me delusion, for the
Queen's eyes which, when she had left her, were full of tears, now
sparkled with the radiant light of joy and, as her friend took the crown
from her head, she exclaimed:

"Why did you depart from the banquet so early? Perhaps it was the last,
but I remember no festival more brilliant. It was like the springtime of
my love. Mark Antony would have touched the heart of a stone statue by
that blending of manly daring and humble devotion which no woman can
resist. As in former days, hours shrivelled into moments. We were again
young, once more united. We were together here at Lochias to-night, and
yet in distant years and other places. The notes of the singers, the
melodies of the musicians, the figures executed by the dancers, were lost
upon us. We soared back, hand in hand, to a magic world, and the fairy
drama in the realms of the blessed, which passed before us in dazzling
splendour and blissful joy, was the dream which I loved best when a
child, and at the same time the happiest portion of the life of the Queen
of Egypt.

"It began before the gate of the garden of Epicurus, and continued on the
river Cydnus. I again beheld myself on the golden barge, garlanded with
wreaths of flowers, reclining on the purple couch with roses strewn
around me and beneath my jewelled sandals. A gentle breeze swelled the
silken sails; my female companions raised their clear voices in song to
the accompaniment of lutes; the perfumes floating around us were borne by
the wind to the shore, conveying the tidings that the bliss believed by
mortals to be reserved for the gods alone was drawing near. And even as
his heart and his enraptured senses yielded to my sway, his mind, as he
himself confessed, was under the thrall of mine. We both felt happy,
united by ties which nothing, not even misfortune, could sever. He, the
ruler of the world, was conquered, and delighted to obey the behests of
the victor, because he felt that she before whom he bowed was his own
obedient slave. And no magic goblet effected all this. I breathed more
freely, as if relieved from the oppressive delusion--the fire had
consumed it also--which had burdened my soul until a few hours ago. No
magic spell, only the gifts of mind and soul which the vanquished victor,
the woman Cleopatra, owed to the favour of the immortals, had compelled
his lofty manhood to yield.

"From the Cydnus he brought me hither to the blissful days which we were
permitted to pa