A contemptuous smile flitted over her beautiful lips as, with rapid movements, she flung handful after handful of figs on the table, till she saw some thing stirring under the fruit, and with a sigh of relief exclaimed under her breath: 

“There it is!” as with hasty resolution she held out her arm towards the asp, which hissed at her.

While gazing intently at the movements of the viper, which seemed afraid to fulfil the dread office, she said to her attendants: 

“I thank you-thank you for everything.  Be calm.  You know, Iras, it will cause no pain.  They say it is like falling asleep.”  Then she shuddered slightly, adding:  “Death is a solemn thing; yet it must be.  Why does the serpent delay?  There, there; I will keep firm.  Ambition and love were the moving forces of my life.  Men shall praise my memory.—­I follow you, Mark Antony!” Charmian bent over the left arm of her royal mistress, which hung loosely at her side, and, weeping aloud, covered it with kisses, while Cleopatra, watching the motions of the asp still more closely, added: 

“The peace of our garden of Epicurus will begin to-day.  Whether it will be painless, who can tell?  Yet—­there I agree with Archibius—­life’s greatest joy—­love—­is blended with pain, as yonder branch of exquisite roses from Dolabella, the last gift of friendship, has its sharp thorns.  I think you have both experienced this.  The twins and my little darling—­When they think of their mother and her end, will not the children—­”

Here she uttered a low cry.  The asp had struck its fangs into the upper part of her arm like an icy flash of lightning, and a few instants later Cleopatra sank back upon her pillows lifeless.

Iras, pale but calm, pointed to her, saying “Like a sleeping child.  Bewitching even in death.  Fate itself was constrained to do her will and fulfil the last desire of the great Queen, the victorious woman, whom no heart resisted.  Its decree shatters the presumptuous plan of Octavianus.  The victor will show himself to the Romans without thee, thou dear one.”

Sobbing violently, she bent over the inanimate form, closed the eyes, and kissed the lips and brow.  The weeping Charmian did the same.

Then the footsteps of men were heard in the anteroom, and Iras, who was the first to notice them, cried eagerly: 

“The moment is approaching!  I am glad it is close at hand.  Does it not seem to you also as if the very sun in the heavens was darkened?” Charmian nodded assent, and whispered, “The poison?”

“Here!” replied Iras calmly, holding out a plain pin.  “One little prick, and the deed will be done.  Look!  But no.  You once inflicted the deepest suffering upon me.  You know—­Dion, the playmate of my childhood—­It is forgiven.  But now—­you will do me a kindness.  You will spare my using the pin myself.  Will you not?  I will repay you.  If you wish, my hand shall render you the same service.”