“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.