The Queen had left her bath. Iras had arranged the still abundant waves
of her hair, now dark-brown in hue, and robed her magnificently to
receive the dignitaries whom, spite of the late hour of the night, she
expected.
How wonderfully she had retained her beauty! It seemed as if Time had
not ventured to touch this masterpiece of feminine loveliness; yet the
Greek's keen eye detected here and there some token of the vanishing
spell of youth. She loved her mistress, yet her inmost soul rejoiced
whenever she detected in her the same changes which began to appear in
herself, the woman of seven-and-twenty, so many years her sovereign's
junior. She would gladly have given Cleopatra everything at her command,
yet she felt as if she must praise Nature for an act of justice, when
she perceived that even her royal favourite was not wholly relieved from
the law which applied to all.
"Cease your flattery," said Cleopatra, smiling mournfully. "They say
that the works of the Pharaohs here on the Nile flout Time. The
inexorable destroyer is less willing to permit this from the Queen of
Egypt. These are grey hairs, and they came from this head, however
eagerly you may deny it. Whose save my own are these lines around the
corners of the eyes and on the brow? What say you to the tooth which my
lips do not hide so kindly as you assert? It was injured the night
before the luckless battle. My dear, faithful, skilful Olympus, the
prince of leeches, is the only one who can conceal such things. But it
would not do to take the old man to the war, and Glaucus is far less
adroit. How I missed Olympus during those fatal hours! I seemed a
monster even to myself, and he--Antony's eye is only too keen for such
matters. What _is_ the love of men? A blackened tooth may prove its
destruction. An aspect obnoxious to the gaze will pour water on the
fiercest fire. What hours I experienced, Iras! Many a glance from him
seemed an insult, and, besides, my heart was filled with torturing
anxiety.
"Something had evidently come between us! I felt it. The trouble began
soon after he left Alexandria. It gnawed my soul like a worm, and now
that I am here again I must see clearly. He will follow me in a few
days, I know. Pinarius Scarpus, with his untouched legions, is in
Parætonium, whither he went. At Tænarum he resolved to retire from the
world which he, on whom it had bestowed so much that is great, hates
because he has given it cause for many a shake of the head. But the old
spirit woke again, and if Fortune, usually so faithful, still aids him,
a large force will soon join the new African army. The Asiatic
princes---- But the ruler of the state must be silent. I entered this
room to give the woman her just rights, and the woman shall have them.
He will soon be here. He cannot live without me. It is not alone the
beaker of Nektanebus which draws him after me!"
"When the greatest of the great, Julius Cæsar, sued for your love in
Alexandria, and Antony on the Cydnus, you did not possess the goblet,"
observed Iras. "It is two years since Anubis permitted you to borrow the
masterpiece from the temple treasures, and within a few days you will be
obliged to restore it. That a mysterious spell emanates from the cup is
certain, but one still more powerful dwells in the magic of your own
nature."
"Would that it might assert itself to-day!" cried the Queen. "At any
rate the power of the beaker impelled Antony to do many things. I am not
vain enough to believe that it was love, that it was solely the spell of
my own personality which drew him to me in that disastrous hour. That
battle, that incomprehensible, disgraceful battle! You were ill, and
could not see our fleet when it set sail; but even experienced
spectators said that handsomer, larger vessels were never beheld. I was
right in insisting that the decision of the conflict should be left to
them. I was entitled to call them mine. Had we conquered, what a proud
delight it would have been to say, 'The weapons which you gave to the
man you loved gained him the sovereignty of the world!' Besides, the
stars had assured me that good fortune would attend us on the sea. They
had given the same message to Anubis here and to Alexas upon Antony's
galley. I also trusted the spell of the goblet, which had already
compelled Antony to do many things he opposed. So I succeeded in having
the decision of the conflict left to the fleet, but the prediction was
false, false, false!--how utterly, was to be proved only too soon.
"If I had only been told in time what I learned later! After the defeat
people were more loquacious. That one remark of a veteran commander of
the foot-soldiers would probably have sufficed to open my eyes. He had
asked Mark Antony why he fixed his hopes on miserable wood, exclaiming,
'Let the Phœnician's and Egyptians war on the water, but leave _us_ the
land where we are accustomed, with our feet firmly set upon the earth,
to fight, conquer, or die!' This alone, I am sure, would have changed my
resolve in a happy hour. But it was kept from me.
"The conflict began. Our troops had lost patience. The left wing of the
fleet advanced. At first I watched the battle eagerly, with a throbbing
heart. How proudly the huge galleys moved forward! Everything was going
admirably. Antony had made an address, assuring the warriors that, even
without soldiers, our ships would destroy the foe by their mere height
and size. What orator can so carry his hearers with him! I, too, was
still fearless. Who cherishes anxiety when confidently expecting
victory? When he went on board his own ship, after bidding me farewell
far less cordially than usual, I became more troubled. I thought it was
evident that his love was waning. What had I become since we left
Alexandria, and Olympus no longer attended me! Matters could not
continue in this way. I would leave the direction of the war to him, and
vanish from his eyes. After he had looked into the beaker of Nektanebus,
he yielded to my will, but often with indignation. The unconcealed,
ineffaceable lines, and the years, the cruel years!"
"What thoughts are these?" cried Iras. "Let me take oath, my sovereign
mistress, that as you stand before me----"
"Thanks to this toilet-table and the new compounds of Olympus in these
boxes! At that time, I tell you, I was fairly startled at the sight of
my own face. Trouble does not enhance beauty, and what condemnation the
Romans had heaped on the woman who meddled with war, the craft of man! I
had answers for them, but I would not endure it longer. I had previously
determined to hold aloof from the battle on land; but even at the
commencement of the conflict, spite of its favourable promise, I longed
to leave Antony and return to the children. They do not heed the colour
of their mother's hair, nor her wrinkles; and he, when he had looked for
and called me in vain, would feel for the first time what he possessed
in me, would miss me, and with the longing the old love would awaken
with fresh ardour. As soon as the fleet had gained the victory I would
have the prow of my galley turned southward and, without a farewell,
exclaiming only, 'We will meet in Alexandria!' set sail for Egypt.
"I summoned Alexas, who had remained with me, and ordered him to give me
a signal as soon as the battle was decided in our favour. I remained on
deck. Then I saw the ships of the foe describing a wide circle. The
_nauarch_ told me that Agrippa was trying to surround us. This roused a
feeling of discomfort. I began to repent having meddled with men's work.
"Antony looked across at me from his galley. I waved my hand to point
out the peril, but instead of eagerly and lovingly answering the
greeting, as of yore, he turned his back, and in a short time after the
wildest uproar arose around me. One ship became entangled with another,
planks and poles shattered with a loud crash. Shouts, the cries and
moans of the combatants and the wounded, mingled with the thunder of the
stones hurled by the catapults, and the sharp notes of the signals which
sounded like calls for help. Two soldiers, stricken by arrows, fell
beside me. It was horrible! Yet my courage remained steadfast, even when
a squadron--it was commanded by Aruntius--pressed upon the fleet. I saw
another line of galleys steering directly towards us, and a Roman vessel
assailed by one of mine--I had named her the Selene--turn on her side
and sink. This pleased me and seemed like the first presage of victory.
I again ordered Alexas to have the ship's prow turned as soon as the
result of the battle was decided. Ere I had ceased speaking, Jason, the
steward--you know him--appeared with refreshments. I took the beaker,
but, ere I could raise it to my lips, he fell to the deck with a cloven
skull, mingling his blood with the spilled juice of the grape. My blood
seemed fairly to freeze in my veins, and Alexas, trembling and deadly
pale, asked, 'Do you command us to quit the battle?'
"Every fibre of my being urged me to give the order, but I controlled
myself, and asked the _nauarch_, who was standing on the bridge before
me, 'Are we gaining the advantage?' The reply was a positive 'Yes.' I
thought the fitting time had come, and called to him to steer the galley
southward. But the man did not seem to understand. Meanwhile the noise
of the conflict had grown louder and louder. So, in spite of Charmian,
who besought me not to interfere in the battle, I sent Alexas to the
commander on the bridge, and while he talked with the grey-bearded
seaman, who wrathfully answered I know not what, I glanced at the
nearest ship--I no longer knew whether it was friend or foe--and as I
saw the rows of restless oars moving in countless numbers to and fro, it
seemed as if every ship had become a huge spider, and the long wooden
handles of the oars were its legs and feet. Each of these monsters
appeared to be seeking to snare me in a horrible net, and when the
_nauarch_ came to beseech me to wait, I imperiously commanded him to
obey my orders.
"The luckless man bowed, and performed his Queen's behest. The giant was
turned, and forced a passage through the maze.
"I breathed more freely.
"What had threatened me like the legs of huge spiders became oars once
more. Alexas led me under a roof, where no missiles could reach me. My
desire was fulfilled. I had escaped Antony's eyes, and we were going
towards Alexandria and my children. When I at last looked around I saw
that my other ships were following. I had not given this order, and was
terribly startled. When I sought Alexas, he had vanished. The centurion
whom I sent to order the _nauarch_ to give the signal to the other ships
to return to the battle, reported that the captain's dead body has just
been borne away, but that the command should be given. How this was done
I do not know, but it produced no effect, and no one noticed the anxious
waving of my handkerchief.
"We had left Antony's galley--he was standing on the bridge--far behind.
"I had waved my hand as we passed close by, and he hurried down to bend
far over the bulwark and shout to me. I can still see his hands raised
to his bearded lips. I did not understand what he said, and only pointed
southward and in spirit wished him victory and that this separation
might tend to the welfare of our love. But he shook his head, pressed
his hand despairingly to his brow, and waved his arms as though to give
me a sign, but the Antonias swept far ahead of his ship and steered
straight towards the south.
"I breathed more freely, in the pleasant consciousness of escaping a
two-fold danger. Had I remained long before Antony's eyes, looking as I
did then, it might----
"Wretched blunder of a wretched woman, I say now. But at that time I
could not suspect what a terrible doom I had brought down in that hour
upon ourselves, my children, perhaps the whole world; so I remained
under the thrall of these petty fears and thoughts until wounded men
were carried past me. The sight distressed me; you know how sensitive I
am, and with what difficulty I endure and witness suffering.
"Charmian led me to the cabin. There I first realized what I had done. I
had hoped to aid in crushing the hated foe, and now perhaps it was I who
had built for him the bridge to victory, to sovereignty, to our
destruction. Pursued by such thoughts, as if by the Furies, I paced
restlessly to and fro.
"Suddenly I heard a loud noise on deck. A crashing blow seemed to shake
the huge ship. We were pursued! A Roman galley had boarded mine! This
was my thought as I grasped the dagger Antony had given me.
"But Charmian came back with tidings which seemed scarcely less terrible
than the baseless fear. I had angrily commanded her to leave me because
she had urged me to revoke the command to turn back. Now, deadly pale,
she announced that Mark Antony had left his galley, followed me in a
little five-oared boat, and come on board our ship.
"My blood froze in my veins.
"He had come, I imagined, to force me to return to the battle and,
drawing a long breath, my defiant pride urged me to show him that I was
the Queen and would obey only my own will, while my heart impelled me to
sink at his feet and beseech him, without heeding me, to issue any order
which promised to secure a victory.
"But he did not come.
"I sent Charmian up again. Antony had been unable to continue the
conflict when parted from me. Now he sat in front of the cabin with his
head resting on his hands, staring at the planks of the deck like one
distraught. He, he--Antony! The bravest horseman, the terror of the foe,
let his arms fall like a shepherd-boy whose sheep are stolen by the
wolves. Mark Antony, the hero who had braved a thousand dangers, had
flung down his sword. Why, why? Because a woman had yielded to idle
fears, obeyed the yearning of a mother's heart, and fled? Of all human
weaknesses, not one had been more alien than cowardice to the man whose
recklessness had led him to many an unprecedented venture. And now? No,
a thousand times no! Fire and water would unite sooner than Mark Antony
and cowardice! He had been under the coercive power of a demon; a
mysterious spell had forced him----."
"The mightiest power, love," interrupted Iras with enthusiastic
warmth--"a love as great and overmastering as ever subjugated the soul
of man."
"Ay, love," repeated Cleopatra, in a hollow tone. Then her lips curled
with a faint tinge of derision, and her voice expressed the very
bitterness of doubt, as she continued: "Had it been merely the love
which makes two mortals one, transfers the heart of one to the other, it
might perchance have borne my timorous soul into the hero's breast! But
no. Violent tempests had raged before the battle. It had not been
possible always to appear before him in the guise in which we would fain
be seen by those whom we love. Even now, when your skilful hands have
served me--there is the mirror--the image it reflects--seems to me like
a carefully preserved wreck----"
"O my royal mistress," cried Iras, raising her hands beseechingly, "must
I again declare that neither the grey hairs which are again brown, nor
the few lines which Olympus will soon render invisible, nor whatever
else perhaps disturbs you in the image you behold reflected, impairs
your beauty? Unclouded and secure of victory, the spell of your godlike
nature----"
"Cease, cease!" interrupted Cleopatra. "I know what I know. No mortal
can escape the great eternal laws of Nature. As surely as birth
commences life, everything that exists moves onward to destruction and
decay."
"Yet the gods," Iras persisted, "give to their works different degrees
of existence. The waterlily blooms but a single day, yet how full of
vigour is the sycamore in the garden of the Paneum, which has flourished
a thousand years! Not a petal in the blossoms of your youth has faded,
and is it conceivable that there is even the slightest diminution in the
love of him who cast away all that man holds dearest because he could
not endure to part, even for days or weeks, from the woman whom he
worshipped?"
"Would that he had done so!" cried Cleopatra mournfully. "But are you so
sure that it was love which made him follow me? I am of a different
opinion. True love does not paralyze, but doubles the high qualities of
man. I learned this when Cæsar was prisoned by a greatly superior force
within this very palace, his ships burned, his supply of water cut off.
In him also, in Antony, I was permitted to witness this magnificent
spectacle twenty--what do I say?--a hundred times, so long as he loved
me with all the ardour of his fiery soul. But what happened at Actium?
That shameful flight of the cooing dove after his mate, at which
generations yet unborn will point in mockery! He who does not see more
deeply will attribute to the foolish madness of love this wretched
forgetfulness of duty, honour, fame, the present and the future; but I,
Iras--and this is the thought which whitens one hair after another,
which will speedily destroy the remnant of your mistress's former beauty
by the exhaustion of sleepless nights--I know better. It was not love
which drew Antony after me, not love that trampled in the dust the
radiant image of reckless courage, not love that constrained the demigod
to follow the pitiful track of a fugitive woman."
Here her voice fell, and seizing the girl's wrist with a painful
pressure, she drew her closer to her side and whispered:
"The goblet of Nektanebus is connected with it. Ay, tremble! The powers
that emanate from the glittering wonder are as terrible as they are
unnatural. The magic spell exerted by the beaker has transformed the
heroic son of Herakles, the more than mortal, into the whimpering
coward, the crushed, broken nonentity I found upon the galley's deck.
You are silent? Your nimble tongue finds no reply. How could you have
forgotten that you aided me to win the wager which forced Antony to gaze
into the beaker before I filled it for him? How grateful I was to Anubis
when he finally consented to trust to my care this marvel of the temple
treasures, when the first trial succeeded, and Antony, at my bidding,
placed the magnificent wreath which he wore upon the bald brow of that
crabbed old follower of Aristoteles, Diomedes, whom he detested in his
inmost soul! It was scarcely a year ago, and you know how rarely at
first I used the power of the terrible vessel. The man whom I loved
obeyed my slightest glance, without its aid. But later--before the
battle--I felt how gladly he would have sent me, who might ruin all,
back to Egypt. Besides, I felt--I have already said so--that something
had come between us. Yet, often as he was on the point of sacrificing me
to the importunate Romans, I need only bid him gaze into the beaker, and
exclaim 'You will not send me hence. We belong together. Whither one
goes, the other will follow!' and he besought me not to leave him. The
very morning before the battle I gave him the drinking cup, urging him,
whatever might happen, never, never to leave me. And he obeyed this time
also, though the person to whom a magic spell bound him was a fleeing
woman. It is terrible. And yet, have I a right to execrate the thrall of
the beaker? Scarcely! For without the Magian's glittering vessel--a
secret voice in my soul has whispered the warning a thousand times
during the sleepless nights--he would have taken another on the galley.
And I believe I know this other--I mean the woman whose singing
enthralled my heart too at the Adonis festival just before our
departure. I noticed the look with which his eyes sought hers. Now I
know that it was not merely my old deceitful foe, jealousy, which warned
me against her. Alexas, the most faithful of his friends, also confirmed
what I merely feared--ah! and he told me other things which the stars
had revealed to him. Besides, he knows the siren, for she was the wife
of his own brother. To protect his honour, he cast off the coquettish
Circe."
"Barine!" fell in resolute tones from the lips of Iras.
"So you know her?" asked Cleopatra, eagerly.
The girl raised her clasped hands beseechingly to the Queen, exclaiming:
"I know this woman only too well, and how my heart rages against her! O
my mistress, that I, too, should aid in darkening this hour! Yet it must
be said. That Antony visited the singer, and even took his son there
more than once, is known throughout the city. Yet that is not the worst.
A Barine entering into rivalry with you! It would be too ridiculous. But
what bounds can be set to the insatiate greed of these women? No rank,
no age is sacred. It was dull in the absence of the court and the army.
There were no men who seemed worth the trouble of catching, so she cast
her net for boys, and the one most closely snared was the King
Cæsarion."
"Cæsarion!" exclaimed Cleopatra, her pale cheeks flushing. "And his
tutor Rhodon? My strict commands?"
"Antyllus secretly presented him to her," replied Iras. "But I kept my
eyes open. The boy clung to the singer with insensate passion. The only
expedient was to remove her from the city. Archibius aided me."
"Then I shall be spared sending her away."
"Nay, that must still be done; for, on the journey to the country
Cæsarion, with several comrades, attacked her."
"And the reckless deed was successful?"
"No, my royal mistress. I wish it had been. A love-sick fool who
accompanied her drew his sword in her defence, raised his hand against
the son of Cæsar, and wounded him. Calm yourself, I beseech you, I
conjure you--the wound is slight. The boy's mad passion makes me far
more anxious."
The Queen's pouting scarlet lips closed so firmly that her mouth lost
the winning charm which was peculiar to it, and she answered in a firm,
resolute tone: "It is the mother's place to protect the son against the
temptress. Alexas is right. Her star stands in the path of mine. A woman
like this casts a deep shadow on her Queen's course. I will defend
myself. It is she who has placed herself between us; she has won Antony.
But no! Why should I blind myself? Time and the charms he steals from
women are far more powerful than twenty such little temptresses. Then,
there are the circumstances which prevented my concealing the defects
that wounded the eyes of this most spoiled of all spoiled mortals. All
these things aided the singer. I feel it. In her pursuit of men she had
at her command all the means which aid us women to conceal what is
unlovely and enhance what is beautiful in a lover's eyes, while I was at
a disadvantage, lacking your aid and the long-tested skill of Olympus.
The divinity on the ship, amid the raging of the storm, was forced more
than once to appear before the worshipper ungarlanded, without ornament
for the head, or incense."
"But though she used all the combined arts of Aphrodite and Isis, she
could not vie with you, my royal mistress!" cried Iras. "How little is
required to delude the senses of one scarcely more than a child!"
"Poor boy!" sighed the Queen, gently. "Had he not been wounded, and were
it not so hard to resign what we love, I should rejoice that he, too,
understands how to plan and act. Perhaps--O Iras, would that it might be
so!--now that the gate is burst open, the brain and energy of the great
Cæsar will enter his living image. As the Egyptians call Horus 'the
avenger of his father,' perhaps he may become his mother's defender and
avenger. If Cæsar's spirit wakes within him, he will wrest from the
dissembler Octavianus the heritage of which the nephew robbed the son.
You swear that the wound is but a slight one?"
"The physicians have said so."
"Well, then we will hope so. Let him enter the conflict of life. We will
afford him ample opportunity to test his powers. No foolish passion
shall prevent the convalescent youth from following his father upward
along the pathway of fame. But send for the woman who ensnared him, the
audacious charmer whose aspirations mount to those I hold dearest. We
will see how she appears beside me!"
"These are grievous times," said Iras, who saw in amazement the Queen's
eyes sparkle with the confident light of victory. "Grant your foot its
right. Let it crush her! Monsters enough, on whom you cannot set your
foot, throng your path. Hence to Hades, in these days of conflict, with
all who can be quickly removed!"
"Murder?" asked Cleopatra, her noble brow contracting in a frown.
"If it must be, ay," replied Iras, sharply. "If possible, banishment to
an island, an oasis. If necessity requires, to the mines with the
siren!"
"If necessity requires?" repeated the Queen. "I think that means, if it
proves that she has deserved the harshest punishment."
"She has brought it upon herself by every hour of my sovereign's life
clouded through her wiles. In the mines the desire to set snares for
husbands and sons soon vanishes."
"And people languish in the most terrible torture till death ends their
suffering," added Cleopatra, in a tone of grave reproof. "No, girl, this
victory is too easy. I will not send even my foe to death without a
hearing, especially at this time, which teaches me what it is to await
the verdict of one who is more powerful. This woman who, as it were,
summons me to battle, shall have her wish. I am curious to see the
singer again, and to learn the means by which she has succeeded in
chaining to her triumphal car so many captives, from boys up to the most
exacting men."
"What do you intend, my royal mistress?" cried Iras in horror.
"I intend," said Cleopatra imperiously, "to see the daughter of Leonax,
the granddaughter of Didymus, two men whom I hold in high esteem, ere I
decide her destiny. I wish to behold, test, and judge my rival, heart
and mind, ere I condemn her. I will engage in the conflict to which she
challenged the loving wife and mother! But--this is my right--I will
compel her to show herself to me as Antony so often saw me during the
past few weeks, unaided and unimproved by the arts which we both have at
command."
Then, without paying any further heed to her attendant, she went to a
window, and, after a swift glance at the sky, added quietly: "The first
hour after midnight is drawing to a close. The council will begin
immediately. The matter to be under discussion is a venture which might
save much from the wreck. The council will last two hours, perchance
only one. The singer can wait. Where does she live?"
"In the house which belonged to her father, the artist Leonax, in the
garden of the Paneum," replied Iras hoarsely. "But, O my Queen, if ever
my opinion had the slightest weight with you----"
"I desire no counsel now, but demand the fulfilment of my orders!" cried
Cleopatra resolutely. "As soon as those whom I expect are here----"
The Queen was interrupted by a chamberlain, who announced the arrival of
the men whom she had summoned, and Cleopatra bade him tell them that she
was on her way to the council chamber. Then she turned again to Iras and
in rapid words commanded her to go at once in a closed carriage,
accompanied by a reliable person, to Barine's house. She must be brought
to the palace without the least delay--Iras would understand--even if it
should be necessary to rouse her from her sleep. "I wish to see her as
if a storm had forced her suddenly upon the deck of a ship," she said in
conclusion.
Then snatching a small tablet from the dressing-table, she scrawled upon
the wax with a rapid hand: "Cleopatra, the Queen, desires to see Barine,
the daughter of Leonax, without delay. She must obey any command of
Iras, Cleopatra's messenger, and her companion."
Then, closing the diptychon, she handed it to her attendant, asking:
"Whom will you take?"
She answered without hesitation, "Alexas."
"Very well," answered Cleopatra. "Do not allow her a moment for
preparations, whatever they may be. But do not forget--I command
you--that she is a woman."
With these words she turned to follow the chamberlain, but Iras hurried
after her to adjust the diadem upon her head and arrange some of the
folds of her robe.
Cleopatra submitted, saying kindly, "Something else, I see, is weighing
on your heart."
"O my mistress!" cried the girl. "After these tempests of the soul,
these harassing months, you are turning night into day and assuming
fresh labours and anxieties. If the leech Olympus----"
"It must be," interrupted Cleopatra kindly. "The last two weeks seemed
like a single long and gloomy night, during which I sometimes left my
couch for a few hours. One who seeks to drag what is dearest from the
river does not consider whether the cold bath is agreeable. If we
succumb, it does not matter whether we are well or ill; if, on the
contrary, we succeed in gathering another army and saving Egypt, let it
cost health and life. The minutes I intend to grant to the woman will be
thrown into the bargain. Whatever may come, I shall be ready to meet my
fate. I am at one of life's great turning points. At such a time we
fulfil our obligations and demands, both great and small."
A few minutes later Cleopatra entered the throne-room and saluted the
men whom she had roused from their slumber in order to lay before them a
bold plan which, in the lowest depths of misfortune, her yearning to
offer fresh resistance to the victorious foe had caused her vigorous,
restless mind to evoke.
When, many years before, the boy with whom, according to her father's
will, she shared the throne, and his guardian Pothinus, had compelled
her to fly from Alexandria, she had found in the eastern frontier of the
Delta, on the isthmus which united Egypt to Asia, the remains of the
canal which the energetic Pharaohs of former times had constructed to
connect the Mediterranean with the Red Sea.
Even at that period she had deemed this ruinous work worthy of notice,
had questioned the Ænites who dwelt there about the remains, and even
visited some of them herself during the leisure hours of waiting.
From this survey it had seemed possible, by a great expenditure of
labour, to again render navigable the canal which the Pharaohs had used
to reach both seas in the same galleys, and by which, less than five
hundred years before, Darius, the founder of the Persian Empire, had
brought his fleet to his support.
With the tireless desire for knowledge characteristic of her, Cleopatra
had sought information concerning all these matters, and in quiet hours
had more than once pondered over plans for again uniting the Grecian and
Arabian seas.
Clearly, plainly, fully, with more thorough knowledge of many details
than even the superintendent of the water works, she explained her
design to the assembled professionals. If it proved practicable, the
rescued ships of the fleet, with others lying in the roadstead of
Alexandria, could be conveyed across the isthmus into the Red Sea, and
thus saved to Egypt and withdrawn from the foe. Supported by this force,
many things might be attempted, resistance might be considerably
prolonged, and the time thus gained used in gathering fresh aid and
allies.
If the opportunity to make an attack arrived, a powerful fleet would be
at her disposal, for which smaller ships also should now be built at
Klysma, on the basis of the experience gained at Actium.
The men who had been robbed of their night's rest listened in amazement
to the melodious words of this woman who, in the deepest disaster, had
devised a plan of escape so daring in its grandeur, and understood how
to explain it better than any one of their number could have done. They
followed every sentence with the keenest attention, and Cleopatra's
language grew more impassioned, gained greater power and depth, the more
plainly she perceived the unfeigned, enthusiastic admiration paid her by
her listeners.
Even the oldest and most experienced men did not consider the surprising
proposal utterly impossible and impracticable. Some, among them Gorgias,
who during the restoration of the Serapeum had helped his father on the
eastern frontier of the Delta, and thus became familiar with the
neighbourhood of Heroonopolis, feared the difficulties which an
elevation of the earth in the centre of the isthmus would place in the
way of the enterprise. Yet, why should an undertaking which was
successful in the days of Sesostris appear unattainable?
The shortness of the time at their disposal was a still greater source
of anxiety, and to this was added the information that one hundred and
twenty thousand workmen had perished during the restoration of the canal
which Pharaoh Necho nearly completed. The water way was not finished at
that period, because an oracle had asserted that it would benefit only
the foreigners, the Phœnicians.
All these points were duly considered, but could not shake the opinion
that, under specially favourable conditions, the Queen's plan would be
practicable; though, to execute it, obstacles mountain-high were to be
conquered. All the labourers in the fields, who had not been pressed
into the army, must be summoned to the work.
Not an hour's delay was permitted. Where there was no water to bear the
ships, an attempt must be made to convey them across the land. There was
no lack of means. The mechanics who had understood how to move the
obelisks and colossi from the cataract to Alexandria, could here again
find opportunity to test their brains and former skill.
Never had Cleopatra's kindling spirit roused more eager, nay, more
passionate sympathy, in any counsellors gathered around her than during
this nocturnal meeting, and when at last she paused, the loud
acclamations of excited men greeted her. The Queen's return, and the
tidings of the lost battle which she had communicated, were to be kept
secret.
Gorgias had been appointed one of the directors of the enterprise, and
the intellect, voice, and winning charm of Cleopatra had so enraptured
him that he already fancied he saw the commencement of a new love which
would be fatal to his regard for Helena.
It was foolish to raise his wishes so high, but he told himself that he
had never beheld a woman more to be desired. Yet he cherished a very
warm memory of the philosopher's granddaughter, and lamented that he
would scarcely find it possible to bid her farewell.
Zeno, the Keeper of the Seal, Dion's uncle, had questioned him about his
nephew in a very mysterious manner as soon as he entered the council
chamber, and received the reply that the wound in the shoulder, which
Cæsarion had dealt with a short Roman sword, though severe, was--so the
physicians assured them--not fatal.
This seemed to satisfy Zeno, and ere Gorgias could urge him to extend a
protecting hand over his nephew, he excused himself and, with a message
to the wounded man, turned his back upon him.
The courtier had not yet learned what view the Queen would take of this
unfortunate affair, and besides, he was overloaded with business. The
new enterprise required the issue of a large number of documents
conferring authority, which all passed through his hands.
Cleopatra addressed a few kind, encouraging words to each one of the
experts who had been entrusted with the execution of her plan. Gorgias,
too, was permitted to kiss her robe, which stirred his blood afresh. He
would fain have flung himself at the feet of this marvellous woman and,
with his services, place his life at her disposal. And Cleopatra noticed
the enthusiastic ardour of his glance.
He, too, had been mentioned in the list of Barine's admirers. There must
be something unusual about this woman! But could she have fired a body
of grave men in behalf of a great, almost impossible deed, roused them
to such enthusiastic admiration as she, the vanquished, menaced Queen?
Certainly not.
She felt in the right mood to confront Barine as judge and rival.
In the midst of the deepest misery she had spent one happy hour. She had
again felt, with joyous pride, that her intellect, fresh and unclouded,
would be capable of outstripping the best powers, and in truth she
needed no magic goblet to win hearts.