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+The Project Gutenberg EBook Cleopatra, by Georg Ebers, Volume 5.
+#39 in our series by Georg Ebers
+
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+Title: Cleopatra, Volume 5.
+
+Author: Georg Ebers
+
+Release Date: April, 2004  [EBook #5477]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on May 21, 2002]
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+Edition: 10
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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CLEOPATRA, BY GEORG EBERS, V5 ***
+
+
+
+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.]
+
+
+
+
+
+CLEOPATRA
+
+By Georg Ebers
+
+Volume 5.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+Barine had been an hour in the palace.  The magnificently furnished room
+to which she was conducted was directly above the council chamber, and
+sometimes, in the silence of the night, the voice of the Queen or the
+loud cheers of men were distinctly heard.
+
+Barine listened without making the slightest effort to catch the meaning
+of the words which reached her ears.  She longed only for something to
+divert her thoughts from the deep and bitter emotion which filled her
+soul.  Ay, she was roused to fury, and yet she felt how completely this
+passionate resentment contradicted her whole nature.
+
+True, the shameless conduct of Philostratus during their married life had
+often stirred the inmost depths of her placid, kindly spirit, and after
+wards his brother Alexas had come to drive her, by his disgraceful
+proposals, to the verge of despair; rage was added to the passionate
+agitation of her soul, and for this she had cause to rejoice--but for
+this mighty resentment during the time of struggle she might have,
+perhaps, succumbed from sheer weariness and the yearning desire to rest.
+
+At last, at last, she and her friends, by means of great sacrifices, had
+succeeded in releasing her from these tortures.  Philostratus's consent
+to liberate her was purchased.  Alexas's persecution had ceased long
+before; he had first been sent away as envoy by his patron Antony, and
+afterwards been compelled to accompany him to the war.
+
+How she had enjoyed the peaceful days in her mother's house!  How quickly
+the bright cheerfulness which she had supposed lost had returned to her
+soul!--and to-day Fate had blessed her with the greatest happiness life
+had ever offered.  True, she had had only a few brief hours in which to
+enjoy it, for the attack of the unbridled boys and the wound inflicted
+upon her lover had cast a heavy shadow on her bliss.
+
+Her mother had again proved to be in the right when she so confidently
+predicted a second misfortune which would follow the first only too soon.
+
+Barine had been torn at midnight from her peaceful home and her wounded
+lover's bedside.  This was done by the Queen's command, and, full of
+angry excitement, she said to herself that the men were right who cursed
+tyranny because it transformed free human beings into characterless
+chattels.
+
+There could be nothing good awaiting her; that was proved by the
+messengers whom Cleopatra had sent to summon her at this unprecedented
+hour.  They were her worst enemies: Iras, who desired to wed her lover--
+Dion had told her so after the assault--and Alexas, whose suit she had
+rejected in a way which a man never forgives.
+
+She had already learned Iras's feelings.  The slender figure with the
+narrow head, long, delicate nose, small chin, and pointed fingers, seemed
+to her like a long, sharp thorn.  This strange comparison had entered her
+head as Iras stood rigidly erect, reading aloud in a shrill, high voice
+the Queen's command.  Everything about this hard, cold face appeared as
+sharp as a sting, and ready to destroy her.
+
+Her removal from her mother's house to the royal palace had been swift
+and simple.
+
+After the attack--of which she saw little, because, overpowered by fear
+and horror, she closed her eyes--she had driven home with her lover,
+where the leech had bandaged his injuries, and Berenike had quickly and
+carefully transformed her own sleeping chamber into a sick-room.
+
+Barine, after changing her dress, did not leave Dion's side.  She had
+attired herself carefully, for she knew his delight in outward adornment.
+When she returned from her grandparents, before sunset, she was alone
+with him, and he, kissing her arm, had murmured that wherever the Greek
+tongue was spoken there was not one more beautiful.  The gem was worthy
+of its loveliness.  So she had opened her baggage to take out the circlet
+which Antony had given, and it again enclasped her arm when she entered
+the sick-room.
+
+Because Dion had told her that he deemed her fairest in the simple white
+robe she had worn a few days before, when there were no guests save
+himself and Gorgias, and she had sung until after midnight his favourite
+songs as though all were intended for him alone, her choice had fallen
+upon this garment.  And she rejoiced that she had worn it--the wounded
+man's eyes rested upon her so joyously when she sat down opposite to him.
+
+The physician had forbidden him to talk, and urged him to sleep if
+possible.  So Barine only held his hand in silence, whispering, whenever
+he opened his eyes, a tender word of love and encouragement.
+
+She had remained with him for hours, leaving her place at his side merely
+to give him his medicine, or, with her mother's aid, place poultices on
+his wounds.
+
+When his manly face was distorted by suffering, she shared his pain; but
+during most of the time a calm, pleasant sense of happiness pervaded her
+mind.  She felt safe and sheltered in the possession of the man whom she
+loved, though fully aware of the perils which threatened him, and,
+perhaps, her also.  But the assurance of his love completely filled her
+heart and cast every care entirely into the shade.  Many men had seemed
+estimable and agreeable, a few even desirable husbands, but Dion was the
+first to awaken love in her ardent but by no means passionate soul.  She
+regarded the experiences of the past few days as a beautiful miracle.
+How she had yearned and pined until the most fervent desire of her heart
+was fulfilled!  Now Dion had offered her his love, and nothing could rob
+her of it.
+
+Gorgias and the sons of her uncle Arius had disturbed her a short time.
+After they had gone with a good report, Berenike had entreated her
+daughter to lie down and let her take her place.  But Barine would not
+leave her lover's couch, and had just loosed her hair to brush it again
+and fasten the thick, fair braids around her head, when, two hours after
+midnight, some one knocked loudly on the window shutters.  Berenike was
+in the act of removing the poultice, so Barine herself went into the
+atrium to wake the doorkeeper.
+
+But the old man was not asleep, and had anticipated her.  She recognized,
+with a low cry of terror, the first person who entered the lighted
+vestibule--Alexas.  Iras followed, her head closely muffled, for the
+storm was still howling through the streets.  Last of all a lantern-
+bearer crossed the threshold.
+
+The Syrian saluted the startled young beauty with a formal bow, but Iras,
+without a greeting or even a single word of preparation, delivered the
+Queen's command, and then read aloud, by the light of the lantern, what
+Cleopatra had scrawled upon the wax tablet.
+
+When Barine, pallid and scarcely able to control her emotion, requested
+the messengers who had arrived at so late an hour to enter, in order to
+give her time to prepare for the night drive and take leave of her
+mother, Iras vouchsafed no reply, but, as if she had the right to rule
+the house, merely ordered the doorkeeper to bring his mistress's cloak
+without delay.
+
+While the old man, with trembling knees, moved away, Iras asked if the
+wounded Dion was in the dwelling; and Barine, her self-control restored
+by the question, answered, with repellent pride, that the Queen's orders
+did not command her to submit to an examination in her own house.
+
+Iras shrugged her shoulders and said, sneeringly, to Alexas:
+
+"In truth, I asked too much.  One who attracts so many men of all ages
+can scarcely be expected to know the abode of each individual."
+
+"The heart has a faithful memory," replied the Syrian in a tone of
+correction, but Iras echoed, contemptuously, "The heart!"
+
+Then all were silent until, instead of the doorkeeper, Berenike herself
+came hurrying in, bringing the cloak.  With pallid face and bloodless
+lips she wrapped it around her daughter's shoulders, whispering, amid
+floods of tears, almost inaudible words of love and encouragement, which
+Iras interrupted by requesting Barine to follow her to the carriage.
+
+The mother and daughter embraced and kissed each other, then the closed
+equipage bore the persecuted woman through the storm and darkness to
+Lochias.
+
+Not a word was exchanged between Barine and the Queen's messengers until
+they reached the room where the former was to await Cleopatra; but here
+Iras again endeavoured to induce her to speak.  At the first question,
+however, Barine answered that she had no information to give.
+
+The room was as bright as if it were noonday, though the lights flickered
+constantly, for the wind found its way through the thin shutters closing
+the windows on both sides of the corner room, and a strong, cold draught
+swept in.  Barine wrapped her cloak more closely around her; the storm
+which howled about the sea-washed palace harmonized with the vehement
+agitation of her soul.  Whether she had looked within or without, there
+was nothing which could have soothed her save the assurance of being
+loved--an assurance that held fear at bay.  Now, indignation prevented
+dread from overpowering her, yet calm consideration could not fail to
+show her that danger threatened on every hand.  The very manner in which
+Iras and Alexas whispered together, without heeding her presence, boded
+peril, for courtiers show such contempt only to those whom they know are
+threatened with the indifference or resentment of the sovereign.  Barine,
+during her married life with a man devoid of all delicacy of feeling, and
+with a disposition as evil as his tongue was ready, had learned to endure
+many things which were hard to bear; yet when, after a remark from Iras
+evidently concerning her, she heard Alexas laugh, she was compelled to
+exert the utmost self-restraint to avoid telling her enemy how utterly
+she despised the cowardly cruelty of her conduct.  But she succeeded in
+keeping silent.  Still, the painful constraint she imposed on herself
+must find vent in some way, and, as the tortured anguish of her soul
+reached its height, large tears rolled down her cheeks.
+
+These, too, were noticed by her enemy and made the target of her wit; but
+this time the sarcasm failed to produce its effect upon the Syrian, for,
+instead of laughing, he grew grave, and whispered something which seemed
+to Barine a reproof or a warning.  Iras's reply was merely a contemptuous
+shrug of the shoulders.
+
+Barine had noticed long before that her mother, in her fear and
+bewilderment, had brought her own cloak instead of her daughter's, and
+this circumstance also did not seem to her foe too trivial for a sneer.
+
+But the childish insolence that seemed to have taken possession of one
+who usually by no means lacked dignity, was merely the mask beneath which
+she concealed her own suffering.  A grave motive was the source of the
+mirth by which she affected to be moved at the sight of her enemy's
+cloak.  The grey, ill-fitting garment disfigured Barine, and she desired
+that the Queen should feel confident of surpassing her rival even in
+outward charms.  No one, not even Cleopatra, could dispense with a
+protecting wrap in this cold draught, and nothing suited her better than
+the purple mantle in whose delicate woollen fabric black and gold dragons
+and griffins were embroidered.  Iras had taken care that it lay ready.
+Barine could not fail to appear like a beggar in comparison, though
+Alexas said that her blue kerchief was marvellously becoming.
+
+He was a base-minded voluptuary, who, aided by rich gifts of mind and
+wide knowledge, had shunned no means of ingratiating himself with Antony,
+the most lavish of patrons.  The repulse which this man, accustomed to
+success, had received from Barine had been hard to forget, yet he did not
+resign the hope of winning her.  Never had she seemed more desirable than
+in her touching weakness.  Even base natures are averse to witnessing the
+torture of the defenceless, and when Iras had aimed another poisoned
+shaft at her, he ventured, at the risk of vexing his ally, to say, under
+his breath:
+
+"Condemned criminals are usually granted, before their end, a favourite
+dish.  I have no cause to wish Barine anything good; but I would not
+grudge that.  You, on the contrary, seem to delight in pouring wormwood
+on her last mouthful."
+
+"Certainly," she answered, her eyes sparkling brightly.  "Malice is the
+purest of pleasures; at least to me, when exercised on this woman."
+
+The Syrian, with a strange smile, held out his hand, saying: "Keep your
+good-will towards me, Iras."
+
+"Because," she retorted with a  sneer, "evil may follow my enmity.  I
+think so, too.  I am not especially sensitive concerning myself, but
+whoever dares"--here she raised her voice--"to harm one whom I--Just
+listen to the cheers!  How she carries all hearts with her!  Though Fate
+had made her a beggar, she would still be peerless among women.  She is
+like the sun.  The clouds which intrude upon her pathway of radiance are
+consumed and disappear."
+
+While uttering the last sentence she had turned towards Barine, whose ear
+the sharp voice again pierced like a thorn, as she commanded her to
+prepare for the examination.
+
+Almost at the same moment the door, caught by the wind, closed with a
+loud bang.  The "introducer"--[Marshal of the court.]--had opened it,
+and, after a hasty glance, exclaimed:
+
+"The audience will not be given in this meeting place for all the winds
+of heaven!  Her Majesty desires to receive her late visitor in the Hall
+of Shells."
+
+With these words he bowed courteously to Barine, and ushered her and her
+two companions through several corridors and apartments into a well-
+heated anteroom.
+
+Here even the windows were thoroughly protected from the storm.  Several
+body-guards and pages belonging to the corps of the "royal boys" stood
+waiting to receive them.
+
+"This is comfortable."  said Alexas, turning to Iras.  "Was the winter we
+have just experienced intended to fill us with twofold gratitude for the
+delights of the mild spring in this blessed room?"
+
+"Perhaps so," she answered sullenly, and then added in a low tone: "Here
+at Lochias the seasons do not follow their usual course.  They change
+according to the pleasure of the supreme will.  Instead of four, the
+Egyptians, as you know, have but three; in the palaces on the Nile they
+are countless.  What is the meaning of this sudden entry of summer?
+Winter would have pleased me better."
+
+The Queen--Iras knew not why--had changed her arrangements for Barine's
+reception.  This vexed her, and her features assumed a gloomy,
+threatening expression as the young beauty, casting aside her cloak and
+kerchief, stood awaiting Cleopatra in a white robe of fine material and
+perfect fit.  The thick, fair braids, wound simply around her shapely
+head, gave her an appearance of almost childish youth, and the sight made
+Iras feel as if she, and Cleopatra also, were outwitted.
+
+In the dimly lighted atrium of the house near the Paneum garden, she had
+noticed only that Barine wore something white.  Had it been merely a
+night robe, so much the better.  But she might have appeared in her
+present garb at the festival of Isis.  The most careful deliberation
+could have selected nothing more suitable or becoming.  And did this vain
+woman go to rest with costly gold ornaments?  Else how did the circlet
+chance to be on her arm?  Each of Cleopatra's charms seemed to Iras, who
+knew them all, like a valuable possession of her own.  To see even the
+least of them surpassed by another vexed her; and to behold in yonder
+woman a form which she could not deny was no less beautiful, enraged,
+nay, pierced her to the heart.
+
+Since she had known that because of Barine she could hope for nothing
+more from the man to whose love she believed she possessed a claim dating
+from their childhood, she had hated the young beauty.  And now to the
+many things which contributed to increase her hostile mood, was added the
+disagreeable consciousness that during the last few hours she had treated
+her contemptibly.  Had she only seen earlier what her foe's cloak
+concealed, she would have found means to give her a different appearance.
+But she must remain as she was; for Chairman had already entered.  Other
+hours, however, would follow, and if the next did not decide the fate of
+the woman whom she hated, future ones should.
+
+For this purpose she did not need the aid of Charmian, her uncle
+Archibius's sister, who had hitherto been a beloved associate and
+maternal friend.  But what had happened?  Iras fancied that her pleasant
+features wore a repellent expression which she had never seen before.
+Was this also the singer's fault?  And what was the cause?
+
+The older woman's manner decided the question whether she should still
+bestow upon her returned relative the love of a grateful niece.  No, she
+would no longer put any restraint upon herself.  Charmian should feel
+that she (Iras) considered any favour shown to her foe an insult.  To
+work against her secretly was not in her nature.  She had courage to show
+an enemy her aversion, and she did not fear Charmian enough to pursue a
+different course.  She knew that the artist Leonax, Barine's father, had
+been Charmian's lover; but this did not justify her favouring the woman
+who had robbed her niece of the heart of the man whom she--as Charmian
+knew--had loved from childhood.
+
+Charmian had just had a long conversation with her brother, and had
+also learned in the palace that Barine had been summoned to the Queen's
+presence in the middle of the night; so, firmly persuaded that evil was
+intended to the young woman who had already passed through so many
+agitating scenes of joy and sorrow, she entered the waiting-room, and her
+pleasant though no longer youthful face, framed in smooth, grey hair, was
+greeted by Barine as the shipwrecked mariner hails the sight of land.
+
+All the emotions which had darkened and embittered her soul were soothed.
+She hastened towards her friend's sister, as a frightened child seeks its
+mother, and Charmian perceived what was stirring in her heart.
+
+It would not do, under existing circumstances, to kiss her in the palace,
+but she drew Leonax's daughter towards her to show Iras that she was
+ready to extend a protecting hand over the persecuted woman.  But Barine
+gazed at her with pleading glances, beseeching aid, whispering amid her
+tears: "Help me, Charmian.  She has tortured, insulted, humiliated me
+with looks and words--so cruelly, so spitefully!  Help me; I can bear no
+more."
+
+Charmian shook her kind head and urged her in a whisper to calm herself.
+She had robbed Iras of her lover; she should remember that.  Cost what it
+might, she must not shed another tear.  The Queen was gracious.  She,
+Charmian, would aid her.  Everything would depend on showing herself to
+Cleopatra as she was, not as slander represented her.  She must answer
+her as she would Archibius or herself.
+
+The kindly woman, as she spoke, stroked her brow and eyes with maternal
+tenderness, and Barine felt as if goodness itself had quelled the tempest
+in her soul.  She gazed around her as though roused from a troubled
+dream, and now for the first time perceived the richly adorned room in
+which she stood, the admiring glances of the boys in the Macedonian corps
+of pages, and the bright fire blazing cheerily on the hearth.  The
+howling of the storm increased the pleasant sense of being under a firm
+roof, and Iras, who had whispered to the "introducer" at the door, no
+longer seemed like a sharp thorn or a spiteful demon, but a woman by no
+means destitute of charm, who repulsed her, but on whom she had inflicted
+the keenest pang a woman's heart can suffer.  Then she again thought of
+her wounded lover at home, and remembered that, whatever might happen,
+his heart did not belong to Iras, but to her alone.  Lastly, she recalled
+Archibius's description of Cleopatra's childhood, and this remembrance
+was followed by the conviction that the omnipotent sovereign would be
+neither cruel nor unjust, and that it would depend upon herself to win
+her favour.  Charmian, too, was the Queen's confidante; and if the manner
+of Iras and Alexas had alarmed her, Charmian's might well inspire
+confidence.
+
+All these thoughts darted through her brain with the speed of lightning.
+Only a brief time for consideration remained; for, even as she bowed her
+head on the bosom of her friend, the "introducer" entered the room,
+crying, "Her illustrious Majesty will expect those whom she summoned in a
+few minutes!"
+
+Soon after a chamberlain appeared, waving a fan of ostrich feathers and,
+preceded by the court official, they passed through several brilliantly
+lighted, richly furnished rooms.
+
+Barine again breathed freely and moved with head erect; and when the
+wide, lofty folding doors of ebony, against whose deep black surface the
+inlaid figures of Tritons, mermaids, shells, fish, and sea monsters were
+sharply relieved, she beheld a glittering, magnificent scene, for the
+hall which Cleopatra had chosen for her reception was completely covered
+with various marine forms, from the shells to coral and starfish.
+
+A wide, lofty structure, composed of masses of stalactites and unhewn
+blocks of stone, formed a deep grotto at the end of the hall, whence
+peered the gigantic head of a monster whose open jaws formed the
+fireplace of the chimney.  Logs of fragrant Arabian wood were blazing
+brightly on the hearth, and the dragon's ruby glass eyes diffused a red
+light through the apartment which, blended with the rays of the white and
+pink lamps in the shape of lotus flowers fastened among gold and silver
+tendrils and groups of sedges on the walls and ceiling, filling the
+spacious apartment with the soft light whose roseate hue was specially
+becoming to Cleopatra's waxen complexion.
+
+Several stewards and cup-bearers, the master of the hunt, chamberlains,
+female attendants, eunuchs, and other court officials were awaiting the
+Queen, and pages who belonged to the Macedonian cadet corps of royal boys
+stood sleepily, with drooping heads, around the small throne of gold,
+coral, and amber which, placed opposite to the chimney, awaited the
+sovereign.
+
+Barine had already seen this magnificent hall, and others still more
+beautiful in the Sebasteum, and the splendour therefore neither excited
+nor abashed her; only she would fain have avoided the numerous train of
+courtiers.  Could it be Cleopatra's intention to question her before the
+eyes of all these men, women, and boys?
+
+She no longer felt afraid, but her heart still throbbed quickly.  It had
+beat in the same way in her girlhood, when she was asked to sing in the
+presence of strangers.
+
+At last she heard doors open, and an invisible hand parted the heavy
+curtains at her right.  She expected to see the Regent, the Keeper of the
+Seal, and the whole brilliantly adorned train of attendants who always
+surrounded the Queen on formal occasions, enter the magnificent hall.
+Else why had it been selected as the scene of this nocturnal trial?
+
+But what was this?
+
+While she was still recalling the display at the Adonis festival, the
+curtains began to close again.  The courtiers around the throne
+straightened their bowed figures, the pages forgot their fatigue, and all
+joined in the Greek salutation of welcome, and the "Life! happiness!
+health!" with which the Egyptians greeted their sovereign.
+
+The woman of middle height who now appeared before the curtain, and who,
+as she crossed the wide hall alone and unattended, seemed to Barine even
+smaller than when surrounded by the gay throng at the Adonis festival,
+must be the Queen.  Ay, it was she!
+
+Iras was already standing by her side, and Charmian was approaching with
+the "introducer."  The women rendered her various little services thus
+Iras took from her shoulders the purple mantle, with its embroidery of
+black and gold dragons.  What an exquisite masterpiece of the loom it
+must be!
+
+All the dangers against which she must defend herself flashed swiftly
+through Barine's mind; yet, for an instant, she felt the foolish feminine
+desire to see and handle the costly mantle.
+
+But Iras had already laid it on the arm of one of the waiting maids, and
+Cleopatra now glanced around her, and with a youthful, elastic step
+approached the throne.
+
+Once more the feeling of timidity which she had had in her girlhood
+overpowered Barine, but with it came the memory of the garden of
+Epicurus, and Archibius's assurance that she, too, would have left the
+Queen with her heart overflowing with warm enthusiasm had not a
+disturbing influence interposed between them.
+
+Yet, had this disturbing influence really existed?  No.  It was created
+solely by Cleopatra's jealous imagination.  If she would only permit her
+to speak freely now, she should hear that Antony cared as little for her
+as she, Barine, for the boy Caesarion.  What prevented her from
+confessing that her heart was another's?  Iras had no one to blame save
+herself if she spoke the truth pitilessly in her presence.
+
+Cleopatra now turned to the "introducer," waving her hand towards the
+throne and those who surrounded it.
+
+Ay, she was indeed beautiful.  How bright and clear was the light of her
+large eyes, in spite of the harassing days through which she had passed
+and the present night of watching!
+
+Cleopatra's heart was still elated by the reception of her bold idea of
+escape, and she approached Barine with gentler feelings and intentions.
+She had chosen a pleasanter room for the interview than the one Iras had
+selected.  She desired a special environment to suit each mood, and as
+soon as she saw the group of courtiers who surrounded the throne she
+ordered their dismissal.
+
+The "introducer," to carry out the usual ceremonial, had commanded their
+presence in the audience chamber, but their attendance had given the
+meeting a form which was now distasteful to the Queen.  She wished to
+question, not to condemn.
+
+At so happy an hour it was a necessity of her nature to be gracious.
+Perhaps she had been unduly anxious concerning this singer.  It even
+seemed probable; for a man who loved her like Antony could scarcely yearn
+for the favour of another woman.  This view had been freshly confirmed by
+a brief conversation with the chief Inspector of Sacrifices, an estimable
+old man, who, after hearing how Antony had hurried in pursuit of her at
+Actium, raised his eyes and hands as if transported with rapture,
+exclaiming: "Unhappy Queen!  Yet happiest of women!  No one was ever so
+ardently beloved; and when the tale is told of the noble Trojan who
+endured such sore sufferings for a woman's sake, future generations will
+laud the woman whose resistless spell constrained the greatest man of his
+day, the hero of heroes, to cast aside victory, fame, and the hope of the
+world's sovereignty, as mere worthless rubbish."
+
+Posterity, whose verdict she dreaded--this wise old reader of the future
+was right--must extol her as the most fervently beloved, the most
+desirable of women.
+
+And Mark Antony?  Even had the magic power of Nektanebus's goblet forced
+him to follow her and to leave the battle, there still remained his will,
+a copy of which--received from Rome--Zeno, the Keeper of the Seal, had
+showed to her at the close of the council.  "Wherever he might die," so
+ran the words, "he desired to be buried by the side of Cleopatra."
+Octavianus had wrested it from the Vestal Virgins, to whose care it had
+been entrusted, in order to fill the hearts of Roman citizens and matrons
+with indignation against his foe.  The plot had succeeded, but the
+document had reminded Cleopatra that her heart had given this man the
+first of its flowers, that love for him had been the sunshine of her
+life.  So, with head erect, she had crossed the threshold where she was
+to meet the woman who had ventured to sow tares in her garden.  She
+intended to devote only a short time to the interview, which she
+anticipated with the satisfaction of the strong who are confident of
+victory.
+
+As she approached the throne, her train left the hall; the only persons
+who remained were Charmian, Iras, Zeno, the Keeper of the Seal, and the
+"introducer."
+
+Cleopatra cast a rapid glance at the throne, to which an obsequious
+gesture of the courtier's hand invited her; but she remained standing,
+gazing keenly at Barine.
+
+Was it the coloured rays from the ruby eyes of the dragon in the
+fireplace which shed the roseate glow on Cleopatra's cheeks?  It
+certainly enhanced the beauty of a face now only too frequently pallid
+and colourless, when rouge did not lend its aid; but Barine understood
+Archibius's ardent admiration for this rare woman, when Cleopatra, with a
+faint smile, requested her to approach.
+
+Nothing more winning could be imagined than the frank kindness, wholly
+untinged by condescending pride, of this powerful sovereign.
+
+The less Barine had expected such a reception the more deeply it moved
+her; nay, her eyes grew dim with grateful emotion, which lent them so
+beautiful a lustre, she looked so lovely in her glad surprise, that
+Cleopatra thought the months which had elapsed since her first meeting
+with the singer had enhanced her charms.  And how young she was!  The
+Queen swiftly computed the years which Barine must have lived as the
+wife of Philostratus, and afterwards as the attractive mistress of a
+hospitable house, and found it difficult to reconcile the appearance of
+this blooming young creature with the result of the calculation.
+
+She was surprised, too, to note the aristocratic bearing whose possession
+no one could deny the artist's daughter.  This was apparent even in her
+dress, yet Iras had roused her in the middle of the night, and certainly
+had given her no time for personal adornment.
+
+She had expected lack of refinement and boldness, in the woman who was
+said to have attracted so many men, but even the most bitter prejudice
+could have detected no trace of it.  On the contrary, the embarrassment
+which she could not yet wholly subdue lent her an air of girlish
+timidity.  All in all, Barine was a charming creature, who bewitched men
+by her vivacity, her grace, and her exquisite voice, not by coquetry and
+pertness.  That she possessed unusual mental endowments Cleopatra did not
+believe.  Barine had only one advantage over her--youth.
+
+Time had not yet robbed the former of a single charm, while from the
+Queen he had wrested many; their number was known only to herself and her
+confidantes, but at this hour she did not miss them.
+
+Barine, with a low, modest bow, advanced towards the Queen, who commenced
+the conversation by graciously apologizing for the late hour at which she
+had summoned her.  "But," she added, "you belong to the ranks of the
+nightingales, who during the night most readily and exquisitely reveal to
+us what stirs their hearts--"
+
+Barine gazed silently at the floor a moment, and when she raised her eyes
+her voice was faint and timid.  "I sing, it is true, your Majesty, but I
+have nothing else in common with the birds.  The wings which, when a
+child, bore me wherever I desired, have lost their strength.  They do not
+wholly refuse their service, but they now require favourable hours to
+move."
+
+"I should not have expected that in the time of your youth, your most
+beautiful possession," replied the Queen.  "Yet it is well.  I too--how
+long ago it seems!--was a child, and my imagination outstripped even the
+flight of the eagle.  It could dare the risk unpunished.  Now----Whoever
+has reached mature life is wise to let these wings remain idle.  The
+mortal who ventures to use them may easily approach too near the sun,
+and, like Icarus, the wax will melt from his pinions.  Let me tell you
+this: To the child the gift of imagination is nourishing bread.  In later
+years we need it only as salt, as spice, as stimulating wine.  Doubtless
+it points out many paths, and shows us their end; but, of a hundred
+rambles to which it summons him, scarcely one pleases the mature man.  No
+troublesome parasite is more persistently and sharply rebuffed.  Who can
+blame the ill-treated friend if it is less ready to serve us as the years
+go on?  The wise man will keep his ears ever open, but rarely lend it his
+active hand.  To banish it from life is to deprive the plant of blossoms,
+the rose of its fragrance, the sky of its stars."
+
+"I have often said the same things to myself, though in a less clear and
+beautiful form, when life has been darkened," replied Barine, with a
+faint blush; for she felt that these words were doubtless intended to
+warn her against cherishing too aspiring wishes.  "But, your Majesty,
+here also the gods place you, the great Queen, far above us.  We should
+often find existence bare indeed but for the fancy which endows us with
+imaginary possessions.  You have the power to secure a thousand things
+which to us common mortals only the gift of imagination pictures as
+attainable."
+
+"You believe that happiness is like wealth, and that the happiest person
+is the one who receives the largest number of the gifts of fortune,"
+answered the Queen.  "The contrary, I think, can be easily proved.  The
+maxim that the more we have the less we need desire, is also false,
+though in this world there are only a certain number of desirable things.
+He who already possesses one of ten solidi which are to be divided, ought
+really to desire only nine, and therefore would be poorer by a wish than
+another who has none.  True, it cannot be denied that the gods have
+burdened or endowed me with a greater number of perishable gifts than you
+and many others.  You seem to set a high value upon them.  Doubtless
+there may be one or another which you could appropriate only by the aid
+of the imagination.  May I ask which seems to you the most desirable?"
+
+"Spare me the choice, I beseech you," replied Barine in an embarrassed
+tone.  "I need nothing from your treasures, and, as for the other
+possessions  I lack many things; but it is uncertain how the noblest and
+highest gifts in the possession of the marvellously endowed favourite of
+the gods would suit the small, commonplace ones I call mine, and I know
+not--"
+
+"A sensible doubt!" interrupted the Queen.  "The lame man, who desired a
+horse, obtained one, and on his first ride broke his neck.  The only
+blessing--the highest of all--which surely bestows happiness can neither
+be given away nor transferred from one to another.  He who has gained it
+may be robbed of it the next moment."
+
+The last sentence had fallen from the Queen's lips slowly and
+thoughtfully, but Barine, remembering Archibius's tale, said modestly,
+"You are thinking of the chief good mentioned by Epicurus--perfect peace
+of mind."
+
+Cleopatra's eyes sparkled with a brighter light as she asked eagerly,
+"Do you, the granddaughter of a philosopher, know the system of the
+master?"
+
+"Very superficially, your Majesty.  My intellect is far inferior to
+yours.  It is difficult for me thoroughly to comprehend all the details
+of any system of philosophy."
+
+"Yet you have attempted it?"
+
+"Others endeavoured to introduce me into the doctrines of the Stoics.
+I have forgotten most of what I learned; only one thing lingered in my
+memory, and I know why--because it pleased me."
+
+"And that?"
+
+"Was the wise law of living according to the dictates of our own natures.
+The command to shun everything contradictory to the simple fundamental
+traits of our own characters pleased me, and wherever I saw affectation,
+artificiality, and mannerism I was repelled, while from my grandfather's
+teaching I drew the principle that I could do nothing better than to
+remain, so far as life would permit, what I had been as a child ere I had
+heard the first word of philosophy, or felt the constraint which society
+and its forms impose."
+
+"So the system of the Stoics leads to this end also!" cried the Queen
+gaily, and, turning to the companion of her own studies, she added:
+"Did you hear, Charmian?  If we had only succeeded in perceiving the
+wisdom and calm, purposeful order of existence which the Stoics, amid so
+much that is perverse, unhealthy, and provocative of contradiction,
+nevertheless set above everything else!  How can I, in order to live
+wisely, imitate Nature, when in her being and action I encounter so much
+that is contradictory to my human reason, which is a part of the divine?"
+
+Here she hesitated, and the expression of her face suddenly changed.
+
+She had advanced close to Barine and, while standing directly in front of
+her, her eyes had rested on the gem which adorned her arm above the
+elbow.
+
+Was it this which agitated Cleopatra so violently that her voice lost its
+bewitching melody, as she went on in a harsh, angry tone?--"So that is
+the source of all this misfortune.  Even as a child I detested that sort
+of arbitrary judgment which passes under the mask of stern morality.
+There is an example!  Do you hear the howling of the storm?  In human
+nature, as well as in the material world, there are tempests and
+volcanoes which bring destruction, and, if the original character of any
+individual is full of such devastating forces, like the neighbourhood of
+Vesuvius or Etna, the goal to which his impulses would lead him is
+clearly visible.  Ay, the Stoic is not allowed to destroy the harmony and
+order of things in existence, any more than to disturb those which are
+established by the state.  But to follow our natural impulses wherever
+they lead us is so perilous a venture, that whoever has the power to fix
+a limit to it betimes is in duty bound to do so.  This power is mine, and
+I will use it!"
+
+Then, with iron severity, she asked: "As it seems to be one of the
+demands of your nature, woman, to allure and kindle the hearts of all who
+bear the name of man, even though they have not yet donned the garb of
+the Ephebi, so, too, you seem to appear to delight in idle ornaments.
+Or," and as she spoke she touched Barine's shoulder"--or why should you
+wear, during the hours of slumber, that circlet on your arm?"
+
+Barine had watched with increasing anxiety the marked change in the
+manner and language of the Queen.  She now beheld a repetition of what
+she had experienced at the Adonis festival, but this time she knew what
+had roused Cleopatra's jealousy.  She, Barine, wore on her arm a gift
+from Antony.  With pallid face she strove to find a fitting answer, but
+ere she could do so Iras advanced to the side of the incensed Queen,
+saying: "That circlet is the counterpart of the one your august husband
+bestowed upon you.  The singer's must also be a gift from Mark Antony.
+Like every one else in the world, she deems the noble Imperator the
+greatest man of his day.  Who can blame her for prizing it so highly that
+she does not remove it even while she sleeps?"
+
+Again Barine felt as if a thorn had pierced her; but though the
+resentment which she had previously experienced once more surged hotly
+within her heart, she forced herself to maintain seemly external
+composure, and struggled for some word in answer; but she found none
+suitable, and remained silent.
+
+She had told the truth.  From early youth she had followed the impulses
+of her own nature without heeding the opinion of mortals, as the
+teachings of the Stoics directed, and she had been allowed to do so
+because this nature was pure, truthful, alive to the beautiful, and,
+moreover, free from those unbridled, volcanic impulses to which the Queen
+alluded.  The cheerful patience of her soul had found ample satisfaction
+in the cultivation of her art, and in social intercourse with men who
+permitted her to share their own intellectual life.  Today she had
+learned that the first great passion of her heart had met with a
+response.  Now she was bound to her lover, and knew herself to be pure
+and guiltless, far better entitled to demand respect from sterner judges
+of morality than the woman who condemned her, or the spiteful Iras, who
+had not ceased to offer her love to Dion.
+
+The sorrowful feeling of being misunderstood and unjustly condemned,
+mingled with fear of the terrible fate to which she might be sentenced by
+the omnipotent sovereign, whose clear intellect was clouded by jealousy
+and the resentment of a mother's wounded heart, paralyzed her tongue.
+Besides, she was confused by the angry emotion which the sight of Iras
+awakened.  Twice, thrice she strove to utter a few words of explanation,
+defence, but her voice refused to obey her will.
+
+When Charmian at last approached to encourage her, it was too late; the
+indignant Queen had turned away, exclaiming to Iras: "let her be taken
+back to Lochias.  Her guilt is proved; but it does not become the injured
+person, the accuser, to award the punishment.  This must be left to the
+judges before whom we will bring her."
+
+Then Barine once more recovered the power of speech.  How dared Cleopatra
+assert that she was convicted of a crime, without hearing her defence?
+
+As surely as she felt her own innocence she must succeed in proving it,
+and with this consciousness she cried out to the Queen in a tone of
+touching entreaty: "O your Majesty, do not leave me without hearing me!
+As truly as I believe in your justice, I can ask you to listen to me once
+more.  Do not give me up to the woman who hates me because the man whom
+she--"
+
+Here Cleopatra interrupted her.  Royal dignity forbade her to hear one
+woman's jealous accusation of another, but, with the subtle discernment
+with which women penetrate one another's moods, she heard in Barine's
+piteous appeal a sincere conviction that she was too severely condemned.
+Doubtless she also had reason to believe in Iras's hate, and Cleopatra
+knew how mercilessly she pursued those who had incurred her displeasure.
+She had rejected and still shuddered at her advice to remove the singer
+from her path; for an inner voice warned her not to burden her soul now
+with a fresh crime, which would disturb its peace.  Besides, she had at
+first been much attracted by this charming, winning creature; but the
+irritating thought that Antony had bestowed the same gift upon the
+sovereign and the artist's daughter still so incensed her, that it taxed
+to the utmost her graciousness and self-control as, without addressing
+any special person, she exclaimed, glancing back into the hall: "This
+examination will be followed by another.  When the time comes, the
+accused must appear before the judges; therefore she must remain at
+Lochias and in custody.  It is my will that no harm befalls her.  You are
+her friend, Charmian.  I will place her in your charge.  Only"--here she
+raised her voice--"on pain of my anger, do not allow her by any
+possibility to leave the palace, even for a moment, or to hold
+intercourse with any person save yourself."
+
+With these words she passed out of the hall and went into her own
+apartments.  She had turned the night into day, not only to despatch
+speedily matters which seemed to her to permit of no delay, but even more
+because, since the battle of Actium, she dreaded the restless hours upon
+her lonely couch.  They seemed endless; and though before she had
+remembered with pleasure the unprecedented display and magnificence with
+which she had surrounded her love-life with Antony, she now in these
+hours reproached herself for having foolishly squandered the wealth of
+her people.  The present appeared unbearable, and from the future a host
+of black cares pressed upon her.
+
+The following days were overcrowded with business details.
+
+Half of her nights were spent in the observatory.  She had not asked
+again for Barine.  On the fifth night she permitted Alexas to conduct her
+once more to the little observatory which had been erected for her father
+at Lochias, and Antony's favourite knew how to prove that a star which
+had long threatened her planet was that of the woman whom she seemed to
+have forgotten as completely as she had ignored his former warning
+against this very foe.
+
+The Queen denied this, but Alexas eagerly continued: "The night after
+your return home your kindness was again displayed in its inexhaustible
+and--to us less noble souls--incomprehensible wealth.  Deeply agitated,
+we watched during the memorable examination the touching spectacle of the
+greatest heart making itself the standard by which to measure what is
+petty and ignoble.  But ere the second trial takes place the wanderers
+above, who know the future, bid me warn you once more; for that woman's
+every look was calculated, every word had its fixed purpose, every tone
+of her voice was intended to produce a certain effect.  Whatever she said
+or may yet say had no other design than to deceive my royal mistress.  As
+yet there have been no definite questions and answers.  But you will have
+her examined, and then----What may she not make of the story of Mark
+Antony, Barine, and the two armlets?  Perhaps it will be a masterpiece."
+
+"Do you know its real history?" asked Cleopatra, clasping her fingers
+more closely around the pencil in her hand.
+
+"If I did," replied Alexas, smiling significantly, "the receiver of
+stolen goods should not betray the thief."
+
+"Not even if the person who has been robbed--the Queen--commands you to
+give up the dishonestly acquired possession?"
+
+"Unfortunately, even then I should be forced to withhold obedience; for
+consider, my royal mistress, there are but two great luminaries around
+which my dark life revolves.  Shall I betray the moon, when I am sure of
+gaining nothing thereby save to dim the warm light of the sun?"
+
+"That means that your revelations would wound me, the sun?"
+
+"Unless your lofty soul is too great to be reached by shadows which
+surround less noble women with an atmosphere of indescribable torture."
+
+"Do you intend to render your words more attractive by the veil with
+which you shroud them?  It is transparent, and dims the vision very
+little.  My soul, you think, should be free from jealousy and the other
+weaknesses of my sex.  There you are mistaken.  I am a woman, and wish to
+remain one.  As Terence's Chremes says he is a human being, and nothing
+human is unknown to him, I do not hesitate to confess all feminine
+frailties.  Anubis told me of a queen in ancient times who would not
+permit the inscriptions to record 'she,' but 'he came,' or 'he, the
+ruler, conquered.'  Fool!  Whatever concerns me, my womanhood is not less
+lofty than the crown.  I was a woman ere I became Queen.  The people
+prostrate themselves before my empty litters; but when, in my youth, I
+wandered in disguise with Antony through the city streets and visited
+some scene of merrymaking, while the men gazed admiringly at me, and we
+heard voices behind us murmur, 'A  handsome couple!'  I returned home
+full of joy and pride.  But there was something greater still for the
+woman to learn, when the heart in the breast of the Queen forgot throne
+and sceptre and, in the hours consecrated to Eros, tasted joys known to
+womanhood alone.  How can you men, who only command and desire,
+understand the happiness of sacrifice?  I am a woman; my birth does not
+exalt me above any feeling of my sex; and what I now ask is not as Queen
+but as woman."
+
+"If that is the case," Alexas answered with his hand upon his heart, "you
+impose silence upon me; for were I to confess to the woman Cleopatra what
+agitates my soul, I should be guilty of a double crime--I would violate a
+promise and betray the friend who confided his noble wife to my
+protection."
+
+"Now the darkness is becoming too dense for me," replied Cleopatra,
+raising her head with repellent pride.  "Or, if I choose to raise the
+veil, I must point out to you the barriers--
+
+"Which surround the Queen," replied the Syrian with an obsequious bow.
+"There you behold the fact.  It is an impossibility to separate the woman
+from the princess.  So far as I am concerned, I do not wish to anger the
+former against the presumptuous adorer, and I desire to yield to the
+latter the obedience which is her due.  Therefore I entreat you to
+forget the armlet and its many painful associations, and pass to the
+consideration of other matters.  Perhaps the fair Barine will voluntarily
+confess everything, and even add how she managed to ensnare the amiable
+son of the greatest of men, and the most admirable of mothers, the young
+King Caesarion."
+
+Cleopatra's eyes flashed more brightly, and she angrily exclaimed:
+"I found the boy just now as though he were possessed by demons.  He was
+ready to tear the bandage from his wound, if he were refused the woman
+whom he loved.  A magic potion was the first thought, and his tutor of
+course attributes everything to magic arts.  Charmian, on the contrary,
+declares that his visits annoyed and even alarmed Barine.  Nothing except
+a rigid investigation can throw light upon this subject.  We will await
+the Imperator's return.  Do you think that he will again seek the singer?
+You are his most trusted confidant.  If you desire his best good, and
+care for my favour, drop your hesitation and answer this question."
+
+The Syrian assumed the manner of a man who had reached a decision, and
+answered firmly: "Certainly he will, unless you prevent him.  The
+simplest way would be--"
+
+"Well?"
+
+"To inform him, as soon as he lands, that she is no longer to be found.
+I should be especially happy to receive this commission from my royal
+sun."
+
+"And do you think it would dim the light of your moon a little, were he
+to seek her here in vain?"
+
+"As surely as that the contrary would be the case if he were always as
+gratefully aware of the peerless brilliancy of his sun as it deserves.
+Helios suffers no other orb to appear so long as he adorns the heavens.
+His lustre quenches all the rest.  Let my sun so decree, and Barine's
+little star will vanish."
+
+"Enough!  I know your aim now.  But a human life is no small thing, and
+this woman, too, is the child of a mother.  We must consider, earnestly
+consider, whether our purpose cannot be gained without proceeding to
+extremes.  This must be done with zeal and a kindly intention--But I--
+Now, when the fate of this country, my own, and the children's is hanging
+in the balance, when I have not fifteen minutes at my command, and there
+is no end of writing and consulting, I can waste no time on such
+matters."
+
+"The reflective mind must be permitted to use its mighty wings
+unimpeded," cried the Syrian eagerly.  "Leave the settlement of minor
+matters to trustworthy friends."
+
+Here they were  interrupted  by  the "introducer," who announced the
+eunuch Mardion.  He had come on business which, spite of the late hour,
+permitted no delay.
+
+Alexas accompanied the Queen to the tablinum, where they found the
+eunuch.  A slave attended him, carrying a pouch filled with letters which
+had just been brought by two messengers from Syria.  Among them were some
+which must be answered without delay.  The Keeper of the Seal and the
+Exegetus were also waiting.  Their late visit was due to the necessity of
+holding a conference in relation to the measures to be adopted to calm
+the excited citizens.  All the galleys which had escaped from the battle
+had entered the harbour the day before, wreathed with garlands as if a
+great victory had been won.  Loud acclamations greeted them, yet tidings
+of the defeat at Actium spread with the swiftness of the wind.  Crowds
+were now gathering, threatening demonstrations had been made in front of
+the Sebasteum, and on the square of the Serapeum the troops had been
+compelled to interfere, and blood had flowed.
+
+There lay the letters.  Zeno remarked that more papers conferring
+authority were required for the work on the canal, and the Exegetus
+earnestly besought definite instruction.
+
+"It is much--much,"  murmured  Cleopatra.  Then, drawing herself up to
+her full height, she exclaimed, "Well, then, to work!"
+
+But Alexas did not permit her to do this at once.  Humbly advancing as
+she took her seat at the large writing-table, he whispered: "And with all
+this, must my royal mistress devote time and thought to the destroyer of
+her peace.  To disturb your Majesty with this trifle is a crime; yet it
+must be committed, for should the affair remain unheeded longer, the
+trickling rivulet may become a mountain torrent--"
+
+Here Cleopatra, whose glance had just rested upon a fateful letter from
+King Herod, turned her face half towards her husband's favourite,
+exclaiming curtly, with glowing cheeks, "Presently."
+
+"Then she glanced rapidly over the letter, pushed it excitedly aside, and
+dismissed the waiting Syrian with the impatient words: "Attend to the
+trial and the rest.  No injustice, but no untimely mildness.  I will look
+into this unpleasant matter myself before the Imperator returns."
+
+"And the authority?"  asked the Syrian, with another low bow.
+
+"You have it.  If you need a written one, apply to Zeno.  We will discuss
+the affair further at some less busy hour."
+
+The Syrian retired; but Cleopatra turned to the eunuch and, flushed with
+emotion, cried, pointing to the King of Judea's letter:  "Did you ever
+witness baser ingratitude?  The rats think the ship is sinking, and it is
+time to leave it.  If we succeed in keeping above water, they will return
+in swarms; and this must, must, must be done, for the sake of this
+beloved country and her independence.  Then the children, the children!
+All our powers must now be taxed, every expedient must be remembered and
+used.  We will hammer each feeble hope until it becomes the strong steel
+of certainty.  We will transform night into day.  The canal will save the
+fleet.  Mark Antony will find in Africa Pinarius Scarpus with untouched
+loyal legions.  The gladiators are faithful to us.  We can easily make
+them ours, and my brain is seething with other plans.  But first we will
+attend to the Alexandrians.  No violence!"
+
+This exclamation was followed by order after order, and the promise that,
+if necessary, she would show herself to the people.
+
+The Exegetus was filled with admiration as he received the clear,
+sagacious directions.  After he had retired with his companions, the
+Queen again turned to the Regent, saying: "We did wisely to make the
+people happy at first with tidings of victory.  The unexpected news of
+terrible disaster might have led them to some unprecedented deed of
+madness.  Disappointment is a more common pain, for which less powerful
+remedies will suffice.  Besides, many things could be arranged ere they
+knew that I was here.  How much we have accomplished already, Mardion!
+But I have not even granted myself the joy of seeing my children.  I was
+forced to defer the pleasure of the companionship of my oldest friends,
+even Archibius.  When he comes again he will be admitted.  I have given
+the order.  He knows Rome thoroughly.  I must hear his opinion of pending
+negotiations."
+
+She shivered as she spoke, and pressing her hand upon her brow,
+exclaimed: "Octavianus victor, Cleopatra vanquished!  I, who was
+everything to Caesar, beseeching mercy from his heir.  I, a petitioner to
+Octavia's brother!  Yet, no, no!  There are still a hundred chances of
+avoiding the horrible doom.  But whoever wishes to compel the field to
+bear fruits must dig sturdily, draw the buckets from the well, plough,
+and sow the seed.  To work, then, to work!  When Antony returns he must
+find all things ready.  The first success will restore his lost energy.
+I glanced through yonder letter while talking with the Exegetus; now I
+will dictate the answer."
+
+So she sat reading, writing, and dictating, listening, answering, and
+giving orders, until the east brightened with the approach of dawn, the
+morning star grew pale, and the Regent, utterly exhausted, entreated her
+to consider her own health and his years, and permit him a few hours'
+rest.
+
+Then she, too, allowed herself to be led into her darkened chamber, and
+this time a friendly, dreamless slumber closed her weary eyes and held
+her captive until roused by the loud shouts of the multitude, who had
+heard of the Queen's return and flocked to Lochias.
+
+
+
+
+ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:
+
+Without heeding the opinion of mortals
+
+
+
+
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CLEOPATRA, BY GEORG EBERS, V5 ***
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