods
+accept the holocaust that I had slain before them at sunset for the
+success of my project, in a couple of hours Publius Cornelius Scipio will
+have bled to death.
+
+"He is in a position to laugh at me--as a man--but I therefore--as a man
+--have the right, and--as a king--have the power, to make sure that that
+laugh shall be his last.  If I could murder Rome as I can him how glad
+should I be! for Rome alone hinders me from being the greatest of all the
+great kings of our time; and yet I shall rejoice to-morrow when they tell
+me Publius Cornelius Scipio has been torn by wild beasts, and his body is
+so mutilated that his own mother could not recognize it more than if a
+messenger were to bring me the news that Carthage had broken the power of
+Rome."
+
+Euergetes had spoken the last words in a voice that sounded like the roll
+of thunder as it growls in a rapidly approaching storm, louder, deeper,
+and more furious each instant.  When at last he was silent Eulaeus said:
+"The immortals, my lord, will not deny you this happiness.  The brave
+fellows whom you condescended to see and to talk to strike as certainly
+as the bolt of our father Zeus, and as we have learned from the Roman's
+horse-keeper where he has hidden Irene, she will no more elude your grasp
+than the crowns of Upper and Lower Egypt.--Now, allow me to put on your
+mantle, and then to call the body-guard that they may escort you as you
+return to your residence."
+
+"One thing more," cried the king, detaining Eulaeus.  "There are always
+troops by the Tombs of Apis placed there to guard the sacred places; may
+not they prove a hindrance to your friends?"
+
+"I have withdrawn all the soldiers and armed guards to Memphis down to
+the last man," replied Eulaeus, and quartered them within the White Wall.
+Early tomorrow, before you proceed to business, they will be replaced by
+a stronger division, so that they may not prove a reinforcement to your
+brother's troops here if things come to fighting."
+
+"I shall know how to reward your foresight," said Euergetes as Eulaeus
+quitted the room.
+
+Again Klea heard a door open, and the sound of many hoofs on the pavement
+of the court-yard, and when she went, all trembling, up to the window,
+she saw Euergetes himself, and the powerfully knit horse that was led in
+for him.  The tyrant twisted his hand in the mane of the restless and
+pawing steed, and Klea thought that the monstrous mass could never mount
+on to the horse's back without the aid of many men; but she was mistaken,
+for with a mighty spring the giant flung himself high in the air and on
+to the horse, and then, guiding his panting steed by the pressure of his
+knees alone, he bounded out of the prison-yard surrounded by his splendid
+train.
+
+For some minutes the court-yard remained empty, then a man hurriedly
+crossed it, unlocked the door of the room where Klea was, and informed
+her that he was a subaltern under Glaucus, and had brought her a message
+from him.
+
+"My lord," said the veteran soldier to the girl, "bid me greet you, and
+says that he found neither the Roman Publius Scipio, nor his friend the
+Corinthian at home.  He is prevented from coming to you himself; he has
+his hands full of business, for soldiers in the service of both the kings
+are quartered within the White Wall, and all sorts of squabbles break out
+between them.  Still, you cannot remain in this room, for it will shortly
+be occupied by a party of young officers who began the fray.  Glaucus
+proposes for your choice that you should either allow me to conduct you
+to his wife or return to the temple to which you are attached.  In the
+latter case a chariot shall convey you as far as the second tavern in
+Khakem on the borders of the desert-for the city is full of drunken
+soldiery.  There you may probably find an escort if you explain to the
+host who you are.  But the chariot must be back again in less than an
+hour, for it is one of the king's, and when the banquet is over there may
+be a scarcity of chariots."
+
+"Yes--I will go back to the place I came from," said Klea eagerly,
+interrupting the messenger.  "Take me at once to the chariot."
+
+"Follow me, then," said the old man.
+
+"But I have no veil," observed Klea, "and have only this thin robe on.
+Rough soldiers snatched my wrapper from my face, and my cloak from off my
+shoulders."
+
+"I will bring you the captain's cloak which is lying here in the
+orderly's room, and his travelling-hat too; that will hide your face with
+its broad flap.  You are so tall that you might be taken for a man, and
+that is well, for a woman leaving the palace at this hour would hardly
+pass unmolested.  A slave shall fetch the things from your temple
+to-morrow.  I may inform you that my master ordered me take as much care
+of you as if you were his own daughter.  And he told me too--and I had
+nearly forgotten it--to tell you that your sister was carried off by the
+Roman, and not by that other dangerous man, you would know whom he meant.
+Now wait, pray, till I return; I shall not be long gone."
+
+In a few minutes the guard returned with a large cloak in which he
+wrapped Klea, and a broad-brimmed travelling-hat which she pressed down
+on her head, and he then conducted her to that quarter of the palace
+where the king's stables were.  She kept close to the officer, and was
+soon mounted on a chariot, and then conducted by the driver--who took her
+for a young Macedonian noble, who was tempted out at night by some
+assignation--as far as the second tavern on the road back to the
+Serapeum.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+While Klea had been listening to the conversation between Euergetes and
+Eulaeus, Cleopatra had been sitting in her tent, and allowing herself to
+be dressed with no less care than on the preceding evening, but in other
+garments.
+
+It would seem that all had not gone so smoothly as she wished during the
+day, for her two tire-women had red eyes.  Her lady-in-waiting, Zoe, was
+reading to her, not this time from a Greek philosopher but from a Greek
+translation of the Hebrew Psalms: a discussion as to their poetic merit
+having arisen a few days previously at the supper-table.  Onias, the
+Israelite general, had asserted that these odes might be compared with
+those of Alcman or of Pindar, and had quoted certain passages that had
+pleased the queen.  To-day she was not disposed for thought, but wanted
+something strange and out of the common to distract her mind, so she
+desired Zoe to open the book of the Hebrews, of which the translation was
+considered by the Hellenic Jews in Alexandria as an admirable work--nay,
+even as inspired by God himself; it had long been known to her through
+her Israelite friends and guests.
+
+Cleopatra had been listening for about a quarter of an hour to Zoe's
+reading when the blast of a trumpet rang out on the steps which led up
+her tent, announcing a visitor of the male sex.  The queen glanced
+angrily round, signed to her lady to stop reading, and exclaimed:
+
+"I will not see my husband now!  Go, Thais, and tell the eunuchs on the
+steps, that I beg Philometor not to disturb me just now.  Go on, Zoe."
+
+Ten more psalms had been read, and a few verses repeated twice or thrice
+by Cleopatra's desire, when the pretty Athenian returned with flaming
+cheeks, and said in an excited tone:
+
+"It is not your husband, the king, but your brother Euergetes, who asks
+to speak with you."
+
+"He might have chosen some other hour," replied Cleopatra, looking round
+at her maid.  Thais cast down her eyes, and twitched the edge of her robe
+between her fingers as she addressed her mistress; but the queen, whom
+nothing could escape that she chose to see, and who was not to-day in the
+humor for laughing or for letting any indiscretion escape unreproved,
+went on at once in an incensed and cutting tone, raising her voice to a
+sharp pitch:
+
+"I do not choose that my messengers should allow themselves to be
+detained, be it by whom it may--do you hear!  Leave Me this instant and
+go to your room, and stay there till I want you to undress me this
+evening.  Andromeda--do you hear, old woman?--you can bring my brother to
+me, and he will let you return quicker than Thais, I fancy.  You need not
+leer at yourself in the glass, you cannot do anything to alter your
+wrinkles.  My head-dress is already done.  Give me that linen wrapper,
+Olympias, and then he may come!  Why, there he is already!  First you ask
+permission, brother, and then disdain to wait till it is given you."
+
+"Longing and waiting," replied Euergetes, "are but an ill-assorted
+couple.  I wasted this evening with common soldiers and fawning
+flatterers; then, in order to see a few noble countenances, I went into
+the prison, after that I hastily took a bath, for the residence of your
+convicts spoils one's complexion more, and in a less pleasant manner,
+than this little shrine, where everything looks and smells like
+Aphrodite's tiring-room; and now I have a longing to hear a few good
+words before supper-time comes."
+
+"From my lips?"  asked Cleopatra.
+
+"There are none that can speak better, whether by the Nile or the
+Ilissus."
+
+"What do you want of me?"
+
+"I--of you?"
+
+"Certainly, for you do not speak so prettily unless you want something."
+
+"But I have already told you!  I want to hear you say something wise,
+something witty, something soul-stirring."
+
+"We cannot call up wit as we would a maid-servant.  It comes unbidden,
+and the more urgently we press it to appear the more certainly it remains
+away."
+
+"That may be true of others, but not of you who, even while you declare
+that you have no store of Attic salt, are seasoning your speech with it.
+All yield obedience to grace and beauty, even wit and the sharp-tongued
+Momus who mocks even at the gods."
+
+"You are mistaken, for not even my own waiting-maids return in proper
+time when I commission them with a message to you."
+
+"And may we not to be allowed to sacrifice to the Charites on the way to
+the temple of Aphrodite?"
+
+"If I were indeed the goddess, those worshippers who regarded my hand-
+maidens as my equals would find small acceptance with me."
+
+"Your reproof is perfectly just, for you are justified in requiring that
+all who know you should worship but one goddess, as the Jews do but one
+god.  But I entreat you do not again compare yourself to the brainless
+Cyprian dame.  You may be allowed to do so, so far as your grace is
+concerned; but who ever saw an Aphrodite philosophizing and reading
+serious books?  I have disturbed you in grave studies no doubt; what is
+the book you are rolling up, fair Zoe?"
+
+"The sacred book of the Jews, Sire," replied Zoe; "one that I know you do
+not love."
+
+And you--who read Homer, Pindar, Sophocles, and Plato--do you like it?"
+asked Euergetes.
+
+"I find passages in it which show a profound knowledge of life, and
+others of which no one can dispute the high poetic flight," replied
+Cleopatra.  "Much of it has no doubt a thoroughly barbarian twang, and it
+is particularly in the Psalms--which we have now been reading, and which
+might be ranked with the finest hymns--that I miss the number and rhythm
+of the syllables, the observance of a fixed metre--in short, severity of
+form.  David, the royal poet, was no less possessed by the divinity when
+he sang to his lyre than other poets have been, but he does not seem to
+have known that delight felt by our poets in overcoming the difficulties
+they have raised for themselves.  The poet should slavishly obey the laws
+he lays down for himself of his own free-will, and subordinate to them
+every word, and yet his matter and his song should seem to float on a
+free and soaring wing.  Now, even the original Hebrew text of the Psalms
+has no metrical laws."
+
+"I could well dispense with them," replied Euergetes; "Plato too
+disdained to measure syllables, and I know passages in his works which
+are nevertheless full of the highest poetic beauty.  Besides, it has been
+pointed out to me that even the Hebrew poems, like the Egyptian, follow
+certain rules, which however I might certainly call rhetorical rather
+than poetical.  The first member in a series of ideas stands in
+antithesis to the next, which either re-states the former one in a new
+form or sets it in a clearer light by suggesting some contrast.  Thus
+they avail themselves of the art of the orator--or indeed of the painter
+--who brings a light color into juxtaposition with a dark one, in order
+to increase its luminous effect.  This method and style are indeed not
+amiss, and that was the least of all the things that filled me with
+aversion for this book, in which besides, there is many a proverb which
+may be pleasing to kings who desire to have submissive subjects, and to
+fathers who would bring up their sons in obedience to themselves and to
+the laws.  Even mothers must be greatly comforted by them,--who ask no
+more than that their children may get through the world without being
+jostled or pushed, and unmolested if possible, that they may live longer
+than the oaks or ravens, and be blessed with the greatest possible number
+of descendants.  Aye! these ordinances are indeed precious to those who
+accept them, for they save them the trouble of thinking for themselves.
+Besides, the great god of the Jews is said to have dictated all that this
+book contains to its writers, just as I dictate to Philippus, my hump-
+backed secretary, all that I want said.  They regard everyone as a
+blasphemer and desecrator who thinks that anything written in that roll
+is erroneous, or even merely human.  Plato's doctrines are not amiss, and
+yet Aristotle had criticised them severely and attempted to confute them.
+I myself incline to the views of the Stagyrite, you to those of the noble
+Athenian, and how many good and instructive hours we owe to our
+discussions over this difference of opinion!  And how amusing it is to
+listen when the Platonists on the one hand and the Aristotelians on the
+other, among the busy threshers of straw in the Museum at Alexandria,
+fall together by the ears so vehemently that they would both enjoy
+flinging their metal cups at each others' heads--if the loss of the wine,
+which I pay for, were not too serious to bear.  We still seek for truth;
+the Jews believe they possess it entirely.
+
+"Even those among them who most zealously study our philosophers believe
+this; and yet the writers of this book know of nothing but actual
+present, and their god--who will no more endure another god as his equal
+than a citizen's wife will admit a second woman to her husband's house--
+is said to have created the world out of nothing for no other purpose but
+to be worshipped and feared by its inhabitants.
+
+"Now, given a philosophical Jew who knows his Empedocles--and I grant
+there are many such in Alexandria, extremely keen and cultivated men--
+what idea can he form in his own mind of 'creation out of nothing?'  Must
+he not pause to think very seriously when he remembers the fundamental
+axiom that 'out of nothing, nothing can come,' and that nothing which has
+once existed can ever be completely annihilated?  At any rate the
+necessary deduction must be that the life of man ends in that nothingness
+whence everything in existence has proceeded.  To live and to die
+according to this book is not highly profitable.  I can easily reconcile
+myself to the idea of annihilation, as a man who knows how to value a
+dreamless sleep after a day brimful of enjoyment--as a man who if he must
+cease to be Euergetes would rather spring into the open jaws of
+nothingness--but as a philosopher, no, never!"
+
+"You, it is true," replied the queen, "cannot help measuring all and
+everything by the intellectual standard exclusively; for the gods, who
+endowed you with gifts beyond a thousand others, struck with blindness or
+deafness that organ which conveys to our minds any religious or moral
+sentiment.  If that could see or hear, you could no more exclude the
+conviction that these writings are full of the deepest purport than I
+can, nor doubt that they have a powerful hold on the mind of the reader.
+
+"They fetter their adherents to a fixed law, but they take all bitterness
+out of sorrow by teaching that a stern father sends us suffering which is
+represented as being sometimes a means of education, and sometimes a
+punishment for transgressing a hard and clearly defined law.  Their god,
+in his infallible but stern wisdom, sets those who cling to him on an
+evil and stony path to prove their strength, and to let them at last
+reach the glorious goal which is revealed to them from the beginning."
+
+"How strange such words as these sound in the mouth of a Greek,"
+interrupted Euergetes.  "You certainly must be repeating them after the
+son of the Jewish high-priest, who defends the cause of his cruel god
+with so much warmth and skill."
+
+"I should have thought," retorted Cleopatra, "that this overwhelming
+figure of a god would have pleased you, of all men; for I know of no
+weakness in you.  Quite lately Dositheos, the Jewish centurion--a very
+learned man--tried to describe to my husband the one great god to whom
+his nation adheres with such obstinate fidelity, but I could not help
+thinking of our beautiful and happy gods as a gay company of amorous
+lords and pleasure-loving ladies, and comparing them with this stern and
+powerful being who, if only he chose to do it, might swallow them all up,
+as Chronos swallowed his own children."
+
+"That," exclaimed Euergetes, "is exactly what most provokes me in this
+superstition.  It crushes our light-hearted pleasure in life, and
+whenever I have been reading the book of the Hebrews everything has come
+into my mind that I least like to think of.  It is like an importunate
+creditor that reminds us of our forgotten debts, and I love pleasure and
+hate an importunate reminder. And you, pretty one, life blooms for you--"
+
+"But  I," interrupted  Cleopatra, "I can  admire all that is great; and
+does it not seem a bold and grand thing even to you, that the mighty idea
+that it is one single power that moves and fills the world, should be
+freely and openly declared in the sacred writings of the Jews--an idea
+which the Egyptians carefully wrap up and conceal, which the priests of
+the Nile only venture to divulge to the most privileged of those who are
+initiated into their mysteries, and which--though the Greek philosophers
+indeed have fearlessly uttered it--has never been introduced by any
+Hellene into the religion of the people?  If you were not so averse to
+the Hebrew nation, and if you, like my husband and myself, had diligently
+occupied yourself with their concerns and their belief you would be
+juster to them and to their scriptures, and to the great creating and
+preserving spirit, their god--"
+
+"You are confounding this jealous and most unamiable and ill-tempered
+tyrant of the universe with the Absolute of Aristotle!" cried Euergetes;
+"he stigmatises most of what you and I and all rational Greeks require
+for the enjoyment of life as sin--sin upon sin.  And yet if my easily
+persuadable brother governed at Alexandria, I believe the shrewd priests
+might succeed in stamping him as a worshipper of that magnified
+schoolmaster, who punishes his untutored brood with fire and torment."
+
+"I cannot deny," replied Cleopatra, "that even to me the doctrine of the
+Jews has something very fearful in it, and that to adopt it seems to me
+tantamount to confiscating all the pleasures of life.--But enough of such
+things, which I should no more relish as a daily food than you do.
+Let us rejoice in that we are Hellenes, and let us now go to the banquet.
+I fear you have found a very unsatisfactory substitute for what you
+sought in coming up here."
+
+"No--no.  I feel strangely excited to-day, and my work with Aristarchus
+would have led to no issue.  It is a pity that we should have begun to
+talk of that barbarian rubbish; there are so many other subjects more
+pleasing and more cheering to the mind.  Do you remember how we used to
+read the great tragedians and Plato together?"
+
+"And how you would often interrupt our tutor Agatharchides in his
+lectures on geography, to point out some mistake!  Did you prosecute
+those studies in Cyrene?"
+
+"Of course.  It really is a pity, Cleopatra, that we should no longer
+live together as we did formerly.  There is no one, not even Aristarchus,
+with whom I find it more pleasant and profitable to converse and discuss
+than with you.  If only you had lived at Athens in the time of Pericles,
+who knows if you might not have been his friend instead of the immortal
+Aspasia.  This Memphis is certainly not the right place for you; for a
+few months in the year you ought to come to Alexandria, which has now
+risen to be superior to Athens."
+
+"I do not know you to-day!"  exclaimed Cleopatra, gazing at her brother
+in astonishment.  "I have never heard you speak so kindly and brotherly
+since the death of my mother.  You must have some great request to make
+of us."
+
+"You see how thankless a thing it is for me to let my heart speak for
+once, like other people.  I am like the boy in the fable when the wolf
+came!  I have so often behaved in an unbrotherly fashion that when I show
+the aspect of a brother you think I have put on a mask.  If I had had
+anything special to ask of you I should have waited till to-morrow, for
+in this part of the country even a blind beggar does not like to refuse
+his lame comrade anything on his birthday."
+
+"If only we knew what you wish for!  Philometor and I would do it more
+than gladly, although you always want something monstrous.  Our
+performance to-morrow will--at any rate--but--Zoe, pray be good enough
+to retire with the maids; I have a few words to say to my brother alone."
+
+As soon as the queen's ladies had withdrawn, she went on:
+
+"It is a real grief to use, but the best part of the festival in honor of
+your birthday will not be particularly successful, for the priests of
+Serapis spitefully refuse us the Hebe about whom Lysias has made us so
+curious.  Asclepiodorus, it would seem, keeps her in concealment, and
+carries his audacity so far as to tell us that someone has carried her
+off from the temple.  He insinuates that we have stolen her, and demands
+her restitution in the name of all his associates."
+
+"You are doing the man an injustice; our dove has followed the lure of a
+dove-catcher who will not allow me to have her, and who is now billing
+and cooing with her in his own nest.  I am cheated, but I can scarcely
+be angry with the Roman, for his claim was of older standing than mine."
+
+"The Roman?"  asked Cleopatra, rising from her seat and turning pale.
+"But that is impossible.  You are making common cause with Eulaeus, and
+want to set me against Publius Scipio.  At the banquet last night you
+showed plainly enough your ill-feeling against him."
+
+"You seem to feel more warmly towards him.  But before I prove to you
+that I am neither lying nor joking, may I enquire what has this man, this
+many-named Publius Cornelius Scipio Nasica, to recommend him above any
+handsome well-grown Macedonian, who is resolute in my cause, in the whole
+corps of your body guard, excepting his patrician pride?  He is as bitter
+and ungenial as a sour apple, and all the very best that you--a subtle
+thinker, a brilliant and cultivated philosopher--can find to say is no
+more appreciated by his meanly cultivated intellect than the odes of
+Sappho by a Nubian boatman."
+
+"It is exactly for that," cried the queen, "that I value him; he is
+different from all of us; we who--how shall I express myself--who always
+think at second-hand, and always set our foot in the rut trodden by the
+master of the school we adhere to; who squeeze our minds into the moulds
+that others have carved out, and when we speak hesitate to step beyond
+the outlines of those figures of rhetoric which we learned at school!
+You have burst these bonds, but even your mighty spirit still shows
+traces of them.  Publius Scipio, on the contrary, thinks and sees and
+speaks with perfect independence, and his upright sense guides him to the
+truth without any trouble or special training.  His society revives me
+like the fresh air that I breathe when I come out into the open air from
+the temple filled with the smoke of incense--like the milk and bread
+which a peasant offered us during our late excursion to the coast, after
+we had been living for a year on nothing but dainties."
+
+"He has all the admirable characteristics of a child!"  interrupted
+Euergetes.  "And if that is all that appears estimable to you in the
+Roman your son may soon replace the great Cornelius."
+
+"Not soon! no, not till he shall have grown older than you are, and a
+man, a thorough man, from the crown of his head to the sole of his foot,
+for such a man is Publius!  I believe--nay, I am sure--that he is
+incapable of any mean action, that he could not be false in word or
+even in look, nor feign a sentiment be did not feel."
+
+"Why so vehement, sister?  So much zeal is quite unnecessary on this
+occasion!  You know well enough that I have my easy days, and that this
+excitement is not good for you; nor has the Roman deserved that you
+should be quite beside yourself for his sake.  The fellow dared in my
+presence to look at you as Paris might at Helen before he carried her
+off, and to drink out of your cup; and this morning he no doubt did not
+contradict what he conveyed to you last night with his eyes--nay, perhaps
+by his words.  And yet, scarcely an hour before, he had been to the
+Necropolis to bear his sweetheart away from the temple of the gloomy
+Serapis into that of the smiling Eros."
+
+"You shall prove this!" cried the queen in great excitement.  "Publius is
+my friend--"
+
+"And I am yours!"
+
+"You have often proved the reverse, and now again with lies
+and cheating--"
+
+"You seem," interrupted Euergetes, "to have learned from your
+unphilosophical favorite to express your indignation with extraordinary
+frankness; to-day however I am, as I have said, as gentle as a kitten--"
+
+"Euergetes and gentleness!" cried Cleopatra with a forced laugh.  "No,
+you only step softly like a cat when she is watching a bird, and your
+gentleness covers some ruthless scheme, which we shall find out soon
+enough to our cost.  You have been talking with Eulaeus to-day; Eulaeus,
+who fears and hates Publius, and it seems to me that you have hatched
+some conspiracy against him; but if you dare to cast a single stone in
+his path, to touch a single hair of his head, I will show you that even a
+weak woman can be terrible.  Nemesis and the Erinnyes from Alecto to
+Megaera, the most terrible of all the gods, are women!"
+
+Cleopatra had hissed rather than spoken these words, with her teeth set
+with rage, and had raised her small fist to threaten her brother; but
+Euergetes preserved a perfect composure till she had ceased speaking.
+Then he took a step closer to her, crossed his arms over his breast, and
+asked her in the deepest bass of his fine deep voice:
+
+"Are you idiotically in love with this Publius Cornelius Scipio Nasica,
+or do you purpose to make use of him and his kith and kin in Rome against
+me?"
+
+Transported with rage, and without blenching in the least at her
+brother's piercing gaze, she hastily retorted: "Up to this moment only
+the first perhaps--for what is my husband to me?  But if you go on as you
+have begun I shall begin to consider how I may make use of his influence
+and of his liking for me, on the shores of the Tiber."
+
+"Liking!"  cried Euergetes, and he laughed so loud and violently that
+Zoe, who was listening at the tent door, gave a little scream, and
+Cleopatra drew back a step.  "And to think that you--the most prudent of
+the prudent--who can hear the dew fall and the grass grow, and smell here
+in Memphis the smoke of every fire that is lighted in Alexandria or in
+Syria or even in Rome--that you, my mother's daughter, should be caught
+over head and ears by a broad-shouldered lout, for all the world like a
+clumsy town-girl or a wench at a loom.  This ignorant Adonis, who knows
+so well how to make use of his own strange and resolute personality, and
+of the power that stands in his background, thinks no more of the hearts
+he sets in flames than I of the earthen jar out of which water is drawn
+when I am thirsty.  You think to make use of him by the 'Tiber; but he
+has anticipated you, and learns from you all that is going on by the Nile
+and everything they most want to know in the Senate.
+
+"You do not believe me, for no one ever is ready to believe anything that
+can diminish his self-esteem--and why should you believe me?  I frankly
+confess that I do not hesitate to lie when I hope to gain more by untruth
+than by that much-belauded and divine truth, which, according to your
+favorite Plato, is allied to all earthly beauty; but it is often just as
+useless as beauty itself, for the useful and the beautiful exclude each
+other in a thousand cases, for ten when they coincide.  There, the gong
+is sounding for the third time.  If you care for plain proof that the
+Roman, only an hour before he visited you this morning, had our
+little Hebe carried off from the temple, and conveyed to the house of
+Apollodorus, the sculptor, at Memphis, you have only to come to see me in
+my rooms early to-morrow after the first morning sacrifice.  You will at
+any rate wish to come and congratulate me; bring your children with you,
+as I propose making them presents.  You might even question the Roman
+himself at the banquet to-day, but he will hardly appear, for the
+sweetest gifts of Eros are bestowed at night, and as the temple of
+Serapis is closed at sunset Publius has never yet seen his Irene in the
+evening.  May I expect you and the children after morning sacrifice?"
+
+Before Cleopatra had time to answer this question another trumpet-blast
+was heard, and she exclaimed: "That is Philometor, come to fetch us to
+the banquet.  I will ere long give the Roman the opportunity of defending
+himself, though--in spite of your accusations--I trust him entirely.
+This morning I asked him solemnly whether it was true that he was in love
+with his friend's charming Hebe, and he denied it in his firm and manly
+way, and his replies were admirable and worthy of the noblest mind, when
+I ventured to doubt his sincerity.  He takes truth more seriously than
+you do.  He regards it not only as beautiful and right to be truthful,
+he says, but as prudent too; for lies can only procure us a small short-
+lived advantage, as transitory as the mists of night which vanish as soon
+as the sun appears, while truth is like the sunlight itself, which as
+often as it is dimmed by clouds reappears again and again.  And, he says,
+what makes a liar so particularly contemptible in his eyes is, that to
+attain his end, he must be constantly declaring and repeating the horror
+he has of those who are and do the very same thing as he himself.  The
+ruler of a state cannot always be truthful, and I often have failed in
+truth; but my intercourse with Publius has aroused much that is good in
+me, and which had been slumbering with closed eyes; and if this man
+should prove to be the same as all the rest of you, then I will follow
+your road, Euergetes, and laugh at virtue and truth, and set the busts of
+Aristippus and Strato on the pedestals where those of Zeno and
+Antisthenes now stand."
+
+"You mean to have the busts of the philosophers moved again?"  asked King
+Philometor, who, as he entered the tent, had heard the queen's last
+words.  "And Aristippus is to have the place of honor?  I have no
+objection--though he teaches that man must subjugate matter and not
+become subject to it.--["Mihi res, non me rebus subjungere."]--This
+indeed is easier to say than to do, and there is no man to whom it is
+more impossible than to a king who has to keep on good terms with Greeks
+and Egyptians, as we have, and with Rome as well.  And besides all this
+to avoid quarrelling with a jealous brother, who shares our kingdom!  If
+men could only know how much they would have to do as kings only in
+reading and writing, they would take care never to struggle for a crown!
+Up to this last half hour I have been examining and deciding applications
+and petitions.  Have you got through yours, Euergetes?  Even more had
+accumulated for you than for us."
+
+"All were settled in an hour," replied the other promptly.  "My eye is
+quicker than the mouth of your reader, and my decisions commonly consist
+of three words while you dictate long treatises to your scribes.  So I
+had done when you had scarcely begun, and yet I could tell you at once,
+if it were not too tedious a matter, every single case that has come
+before me for months, and explain it in all its details."
+
+"That I could not indeed," said Philometor modestly, "but I know and
+admire your swift intelligence and accurate memory."
+
+"You see I am more fit for a king than you are;" laughed Euergetes.  "You
+are too gentle and debonair for a throne!  Hand over your government to
+me.  I will fill your treasury every year with gold.  I beg you now, come
+to Alexandria with Cleopatra for good, and share with me the palace and
+the gardens in the Bruchion.  I will nominate your little Philopator heir
+to the throne, for I have no wish to contract a permanent tie with any
+woman, as Cleopatra belongs to you.  This is a bold proposal, but
+reflect, Philometor, if you were to accept it, how much time it would
+give you for your music, your disputations with the Jews, and all your
+other favorite occupations."
+
+"You never know how far you may go with your jest!"  interrupted
+Cleopatra.  "Besides, you devote quite as much time to your studies in
+philology and natural history as he does to music and improving
+conversations with his learned friends."
+
+"Just so," assented Philometor, "and you may be counted among the sages
+of the Museum with far more reason than I."
+
+"But the difference between us," replied Euergetes, "is that I despise
+all the philosophical prattlers and rubbish-collectors in Alexandria
+almost to the point of hating them, while for science I have as great a
+passion as for a lover.  You, on the contrary, make much of the learned
+men, but trouble yourself precious little about science."
+
+"Drop the subject, pray," begged Cleopatra.  "I believe that you two have
+never yet been together for half an hour without Euergetes having begun
+some dispute, and Philometor having at last given in, to pacify him.  Our
+guests must have been waiting for us a long time.  Had Publius Scipio
+made his appearance?"
+
+"He had sent to excuse himself," replied the king as he scratched the
+poll of Cleopatra's parrot, parting its feathers with the tips of his
+fingers.  "Lysias, the Corinthian, is sitting below, and he says he does
+not know where his friend can be gone."
+
+"But we know very well," said Euergetes, casting an ironical glance at
+the queen.  "It is pleasant to be with Philometor and Cleopatra, but
+better still with Eros and Hebe.  Sister, you look pale--shall I call for
+Zoe?"
+
+Cleopatra shook her head in negation, but she dropped into a seat, and
+sat stooping, with her head bowed over her knees as if she were
+dreadfully tired.  Euergetes turned his back on her, and spoke to his
+brother of indifferent subjects, while she drew lines, some straight and
+some crooked, with her fan-stick through the pile of the soft rug on the
+floor, and sat gazing thoughtfully at her feet.  As she sat thus her eye
+was caught by her sandals, richly set with precious stones, and the
+slender toes she had so often contemplated with pleasure; but now the
+sight of them seemed to vex her, for in obedience to a swift impulse she
+loosened the straps, pushed off her right sandal with her left foot,
+kicked it from her, and said, turning to her husband:
+
+"It is late and I do not feel well, and you may sup without me."
+
+"By the healing Isis!"  exclaimed Philometor, going up to her.  "You look
+suffering.  Shall I send for the physicians?  Is it really nothing more
+than your usual headache?  The gods be thanked!  But that you should be
+unwell just to-day!  I had so much to say to you; and the chief thing of
+all was that we are still a long way from completeness in our
+preparations for our performance.  If this luckless Hebe were not--"
+
+"She is in good hands," interrupted Euergetes.  "The Roman, Publius
+Scipio, has taken her to a place of safety; perhaps in order to present
+her to me to morrow morning in return for the horses from Cyrene which I
+sent him to-day.  How brightly your eyes sparkle, sister--with joy no
+doubt at this good idea.  This evening, I dare say he is rehearsing the
+little one in her part that she may perform it well to-morrow.  If we are
+mistaken--if Publius is ungrateful and proposes keeping the dove, then
+Thais, your pretty Athenian waiting-woman, may play the part of Hebe.
+What do you think of that suggestion, Cleopatra?"
+
+"That I forbid such jesting with me!"  cried the queen vehemently.
+"No one has any consideration for me--no one pities me, and I suffer
+fearfully!  Euergetes scorns me--you, Philometor, would be glad to drag
+me down!  If only the banquet is not interfered with, and so long as
+nothing spoils your pleasure!--Whether I die or no, no one cares!"
+
+With these words the queen burst into tears, and roughly pushed away her
+husband as he endeavored to soothe her.  At last she dried her eyes, and
+said: "Go down-the guests are waiting."
+
+"Immediately, my love," replied Philometor.  "But one thing I must tell
+you, for I know that it will arouse your sympathy.  The Roman read to you
+the petition for pardon for Philotas, the chief of the Chrematistes
+and 'relative of the king,' which contains such serious charges against
+Eulaeus.  I was ready with all my heart to grant your wish and to pardon
+the man who is the father of these miserable water-bearers; but, before
+having the decree drawn up, I had the lists of the exiles to the gold-
+mines carefully looked through, and there it was discovered that Philotas
+and his wife have both been dead more than half a year.  Death has
+settled this question, and I cannot grant to Publius the first service he
+has asked of me--asked with great urgency too.  I am sorry for this, both
+for his sake and for that of poor Philotas, who was held in high esteem
+by our mother."
+
+"May the ravens devour them!" answered Cleopatra, pressing her forehead
+against the ivory frame which surrounded the stuffed back of her seat.
+"Once more I beg of you excuse me from all further speech."  This time
+the two kings obeyed her wishes.  When Euergetes offered her his hand she
+said with downcast eyes, and poking her fan-stick into the wool of the
+carpet:
+
+"I will visit you early to-morrow."
+
+"After the first sacrifice," added Euergetes.  "If I know you well,
+something that you will then hear will please you greatly; very greatly
+indeed, I should think.  Bring the children with you; that I ask of you
+as a birthday request."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+The royal chariot in which Klea was standing, wrapped in the cloak and
+wearing the hat of the captain of the civic guard, went swiftly and
+without stopping through the streets of Memphis.  As long as she saw
+houses with lighted windows on each side of the way, and met riotous
+soldiers and quiet citizens going home from the taverns, or from working
+late in their workshops, with lanterns in their hands or carried by their
+slaves--so long her predominant feeling was one of hatred to Publius; and
+mixed with this was a sentiment altogether new to her--a sentiment that
+made her blood boil, and her heart now stand still and then again beat
+wildly--the thought that he might be a wretched deceiver.  Had he not
+attempted to entrap one of them--whether her sister or herself it was all
+the same--wickedly to betray her, and to get her into his power!
+
+"With me," thought she, "he could not hope to gain his evil ends, and
+when he saw that I knew how to protect myself he lured the poor
+unresisting child away with him, in order to ruin her and to drag her
+into shame and misery.  Just like Rome herself, who seizes on one country
+after another to make them her own, so is this ruthless man.  No sooner
+had that villain Eulaeus' letter reached him, than he thought himself
+justified in believing that I too was spellbound by a glance from his
+eyes, and would spread my wings to fly into his arms; and so he put out
+his greedy hand to catch me too, and threw aside the splendor and
+delights of a royal banquet to hurry by night out into the desert, and to
+risk a hideous death--for the avenging deities still punish the
+evildoer."
+
+By this time she was shrouded in total darkness, for the moon was still
+hidden by black clouds.  Memphis was already behind her, and the chariot
+was passing through a tall-stemmed palm-grove, where even at mid-day deep
+shades intermingled with the sunlight.  When, just at this spot, the
+thought once more pierced her soul that the seducer was devoted to death,
+she felt as though suddenly a bright glaring light had flashed up in her
+and round her, and she could have broken out into a shout of joy like one
+who, seeking retribution for blood, places his foot at last on the breast
+of his fallen foe.  She clenched her teeth tightly and grasped her
+girdle, in which she had stuck the knife given her by the smith.
+
+If the charioteer by her side had been Publius, she would have stabbed
+him to the heart with the weapon with delight, and then have thrown
+herself under the horses' hoofs and the brazen wheels of the chariot.
+
+But no!  Still more gladly would she have found him dying in the desert,
+and before his heart had ceased to beat have shouted in his ear how much
+she hated him; and then, when his breast no longer heaved a breath--then
+she would have flung herself upon him, and have kissed his dimmed eyes.
+
+Her wildest thoughts of vengeance were as inseparable from tender pity
+and the warmest longings of a heart overflowing with love, as the dark
+waters of a river are from the brighter flood of a stream with which it
+has recently mingled.  All the passionate impulses which had hitherto
+been slumbering in her soul were set free, and now raised their clamorous
+voices as she was whirled across the desert through the gloom of night.
+The wishes roused in her breast by her hatred appealing to her on one
+side and her love singing in her ear, in tempting flute-tones, on the
+other, jostled and hustled one another, each displacing the other as they
+crowded her mind in wild confusion.  As she proceeded on her journey she
+felt that she could have thrown herself like a tigress on her victim, and
+yet--like an outcast woman--have flung herself at Publius' knees in
+supplication for the love that was denied her.  She had lost all idea of
+time and distance, and started as from a wild and bewildering dream when
+the chariot suddenly halted, and the driver said in his rough tones:
+
+"Here we are, I must turn back again."
+
+She shuddered, drew the cloak more closely round her, sprang out on to
+the road, and stood there motionless till the charioteer said:
+
+"I have not spared my horses, my noble gentleman.  Won't you give me
+something to get a drop of wine?"  Klea's whole possessions were two
+silver drachma, of which she herself owned one and the other belonged to
+Irene.  On the last anniversary but one of his mother's death, the king
+had given at the temple a sum to be divided among all the attendants,
+male and female, who served Serapis, and a piece of silver had fallen to
+the share of herself and her sister.  Klea had them both about her in a
+little bag, which also contained a ring that her mother had given her at
+parting, and the amulet belonging to Serapion.  The girl took out the two
+silver coins and gave them to the driver, who, after testing the liberal
+gift with his fingers, cried out as he turned his horses:
+
+"A pleasant night to you, and may Aphrodite and all the Loves be
+favorable!"
+
+"Irene's drachma!"  muttered Klea to herself, as the chariot rolled away.
+The sweet form of her sister rose before her mind; she recalled the hour
+when the girl--still but a child--had entrusted it to her, because she
+lost everything unless Klea took charge of it for her.
+
+"Who will watch her and care for her now?"  she asked herself, and she
+stood thinking, trying to defend herself against the wild wishes which
+again began to stir in her, and to collect her scattered thoughts.  She
+had involuntarily avoided the beam of light which fell across the road
+from the tavern-window, and yet she could not help raising her eyes and
+looking along it, and she found herself looking through the darkness
+which enveloped her, straight into the faces of two men whose gaze was
+directed to the very spot where she was standing.  And what faces they
+were that she saw!  One, a fat face, framed in thick hair and a short,
+thick and ragged beard, was of a dusky brown and as coarse and brutal as
+the other was smooth, colorless and lean, cruel and crafty.  The eyes of
+the first of these ruffians were prominent, weak and bloodshot, with a
+fixed glassy stare, while those of the other seemed always to be on the
+watch with a restless and uneasy leer.
+
+These were Euergetes' assassins--they must be!  Spellbound with terror
+and revulsion she stood quite still, fearing only that the ruffians might
+hear the beating of her heart, for she felt as if it were a hammer swung
+up and down in an empty space, and beating with loud echoes, now in her
+bosom and now in her throat.
+
+"The young gentleman must have gone round behind the tavern--he knows the
+shortest way to the 'tombs.  Let us go after him, and finish off the
+business at once," said the broad-shouldered villain in a hoarse whisper
+that broke down every now and then, and which seemed to Klea even more
+repulsive than the monster's face.
+
+"So that he may hear us go after him-stupid!"  answered the other.  "When
+he has been waiting for his sweetheart about a quarter of an hour I will
+call his name in a woman's voice, and at his first step towards the
+desert do you break his neck with the sand-bag.  We have plenty of time
+yet, for it must still be a good half hour before midnight."
+
+"So much the better," said the other.  "Our wine-jar is not nearly empty
+yet, and we paid the lazy landlord for it in advance, before he crept
+into bed."
+
+"You shall only drink two cups more," said the punier villain.  "For this
+time we have to do with a sturdy fellow, Setnam is not with us now to
+lend a hand in the work, and the dead meat must show no gaping thrusts or
+cuts.  My teeth are not like yours when you are fasting--even cooked food
+must not be too tough for them to chew it, now-a-days.  If you soak
+yourself in drink and fail in your blow, and I am not ready with the
+poisoned stiletto the thing won't come off neatly.  But why did not the
+Roman let his chariot wait?"
+
+"Aye! why did he let it go away?"  asked the other staring open-mouthed
+in the direction where the sound of wheels was still to be heard.  His
+companion mean while laid his hand to his ear, and listened.  Both were
+silent for a few minutes, then the thin one said:
+
+"The chariot has stopped at the first tavern.  So much the better.  The
+Roman has valuable cattle in his shafts, and at the inn down there, there
+is a shed for horses.  Here in this hole there is hardly a stall for an
+ass, and nothing but sour wine and mouldy beer.  I don't like the
+rubbish, and save my coin for Alexandria and white Mariotic; that is
+strengthening and purifies the blood.  For the present I only wish we
+were as well off as those horses; they will have plenty of time to
+recover their breath."
+
+"Yes, plenty of time," answered the other with a broad grin, and then he
+with his companion withdrew into the room to fill his cup.
+
+Klea too could hear that the chariot which had brought her hither, had
+halted at the farther tavern, but it did not occur to her that the driver
+had gone in to treat himself to wine with half of Irene's drachma.  The
+horses should make up for the lost time, and they could easily do it, for
+when did the king's banquets ever end before midnight?
+
+As soon as Plea saw that the assassins were filling their earthen cups,
+she slipped softly on tiptoe behind the tavern; the moon came out from
+behind the clouds for a few minutes, she sought and found the short way
+by the desert-path to the Apis-tombs, and hastened rapidly along it.  She
+looked straight before her, for whenever she glanced at the road-side,
+and her eye was caught by some dried up shrub of the desert, silvery in
+the pale moonlight, she fancied she saw behind it the face of a murderer.
+
+The skeletons of fallen beasts standing up out of the dust, and the
+bleached jawbones of camels and asses, which shone much whiter than the
+desert-sand on which they lay, seemed to have come to life and motion,
+and made her think of the tiger-teeth of the bearded ruffian.
+
+The clouds of dust driven in her face by the warm west wind, which had
+risen higher, increased her alarm, for they were mingled with the colder
+current of the night-breeze; and again and again she felt as if spirits
+were driving her onwards with their hot breath, and stroking her face
+with their cold fingers.  Every thing that her senses perceived was
+transformed by her heated imagination into a fearful something; but more
+fearful and more horrible than anything she heard, than any phantom that
+met her eye in the ghastly moonlight, were her own thoughts of what was
+to be done now, in the immediate future--of the fearful fate that
+threatened the Roman and Irene; and she was incapable of separating one
+from the other in her mind, for one influence alone possessed her, heart
+and soul: dread, dread; the same boundless, nameless, deadly dread--alike
+of mortal peril and irremediable shame, and of the airiest phantoms and
+the merest nothings.
+
+A large black cloud floated slowly across the moon and utter darkness hid
+everything around, even the undefined forms which her imagination had
+turned to images of dread.  She was forced to moderate her pace, and find
+her way, feeling each step; and just as to a child some hideous form that
+looms before him vanishes into nothingness when he covers his eyes with
+his hand, so the profound darkness which now enveloped her, suddenly
+released her soul from a hundred imaginary terrors.
+
+She stood still, drew a deep breath, collected the whole natural force of
+her will, and asked herself what she could do to avert the horrid issue.
+
+Since seeing the murderers every thought of revenge, every wish to punish
+the seducer with death, had vanished from her mind; one desire alone
+possessed her now--that of rescuing him, the man, from the clutches of
+these ravening beasts.  Walking slowly onwards she repeated to herself
+every word she had heard that referred to Publius and Irene as spoken by
+Euergetes, Eulaeus, the recluse, and the assassins, and recalled every
+step she had taken since she left the temple; thus she brought herself
+back to the consciousness that she had come out and faced danger and
+endured terror, solely and exclusively for Irene's sake.  The image of
+her sister rose clearly before her mind in all its bright charm, undimmed
+by any jealous grudge which, indeed, ever since her passion had held her
+in its toils had never for the smallest fraction of a minute possessed
+her.
+
+Irene had grown up under her eye, sheltered by her care, in the sunshine
+of her love.  To take care of her, to deny herself, and bear the severest
+fatigue for her had been her pleasure; and now as she appealed to her
+father--as she wont to do--as if he were present, and asked him in an
+inaudible cry: "Tell me, have I not done all for her that I could do?"
+and said to herself that he could not possibly answer her appeal but with
+assent, her eyes filled with tears; the bitterness and discontent which
+had lately filled her breast gradually disappeared, and a gentle, calm,
+refreshing sense of satisfaction came over her spirit, like a cooling
+breeze after a scorching day.
+
+As she now again stood still, straining her eyes which were growing more
+accustomed to the darkness, to discover one of the temples at the end of
+the alley of sphinxes, suddenly and unexpectedly at her right hand a
+solemn and many-voiced hymn of lamentation fell upon her ear.  This was
+from the priests of Osiris-Apis who were performing the sacred mysteries
+of their god, at midnight, on the roof of the temple.  She knew the hymn
+well--a lament for the deceased Osiris which implored him with urgent
+supplication to break the power of death, to rise again, to bestow new
+light and new vitality on the world and on men, and to vouchsafe to all
+the departed a new existence.
+
+The pious lament had a powerful effect on her excited spirit.  Her
+parents too perhaps had passed through death, and were now taking part in
+the conduct of the destiny of the world and of men in union with the life
+giving God.  Her breath came fast, she threw up her arms, and, for the
+first time since in her wrath she had turned her back on the holy of
+holies in the temple of Serapis, she poured forth her whole soul with
+passionate fervor in a deep and silent prayer for strength to fulfil her
+duty to the end,--for some sign to show her the way to save Irene from
+misfortune, and Publius from death.  And as she prayed she felt no longer
+alone--no, it seemed to her that she stood face to face with the
+invincible Power which protects the good, in whom she now again had
+faith, though for Him she knew no name; as a daughter, pursued by foes,
+might clasp her powerful father's knees and claim his succor.
+
+She had not stood thus with uplifted arms for many minutes when the moon,
+once more appearing, recalled her to herself and to actuality.  She now
+perceived close to her, at hardly a hundred paces from where she stood,
+the line of sphinxes by the side of which lay the tombs of Apis near
+which she was to await Publius.  Her heart began to beat faster again,
+and her dread of her own weakness revived.  In a few minutes she must
+meet the Roman, and, involuntarily putting up her hand to smooth her
+hair, she was reminded that she still wore Glaucus' hat on her head and
+his cloak wrapped round her shoulders.  Lifting up her heart again in a
+brief prayer for a calm and collected mind, she slowly arranged her dress
+and its folds, and as she did so the key of the tomb-cave, which she
+still had about her, fell under her hand.  An idea flashed through her
+brain--she caught at it, and with hurried breath followed it out, till
+she thought she had now hit upon the right way to preserve from death the
+man who was so rich and powerful, who had given her nothing but taken
+everything from her, and to whom, nevertheless, she--the poor water-
+bearer whom he had thought to trifle with--could now bestow the most
+precious of the gifts of the immortals, namely, life.
+
+Serapion had said, and she was willing to believe, that Publius was not
+base, and he certainly was not one of those who could prove ungrateful to
+a preserver.  She longed to earn the right to demand something of him,
+and that could be nothing else but that he should give up her sister and
+bring Irene back to her.
+
+When could it be that he had come to an understanding with the
+inexperienced and easily wooed maiden?  How ready she must have been to
+clasp the hand held out to her by this man!  Nothing surprised her in
+Irene, the child of the present; she could comprehend too that Irene's
+charm might quickly win the heart even of a grave and serious man.
+
+And yet--in all the processions it was never Irene that he had gazed at,
+but always herself, and how came it to pass that he had given a prompt
+and ready assent to the false invitation to go out to meet her in the
+desert at midnight?  Perhaps she was still nearer to his heart than
+Irene, and if gratitude drew him to her with fresh force then--aye then--
+he might perhaps woo her, and forget his pride and her lowly position,
+and ask her to be his wife.
+
+She thought this out fully, but before she had reached the half circle
+enclosed by the Philosophers' busts the question occurred to her mind.
+And Irene?
+
+Had she gone with him and quitted her without bidding her farewell
+because the young heart was possessed with a passionate love for Publius
+--who was indeed the most lovable of men?  And he?  Would he indeed, out
+of gratitude for what she hoped to do for him, make up his mind, if she
+demanded it, to make her Irene his wife--the poor but more than lovely
+daughter of a noble house?
+
+And if this were possible, if these two could be happy in love and honor,
+should she Klea come between the couple to divide them?  Should she
+jealously snatch Irene from his arms and carry her back to the gloomy
+temple which now--after she had fluttered awhile in sportive freedom
+in the sunny air--would certainly seem to her doubly sinister and
+unendurable?  Should she be the one to plunge Irene into misery--Irene,
+her child, the treasure confided to her care, whom she had sworn to
+cherish?
+
+"No, and again no," she said resolutely.  "She was born for happiness,
+and I for endurance, and if I dare beseech thee to grant me one thing
+more, O thou infinite Divinity! it is that Thou wouldst cut out from my
+soul this love which is eating into my heart as though it were rotten
+wood, and keep me far from envy and jealousy when I see her happy in his
+arms.  It is hard--very hard to drive one's own heart out into the desert
+in order that spring may blossom in that of another: but it is well so--
+and my mother would commend me and my father would say I had acted after
+his own heart, and in obedience to the teaching of the great men on these
+pedestals.  Be still, be still my aching heart--there--that is right!"
+
+Thus reflecting she went past the busts of Zeno and Chrysippus, glancing
+at their features distinct in the moonlight: and her eyes falling on the
+smooth slabs of stone with which the open space was paved, her own shadow
+caught her attention, black and sharply defined, and exactly resembling
+that of some man travelling from one town to another in his cloak and
+broad-brimmed hat.
+
+"Just like a man!"  she muttered to herself; and as, at the same moment,
+she saw a figure resembling her own, and, like herself, wearing a hat,
+appear near the entrance to the tombs, and fancied she recognized it as
+Publius, a thought, a scheme, flashed through her excited brain, which at
+first appalled her, but in the next instant filled her with the ecstasy
+which an eagle may feel when he spreads his mighty wings and soars above
+the dust of the earth into the pure and infinite ether.  Her heart beat
+high, she breathed deeply and slowly, but she advanced to meet the Roman,
+drawn up to her full height like a queen, who goes forward to receive
+some equal sovereign; her hat, which she had taken off, in her left hand,
+and the Smith's key in her right-straight on towards the door of the
+Apis-tombs.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+The man whom Klea had seen was in fact none other than Publius.  He was
+now at the end of a busy day, for after he had assured himself that Irene
+had been received by the sculptor and his wife, and welcomed as if she
+were their own child, he had returned to his tent to write once more a
+dispatch to Rome.  But this he could not accomplish, for his friend
+Lysias paced restlessly up and down by him as he sat, and as often as he
+put the reed to the papyrus disturbed him with enquiries about the
+recluse, the sculptor, and their rescued protegee.
+
+When, finally, the Corinthian desired to know whether he, Publius,
+considered Irene's eyes to be brown or blue, he had sprung up
+impatiently, and exclaimed indignantly:
+
+"And supposing they were red or green, what would it matter to me!"
+
+Lysias seemed pleased rather than vexed with this reply, and he was on
+the point of confessing to his friend that Irene had caused in his heart
+a perfect conflagration--as of a forest or a city in flames--when a
+master of the horse had appeared from Euergetes, to present the four
+splendid horses from Cyrene, which his master requested the noble Roman
+Publius Cornelius Scipio Nasica to accept in token of his friendship.
+
+The two friends, who both were judges and lovers of horses, spent at
+least an hour in admiring the fine build and easy paces of these valuable
+beasts.  Then came a chamberlain from the queen to invite Publius to go
+to her at once.
+
+The Roman followed the messenger after a short delay in his tent, in
+order to take with him the gems representing the marriage of Hebe, for on
+his way from the sculptor's to the palace it had occurred to him that he
+would offer them to the queen, after he had informed her of the parentage
+of the two water-carriers.  Publius had keen eyes, and the queen's
+weaknesses had not escaped him, but he had never suspected her of being
+capable of abetting her licentious brother in forcibly possessing himself
+of the innocent daughter of a noble father.  He now purposed to make her
+a present--as in some degree a substitute for the representation his
+friend had projected, and which had come to nothing--of the picture which
+she had hoped to find pleasure in reproducing.
+
+Cleopatra received him on her roof, a favor of which few could boast; she
+allowed him to sit at her feet while she reclined on her couch, and gave
+him to understand, by every glance of her eyes and every word she spoke,
+that his presence was a happiness to her, and filled her with passionate
+delight.  Publius soon contrived to lead the conversation to the subject
+of the innocent parents of the water-bearers, who had been sent off to
+the goldmines; but Cleopatra interrupted his speech in their favor and
+asked him plainly, undisguisedly, and without any agitation, whether it
+was true that he himself desired to win the youthful Hebe.  And she met
+his absolute denial with such persistent and repeated expressions of
+disbelief, assuming at last a tone of reproach, that he grew vexed and
+broke out into a positive declaration that he regarded lying as unmanly
+and disgraceful, and could endure any insult rather than a doubt of his
+veracity.
+
+Such a vehement and energetic remonstrance from a man she had
+distinguished was a novelty to Cleopatra, and she did not take it amiss,
+for she might now believe--what she much wished to believe--that Publius
+wanted to have nothing to do with the fair Hebe, that Eulaeus had
+slandered her friend, and that Zoe had been in error when, after her vain
+expedition to the temple--from which she had then just returned--she had
+told her that the Roman was Irene's lover, and must at the earliest hour
+have betrayed to the girl herself, or to the priests in the Serapeum,
+what was their purpose regarding her.
+
+In the soul of this noble youth there was nothing false--there could be
+nothing false!  And she, who was accustomed never to hear a word from the
+men who surrounded her without asking herself with what aim it was
+spoken, and how much of it was dissimulation or downright falsehood,
+trusted the Roman, and was so happy in her trust that, full of gracious
+gaiety, she herself invited Publius to give her the recluse's petition
+to read.  The Roman at once gave her the roll, saying that since it
+contained so much that was sad, much as he hoped she would make herself
+acquainted with it, he felt himself called upon also to give her some
+pleasure, though in truth but a very small one.  Thus speaking he
+produced the gems, and she showed as much delight over this little work
+of art as if, instead of being a rich queen and possessed of the finest
+engraved gems in the world, she were some poor girl receiving her first
+gift of some long-desired gold ornament.
+
+"Exquisite, splendid!"  she cried again and again.  "And besides, they
+are an imperishable memorial of you, dear friend, and of your visit to
+Egypt.  I will have them set with the most precious stones; even diamonds
+will seem worthless to me compared with this gift from you.  This has
+already decided my sentence as to Eulaeus and his unhappy victims before
+I read your petition.  Still I will read that roll, and read it
+attentively, for my husband regards Eulaeus as a useful--almost an
+indispensable-tool, and I must give good reasons for my verdict and for
+the pardon.  I believe in the innocence of the unfortunate Philotas, but
+if he had committed a hundred murders, after this present I would procure
+his freedom all the same."
+
+The words vexed the Roman, and they made her who had spoken them in order
+to please him appear to him at that moment more in the light of a
+corruptible official than of a queen.  He found the time hang heavy that
+he spent with Cleopatra, who, in spite of his reserve, gave him to
+understand with more and more insistence how warmly she felt towards him;
+but the more she talked and the more she told him, the more silent he
+became, and he breathed a sigh of relief when her husband at last
+appeared to fetch him and Cleopatra away to their mid-day meal.
+
+At table Philometor promised to take up the cause of Philotas and his
+wife, both of whom he had known, and whose fate had much grieved him;
+still he begged his wife and the Roman not to bring Eulaeus to justice
+till Euergetes should have left Memphis, for, during his brother's
+presence, beset as he was with difficulties, he could not spare him; and
+if he might judge of Publius by himself he cared far more to reinstate
+the innocent in their rights, and to release them from their miserable
+lot--a lot of which he had only learned the full horrors quite recently
+from his tutor Agatharchides--than to drag a wretch before the judges
+to-morrow or the day after, who was unworthy of his anger, and who at
+any rate should not escape punishment.
+
+Before the letter from Asclepiodorus--stating the mistaken hypothesis
+entertained by the priests of Serapis that Irene had been carried off by
+the king's order--could reach the palace, Publius had found an
+opportunity of excusing himself and quitting the royal couple.  Not even
+Cleopatra herself could raise any objection to his distinct assurance
+that he must write to Rome today on matters of importance.  Philometor's
+favor was easy to win, and as soon as he was alone with his wife he could
+not find words enough in praise of the noble qualities of the young man,
+who seemed destined in the future to be of the greatest service to him
+and to his interests at Rome, and whose friendly attitude towards himself
+was one more advantage that he owed--as he was happy to acknowledge--to
+the irresistible talents and grace of his wife.
+
+When Publius had quitted the palace and hurried back to his tent, he felt
+like a journeyman returning from a hard day's labor, or a man acquitted
+from a serious charge; like one who had lost his way, and has found the
+right road again.
+
+The heavy air in the arbors and alleys of the embowered gardens seemed to
+him easier to breathe than the cool breeze that fanned Cleopatra's raised
+roof.  He felt the queen's presence to be at once exciting and
+oppressive, and in spite of all that was flattering to himself in the
+advances made to him by the powerful princess, it was no more gratifying
+to his taste than an elegantly prepared dish served on gold plate, which
+we are forced to partake of though poison may be hidden in it, and which
+when at last we taste it is sickeningly sweet.
+
+Publius was an honest man, and it seemed to him--as to all who resemble
+him--that love which was forced upon him was like a decoration of honor
+bestowed by a hand which we do not respect, and that we would rather
+refuse than accept; or like praise out of all proportion to our merit,
+which may indeed delight a fool, but rouses the indignation rather than
+the gratitude of a wise man.  It struck him too that Cleopatra intended
+to make use of him, in the first place as a toy to amuse herself, and
+then as a useful instrument or underling, and this so gravely incensed
+and discomfited the serious and sensitive young man that he would
+willingly have quitted Memphis and Egypt at once and without any leave-
+taking.  However, it was not quite easy for him to get away, for all his
+thoughts of Cleopatra were mixed up with others of Klea, as inseparably
+as when we picture to ourselves the shades of night, the tender light of
+the calm moon rises too before our fancy.
+
+Having saved Irene, his present desire was to restore her parents to
+liberty; to quit Egypt without having seen Klea once more seemed to him
+absolutely impossible.  He endeavored once more to revive in his mind the
+image of her proud tall figure; he felt he must tell her that she was
+beautiful, a woman worthy of a king--that he was her friend and hated
+injustice, and was ready to sacrifice much for justice's sake and for her
+own in the service of her parents and herself.  To-day again, before the
+banquet, he purposed to go to the temple, and to entreat the recluse to
+help him to an interview with his adopted daughter.
+
+If only Klea could know beforehand what he had been doing for Irene and
+their parents she must surely let him see that her haughty eyes could
+look kindly on him, must offer him her hand in farewell, and then he
+should clasp it in both his, and press it to his breast.  Then would he
+tell her in the warmest and most inspired words he could command how
+happy he was to have seen her and known her, and how painful it was to
+bid her farewell; perhaps she might leave her hand in his, and give him
+some kind word in return.  One kind word--one phrase of thanks from
+Klea's firm but beautiful mouth--seemed to him of higher value than a
+kiss or an embrace from the great and wealthy Queen of Egypt.
+
+When Publius was excited he could be altogether carried away by a sudden
+sweep of passion, but his imagination was neither particularly lively nor
+glowing.  While his horses were being harnessed, and then while he was
+driving to the Serapeum, the tall form of the water-bearer was constantly
+before him; again and again he pictured himself holding her hand instead
+of the reins, and while he repeated to himself all he meant to say at
+parting, and in fancy heard her thank him with a trembling voice for his
+valuable help, and say that she would never forget him, he felt his eyes
+moisten--unused as they had been to tears for many years.  He could not
+help recalling the day when he had taken leave of his family to go to the
+wars for the first time.  Then it had not been his own eyes but his
+mother's that had sparkled through tears, and it struck him that Klea,
+if she could be compared to any other woman, was most like to that noble
+matron to whom he owed his life, and that she might stand by the side of
+the daughter of the great Scipio Africanus like a youthful Minerva by the
+side of Juno, the stately mother of the gods.
+
+His disappointment was great when he found the door of the temple closed,
+and was forced to return to Memphis without having seen either Klea or
+the recluse.
+
+He could try again to-morrow to accomplish what had been impossible to-
+day, but his wish to see the girl he loved, rose to a torturing longing,
+and as he sat once more in his tent to finish his second despatch to Rome
+the thought of Klea came again to disturb his serious work.  Twenty times
+he started up to collect his thoughts, and as often flung away his reed
+as the figure of the water-bearer interposed between him and the writing
+under his hand; at last, out of patience with himself, he struck the
+table in front of him with some force, set his fists in his sides hard
+enough to hurt himself, and held them there for a minute, ordering
+himself firmly and angrily to do his duty before he thought of anything
+else.
+
+His iron will won the victory; by the time it was growing dusk the
+despatch was written.  He was in the very act of stamping the wax of the
+seal with the signet of his family--engraved on the sardonyx of his ring-
+-when one of his servants announced a black slave who desired to speak
+with him.  Publius ordered that he should be admitted, and the negro
+handed him the tile on which Eulaeus had treacherously written Klea's
+invitation to meet her at midnight near the Apis-tombs.  His enemy's
+crafty-looking emissary seemed to the young man as a messenger from the
+gods; in a transport of haste and, without the faintest shadow of a
+suspicion he wrote, "I will be there," on the luckless piece of clay.
+
+Publius was anxious to give the letter to the Senate, which he had just
+finished, with his own hand, and privately, to the messenger who had
+yesterday brought him the despatch from Rome; and as he would rather have
+set aside an invitation to carry off a royal treasure that same night
+than have neglected to meet Klea, he could not in any case be a guest at
+the king's banquet, though Cleopatra would expect to see him there in
+accordance with his promise.  At this juncture he was annoyed to miss his
+friend Lysias, for he wished to avoid offending the queen; and the
+Corinthian, who at this moment was doubtless occupied in some perfectly
+useless manner, was as clever in inventing plausible excuses as he
+himself was dull in such matters.  He hastily wrote a few lines to the
+friend who shared his tent, requesting him to inform the king that he had
+been prevented by urgent business from appearing among his guests that
+evening; then he threw on his cloak, put on his travelling-hat which
+shaded his face, and proceeded on foot and without any servant to the
+harbor, with his letter in one hand and a staff in the other.
+
+The soldiers and civic guards which filled the courts of the palace,
+taking him for a messenger, did not challenge him as he walked swiftly
+and firmly on, and so, without being detained or recognized, he reached
+the inn by the harbor, where he was forced to wait an hour before the
+messenger came home from the gay strangers' quarter where he had gone to
+amuse himself.  He had a great deal to talk of with this man, who was to
+set out next morning for Alexandria and Rome; but Publius hardly gave
+himself the necessary time, for he meant to start for the meeting place
+in the Necropolis indicated by Klea, and well-known to himself, a full
+hour before midnight, although he knew that be could reach his
+destination in a very much shorter time.
+
+The sun seems to move too slowly to those who long and wait, and a planet
+would be more likely to fail in punctuality than a lover when called by
+love.
+
+In order to avoid observation he did not take a chariot but a strong mule
+which the host of the inn lent him with pleasure; for the Roman was so
+full of happy excitement in the hope of meeting Klea that he had slipped
+a gold piece into the small, lightly-closed fingers of the innkeeper's
+pretty child, which lay asleep on a bench by the side of the table,
+besides paying double as much for the country wine he had drunk as if it
+had been fine Falernian and without asking for his reckoning.  The host
+looked at him in astonishment when, finally, he sprang with a grand leap
+on to the back of the tall beast, without laying his hand on it; and it
+seemed even to Publius himself as though he had never since boyhood felt
+so fresh, so extravagantly happy as at this moment.
+
+The road to the tombs from the harbor was a different one to that which
+led thither from the king's palace, and which Klea had taken, nor did it
+lead past the tavern in which she had seen the murderers.  By day it was
+much used by pilgrims, and the Roman could not miss it even by night, for
+the mule he was riding knew it well.  That he had learned, for in answer
+to his question as to what the innkeeper kept the beast for he had said
+that it was wanted every day to carry pilgrims arriving from Upper Egypt
+to the temple of Serapis and the tombs of the sacred bulls; he could
+therefore very decidedly refuse the host's offer to send a driver with
+the beast.  All who saw him set out supposed that he was returning to the
+city and the palace.
+
+Publius rode through the streets of the city at an easy trot, and, as the
+laughter of soldiers carousing in a tavern fell upon his ear, he could
+have joined heartily in their merriment.  But when the silent desert lay
+around him, and the stars showed him that he would be much too early at
+the appointed place, he brought the mule to a slower pace, and the nearer
+he came to his destination the graver he grew, and the stronger his heart
+beat.  It must be something important and pressing indeed that Klea
+desired to tell him in such a place and at such an hour.  Or was she like
+a thousand other women--was he now on the way to a lover's meeting with
+her, who only a few days before had responded to his glance and accepted
+his violets?
+
+This thought flashed once through his mind with importunate distinctness,
+but he dismissed it as absurd and unworthy of himself.  A king would be
+more likely to offer to share his throne with a beggar than this girl
+would be to invite him to enjoy the sweet follies of love-making with her
+in a secret spot.
+
+Of course she wanted above all things to acquire some certainty as to her
+sister's fate, perhaps too to speak to him of her parents; still, she
+would hardly have made up her mind to invite him if she had not learned
+to trust him, and this confidence filled him with pride, and at the same
+time with an eager longing to see her, which seemed to storm his heart
+with more violence with every minute that passed.
+
+While the mule sought and found its way in the deep darkness with slow
+and sure steps, he gazed up at the firmament, at the play of the clouds
+which now covered the moon with their black masses, and now parted,
+floating off in white sheeny billows while the silver crescent of the
+moon showed between them like a swan against the dark mirror of a lake.
+
+And all the time he thought incessantly of Klea--thinking in a dreamy way
+that he saw her before him, but different and taller than before, her
+form growing more and more before his eyes till at last it was so tall
+that her head touched the sky, the clouds seemed to be her veil, and the
+moon a brilliant diadem in her abundant dark hair.  Powerfully stirred by
+this vision he let the bridle fall on the mule's neck, and spread open
+his arms to the beautiful phantom, but as he rode forwards it ever
+retired, and when presently the west wind blew the sand in his face, and
+he had to cover his eyes with his hand it vanished entirely, and did not
+return before he found himself at the Apis-tombs.
+
+He had hoped to find here a soldier or a watchman to whom he could
+entrust the beast, but when the midnight chant of the priests of the
+temple of Osiris-Apis had died away not a sound was to be heard far or
+near; all that lay around him was as still and as motionless as though
+all that had ever lived there were dead.  Or had some demon robbed him of
+his hearing?  He could hear the rush of his own swift pulses in his ears-
+not the faintest sound besides.
+
+Such silence is there nowhere but in the city of the dead and at night,
+nowhere but in the desert.
+
+He tied the mule's bridle to a stela of granite covered with
+inscriptions, and went forward to the appointed place.  Midnight must be
+past--that he saw by the position of the moon, and he was beginning to
+ask himself whether he should remain standing where he was or go on to
+meet the water-bearer when he heard first a light footstep, and then saw
+a tall erect figure wrapped in a long mantle advancing straight towards
+him along the avenue of sphinxes.  Was it a man or a woman--was it she
+whom he expected? and if it were she, was there ever a woman who had come
+to meet a lover at an assignation with so measured, nay so solemn,
+a step?  Now he recognized her face--was it the pale moonlight that made
+it look so bloodless and marble-white?  There was something rigid in her
+features, and yet they had never--not even when she blushingly accepted
+his violets--looked to him so faultlessly beautiful, so regular and so
+nobly cut, so dignified, nay impressive.
+
+For fully a minute the two stood face to face, speechless and yet quite
+near to each other.  Then Publius broke the silence, uttering with the
+warmest feeling and yet with anxiety in his deep, pure voice, only one
+single word; and the word was her name "Klea."
+
+The music of this single word stirred the girl's heart like a message and
+blessing from heaven, like the sweetest harmony of the siren's song, like
+the word of acquittal from a judge's lips when the verdict is life or
+death, and her lips were already parted to say 'Publius' in a tone no
+less deep and heartfelt-but, with all the force of her soul, she
+restrained herself, and said softly and quickly:
+
+"You are here at a late hour, and it is well that you have come."
+
+"You sent for me," replied the Roman.
+
+"It was another that did that, not I," replied Klea in a slow dull tone,
+as if she were lifting a heavy weight, and could hardly draw her breath.
+"Now--follow me, for this is not the place to explain everything in."
+
+With these words Klea went towards the locked door of the Apis-tombs, and
+tried, as she stood in front of it, to insert into the lock the key that
+Krates had given her; but the lock was still so new, and her fingers
+shook so much, that she could not immediately succeed.  Publius meanwhile
+was standing close by her side, and as he tried to help her his fingers
+touched hers.
+
+And when he--certainly not by mistake--laid his strong and yet trembling
+hand on hers, she let it stay for a moment, for she felt as if a tide of
+warm mist rose up in her bosom dimming her perceptions, and paralyzing
+her will and blurring her sight.
+
+"Klea," he repeated, and he tried to take her left hand in his own; but
+she, like a person suddenly aroused to consciousness after a short dream,
+immediately withdrew the hand on which his was resting, put the key into
+the lock, opened the door, and exclaimed in a voice of almost stern
+command, "Go in first."
+
+Publius obeyed and entered the spacious antechamber of the venerable
+cave, hewn out of the rock and now dimly lighted.  A curved passage of
+which he could not see the end lay before him, and on both sides, to the
+right and left of him, opened out the chambers in which stood the
+sarcophagi of the deceased sacred bulls.  Over each of the enormous stone
+coffins a lamp burnt day and night, and wherever a vault stood open their
+glimmer fell across the deep gloom of the cave, throwing a bright beam of
+light on the dusky path that led into the heart of the rock, like a
+carpet woven of rays of light.
+
+What place was this that Klea had chosen to speak with him in.
+
+But though her voice sounded firm, she herself was not cool and
+insensible as Orcus--which this place, which was filled with the fumes of
+incense and weighed upon his senses, much resembled--for he had felt her
+fingers tremble under his, and when he went up to her, to help her, her
+heart beat no less violently and rapidly than his own.  Ah! the man who
+should succeed in touching that heart of hard, but pure and precious
+crystal would indeed enjoy a glorious draught of the most perfect bliss.
+
+"This is our destination," said Klea; and then she went on in short
+broken sentences.  "Remain where you are.  Leave me this place near the
+door.  Now, answer me first one question.  My sister Irene has vanished
+from the temple.  Did you cause her to be carried off?"
+
+"I did," replied Publius eagerly.  "She desired me to greet you from her,
+and to tell you how much she likes her new friends.  When I shall have
+told you--"
+
+"Not now" interrupted Klea excitedly.  "Turn round--there where you see
+the lamp-light."  Publius did as he was desired, and a slight shudder
+shook even his bold heart, for the girl's sayings and doings seemed to
+him not solemn merely, but mysterious like those of a prophetess.  A
+violent crash sounded through the silent and sacred place, and loud
+echoes were tossed from side to side, ringing ominously throughout the
+grotto.  Publius turned anxiously round, and his eye, seeking Klea, found
+her no more; then, hurrying to the door of the cave, he heard her lock it
+on the outside.
+
+The water-bearer had escaped him, had flung the heavy door to, and
+imprisoned him; and this idea was to the Roman so degrading and
+unendurable that, lost to every feeling but rage, wounded pride, and the
+wild desire to be free, he kicked the door with all his might, and called
+out angrily to Klea:
+
+"Open this door--I command you.  Let me free this moment or, by all the
+gods--"
+
+He did not finish his threat, for in the middle of the right-hand panel
+of the door a small wicket was opened through which the priests were wont
+to puff incense into the tomb of the sacred bulls--and twice, thrice,
+finally, when he still would not be pacified, a fourth time, Klea called
+out to him:
+
+"Listen to me--listen to me, Publius."  Publius ceased storming, and she
+went on:
+
+"Do not threaten me, for you will certainly repent it when you have heard
+what I have to tell you.  Do not interrupt me; I may tell you at once
+this door is opened every day before sunrise, so your imprisonment will
+not last long; and you must submit to it, for I shut you in to save your
+life--yes, your life which was in danger.  Do you think my anxiety was
+folly?  No, Publius, it is only too well founded, and if you, as a man,
+are strong and bold, so am I as a woman.  I never was afraid of an
+imaginary nothing.  Judge yourself whether I was not right to be afraid
+for you.
+
+"King Euergetes and Eulaeus have bribed two hideous monsters to murder
+you.  When I went to seek out Irene I overheard all, and I have seen with
+my own eyes the two horrible wolves who are lurking to fall upon you, and
+heard with these ears their scheme for doing it.  I never wrote the note
+on the tile which was signed with my name; Eulaeus did it, and you took
+his bait and came out into the desert by night.  In a few minutes the
+ruffians will have stolen up to this place to seek their victim, but they
+will not find you, Publius, for I have saved you--I, Klea, whom you first
+met with smiles--whose sister you have stolen away--the same Klea that
+you a minute since were ready to threaten.  Now, at once, I am going into
+the desert, dressed like a traveller in a coat and hat, so that in the
+doubtful light of the moon I may easily be taken for you--going to give
+my weary heart as a prey to the assassins' knife."
+
+"You are mad!"  cried Publius, and he flung himself with his whole weight
+on the door, and kicked it with all his strength.  "What you purpose is
+pure madness open the door, I command you!  However strong the villains
+may be that Euergetes has bribed, I am man enough to defend myself."
+
+"You are unarmed, Publius, and they have cords and daggers."
+
+"Then open the door, and stay here with me till day dawns.  It is not
+noble, it is wicked to cast away your life.  Open the door at once, I
+entreat you, I command you!"
+
+At any other time the words would not have failed of their effect on
+Klea's reasonable nature, but the fearful storm of feeling which had
+broken over her during the last few hours had borne away in its whirl all
+her composure and self-command.  The one idea, the one resolution, the
+one desire, which wholly possessed her was to close the life that had
+been so full of self-sacrifice by the greatest sacrifice of all--that of
+life itself, and not only in order to secure Irene's happiness and to
+save the Roman, but because it pleased her--her father's daughter--
+to make a noble end; because she, the maiden, would fain show Publius
+what a woman might be capable of who loved him above all others;
+because, at this moment, death did not seem a misfortune; and her mind,
+overwrought by hours of terrific tension, could not free itself from the
+fixed idea that she would and must sacrifice herself.
+
+She no longer thought these things--she was possessed by them; they had
+the mastery, and as a madman feels forced to repeat the same words again
+and again to himself, so no prayer, no argument at this moment would have
+prevailed to divert her from her purpose of giving up her young life for
+Publius and Irene.  She contemplated this resolve with affection and
+pride as justifying her in looking up to herself as to some nobler
+creature.  She turned a deaf ear to the Roman's entreaty, and said in a
+tone of which the softness surprised him:
+
+"Be silent Publius, and hear me further.  You too are noble, and
+certainly you owe me some gratitude for having saved your life."
+
+"I owe you much, and I will pay it," cried Publius, "as long as there is
+breath in this body--but open the door, I beseech you, I implore you--"
+
+"Hear me to the end, time presses; hear me out, Publius.  My sister Irene
+went away with you.  I need say nothing about her beauty, but how bright,
+how sweet her nature is you do not know, you cannot know, but you will
+find out.  She, you must be told, is as poor as I am, but the child of
+freeborn and noble parents.  Now swear to me, swear--no, do not interrupt
+me--swear by the head of your father that you will never, abandon her,
+that you will never behave to her otherwise than as if she were the
+daughter of your dearest friend or of your own brother."
+
+"I swear it and I will keep my oath--by the life of the man whose head is
+more sacred to me than the names of all the gods.  But now I beseech you,
+I command you open this door, Klea--that I may not lose you--that I may
+tell you that my whole heart is yours, and yours alone--that I love you,
+love you unboundedly."
+
+"I have your oath," cried the girl in great excitement, for she could now
+see a shadow moving backwards and forwards at some distance in the
+desert.  "You have sworn by the head of your father.  Never let Irene
+repent having gone with you, and love her always as you fancy now, in
+this moment, that you love me, your preserver.  Remember both of you the
+hapless Klea who would gladly have lived for you, but who now gladly dies
+for you.  Do not forget me, Publius, for I have never but this once
+opened my heart to love, but I have loved you Publius, with pain and
+torment, and with sweet delight--as no other woman ever yet revelled in
+the ecstasy of love or was consumed in its torments."  She almost shouted
+the last words at the Roman as if she were chanting a hymn of triumph,
+beside herself, forgetting everything and as if intoxicated.
+
+Why was he now silent, why had he nothing to answer, since she had
+confessed to him the deepest secret of her breast, and allowed him to
+look into the inmost sanctuary of her heart?  A rush of burning words
+from his lips would have driven her off at once to the desert and to
+death; his silence held her back--it puzzled her and dropped like cool
+rain on the soaring flames of her pride, fell on the raging turmoil of
+her soul like oil on troubled water.  She could not part from him thus,
+and her lips parted to call him once more by his name.
+
+While she had been making confession of her love to the Roman as if
+it were her last will and testament, Publius felt like a man dying of
+thirst, who has been led to a flowing well only to be forbidden to
+moisten his lips with the limpid fluid.  His soul was filled with
+passionate rage approaching to despair, and as with rolling eyes he
+glanced round his prison an iron crow-bar leaning against the wall met
+his gaze; it had been used by the workmen to lift the sarcophagus of the
+last deceased Apis into its right place.  He seized upon this tool, as a
+drowning man flings himself on a floating plank: still he heard Klea's
+last words, and did not lose one of them, though the sweat poured from
+his brow as he inserted the metal lever like a wedge between the two
+halves of the door, just above the threshold.
+
+All was now silent outside; perhaps the distracted girl was already
+hurrying towards the assassins--and the door was fearfully heavy and
+would not open nor yield.  But he must force it--he flung himself on the
+earth and thrust his shoulder under the lever, pushing his whole body
+against the iron bar, so that it seemed to him that every joint
+threatened to give way and every sinew to crack; the door rose--once more
+he put forth the whole strength of his manly vigor, and now the seam in
+the wood cracked, the door flew open, and Klea, seized with terror, flew
+off and away--into the desert--straight towards the murderers.
+
+Publius leaped to his feet and flung himself out of his prison; as he saw
+Klea escape he flew after her with, hasty leaps, and caught her in a few
+steps, for her mantle hindered her in running, and when she would not
+obey his desire that she should stand still he stood in front of her and
+said, not tenderly but sternly and decidedly:
+
+"You do not go a step farther, I forbid it."
+
+"I am going where I must go," cried the girl in great agitation.  "Let me
+go, at once!"
+
+"You will stay here--here with me," snarled Publius, and taking both
+her hands by the wrists he clasped them with his iron fingers as with
+handcuffs.  "I am the man and you are the woman, and I will teach you
+who is to give orders here and who is to obey."
+
+Anger and rage prompted these quite unpremeditated words, and as Klea--
+while he spoke them with quivering lips--had attempted with the exertion
+of all her strength, which was by no means contemptible, to wrench her
+hands from his grasp, he forced her--angry as he still was, but
+nevertheless with due regard for her womanliness--forced her by a gentle
+and yet irresistible pressure on her arms to bend before him, and
+compelled her slowly to sink down on both knees.
+
+As soon as she was in this position, Publius let her free; she covered
+her eyes with her aching hands and sobbed aloud, partly from anger, and
+because she felt herself bitterly humiliated.
+
+"Now, stand up," said Publius in an altered tone as he heard her weeping.
+"Is it then such a hard matter to submit to the will of a man who will
+not and cannot let you go, and whom you love, besides?"  How gentle and
+kind the words sounded!  Klea, when she heard them, raised her eyes to
+Publius, and as she saw him looking down on her as a supplicant her anger
+melted and turned to grateful emotion--she went closer to him on her
+knees, laid her head against him and said:
+
+"I have always been obliged to rely upon myself, and to guide another
+person with loving counsel, but it must be sweeter far to be led by
+affection and I will always, always obey you."
+
+"I will thank you with heart and soul henceforth from this hour!" cried
+Publius, lifting her up.  "You were ready to sacrifice your life for me,
+and now mine belongs to you.  I am yours and you are mine--I your
+husband, you my wife till our life's end!"
+
+He laid his hands on her shoulders, and turned her face round to his; she
+resisted no longer, for it was sweet to her to yield her will to that of
+this strong man.  And how happy was she, who from her childhood had taken
+it upon herself to be always strong, and self-reliant, to feel herself
+the weaker, and to be permitted to trust in a stronger arm than her own.
+Somewhat thus a young rose-tree might feel, which for the first time
+receives the support of the prop to which it is tied by the careful
+gardener.
+
+Her eyes rested blissfully and yet anxiously on his, and his lips had
+just touched hers in a first kiss when they started apart in terror, for
+Klea's name was clearly shouted through the still night-air, and in the
+next instant a loud scream rang out close to them followed by dull cries
+of pain.
+
+"The murderers!"  shrieked Klea, and trembling for herself and for him
+she clung closely to her lover's breast.  In one brief moment the self-
+reliant heroine--proud in her death-defying valor--had become a weak,
+submissive, dependent woman.
+
+
+
+
+ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:
+
+Created the world out of nothing for no other purpose
+Dreamless sleep after a day brimful of enjoyment
+Man must subjugate matter and not become subject to it
+No one believes anything that can diminish his self-esteem
+Praise out of all proportion to our merit
+Save them the trouble of thinking for themselves
+She no longer thought these things--she was possessed by them
+Taken it upon herself to be always strong, and self-reliant
+The most terrible of all the gods, are women
+The sun seems to move too slowly to those who long and wait
+We seek for truth; the Jews believe they possess it entirely
+Who always think at second-hand
+Why so vehement, sister?  So much zeal is quite unnecessary
+
+
+
+
+
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