“So!  I thought it.  Strange are the ways of women!  But little cause, methinks, had that Harmachis to thank thee for thy love.  What sayest thou, Olympus?  Ah, and so thou also wast a traitor, Charmion?  How dangerous are the paths which Monarchs tread!  Well, I forgive thee, for thou hast served me faithfully since that hour.

“But to my tale.  Harmachis I dared not slay, lest his great party should rise in fury and cast me from the throne.  And now mark the issue.  Though he must murder me, in secret this Harmachis loved me, and something thereof I guessed.  I had striven a little to draw him to me, for the sake of his beauty and his wit; and for the love of man Cleopatra never strove in vain.  Therefore when, with the dagger in his robe, he came to slay me, I matched my charms against his will, and need I tell you, being man and woman, how I won?  Oh, never can I forget the look in the eyes of that fallen prince, that forsworn priest, that discrowned Pharaoh, when, lost in the poppied draught, I saw him sink into a shameful sleep whence he might no more wake with honour!  And, thereafter—­till, in the end, I wearied of him, and his sad learned mind, for his guilty soul forbade him to be gay—­a little I came to care for him, though not to love.  But he—­he who loved me—­clung to me as a drunkard to the cup which ruins him.  Deeming that I should wed him, he betrayed to me the secret of the hidden wealth of the pyramid of Her—­for at the time I much needed treasure—­and together we dared the terrors of the tomb and drew it forth, even from dead Pharaoh’s breast.  See, this emerald was a part thereof!”—­and she pointed to the great scarabaeus that she had drawn from the holy heart of Menkau-ra.

“And because of what was written in the tomb, and of that Thing which we saw in the tomb—­ah, pest upon it! why does its memory haunt me now?—­and also because of policy, for I would fain have won the love of the Egyptians, I was minded to marry this Harmachis and declare his place and lineage to the world—­ay, and by his aid hold Egypt from the Roman.  For Dellius had then come to call me to Antony, and after much thought I determined to send him back with sharp words.  But on that very morning, as I tired me for the Court, came Charmion yonder, and I told her this, for I would see how the matter fell upon her mind.  Now mark, Olympus, the power of jealousy, that little wedge which yet has strength to rend the tree of Empire, that secret sword which can carve the fate of Kings!  This she could in no wise bear—­deny it, Charmion, if thou canst, for now it is clear to me!—­that the man she loved should be given to me as husband—­me, whom he loved!  And therefore, with more skill and wit than I can tell, she reasoned with me, showing that I should by no means do this thing, but journey to Antony; and for that, Charmion, I thank thee, now that all is come and gone.  And by a very little, her words weighed down my scale of judgment