HARMACHIDI.SALVERE.EGO.SUM.QUEM.SUBDERE.NORAS PAULUS.ROMANUS.DISCE.HINC.QUID.PRODERE.PROSIT.

“Greeting, Harmachis!  I was that Roman Paulus whom thou didst suborn.  Learn now how blessed are traitors!”

Sick and faint I staggered back from the sight of that white corpse stained with its own blood.  Sick and faint I staggered back, till the wall stayed me, while without the birds sang a merry greeting to the day.  So it was no dream, and I was lost! lost!

I thought of my aged father, Amenemhat.  Yes, the vision of him flashed into my mind, as he would be, when they came to tell him his son’s shame and the ruin of all his hopes.  I thought of that patriot priest, my uncle Sepa, waiting the long night through for the signal which never came.  Ah, and another thought followed swift!  How would it go with them?  I was not the only traitor.  I, too, had been betrayed.  By whom?  By yonder Paulus, perchance.  If it were Paulus, he knew but little of those who conspired with me.  But the secret lists had been in my robe.  O Osiris! they were gone! and the fate of Paulus would be the fate of all the patriots in Egypt.  And at this thought my mind gave way.  I sank and swooned even where I stood.

My sense came back to me, and the lengthening shadows told me that it was afternoon.  I staggered to my feet; the corpse of Paulus was still there, keeping its awful watch above me.  I ran desperately to the door.  It was barred, and without I heard the tramp of sentinels.  As I stood they challenged and grounded their spears.  Then the bolts were shot back, the door opened, and radiant, clad in royal attire, came the conquering Cleopatra.  She came alone, and the door was shut behind her.  I stood like one distraught; but she swept on till she was face to face with me.

“Greeting, Harmachis,” she said, smiling sweetly.  “So, my messenger has found thee!” and she pointed to the corpse of Paulus.  “Pah! he has an ugly look.  Ho! guards!”

The door was opened, and two armed Gauls stepped across the threshold.

“Take away this carrion,” said Cleopatra, “and fling it to the kites.  Stay, draw that dagger from his traitor breast.”  The men bowed low, and the knife, rusted red with blood, was dragged from the heart of Paulus and laid upon the table.  Then they seized him by the head and body and staggered thence, and I heard their heavy footfalls as they bore him down the stairs.

“Methinks, Harmachis, thou art in an evil case,” she said, when the sound of the footfalls had died away.  “How strangely the wheel of Fortune turns!  But for that traitor,” and she nodded towards the door through which the corpse of Paulus had been carried, “I should now be as ill a thing to look on as he is, and the red rust on yonder knife would have been gathered from my heart.”

So it was Paulus who had betrayed me.

“Ay,” she went on, “and when thou camest to me last night, I knew that thou camest to slay.  When, time upon time, thou didst place thy hand within thy robe, I knew that it grasped a dagger hilt, and that thou wast gathering thy courage to the deed which thou didst little love to do.  Oh! it was a strange wild hour, well worth the living, and I wondered greatly, from moment to moment, which of us twain would conquer, as we matched guile with guile and force to force!