protect him against being
surprised from an ambush! Leave this room! Go, I say, and you shall see
how we punish slanderers!"

At these words Eulaeus flung himself at the queen's feet, but she,
breathing hurriedly and with quivering nostrils, looked away over his
head as if she did not even see him, till her husband came towards her,
and said in a voice of most winning gentleness:

"Do not condemn him unheard, and raise him from his abasement. At least
give him the opportunity of softening your indignation by bringing the
water-bearer here without angering Asclepiodorus. Carry out this affair
well, Eulaeus, and you will find in me an advocate with Cleopatra."

The king pointed to the door, and Eulaeus retired, bowing deeply and
finding his way out backwards. Philometer, now alone with his wife, said
with mild reproach:

"How could you abandon yourself to such unmeasured anger? So faithful
and prudent a servant--and one of the few still living of those to
whom our mother was attached--cannot be sent away like a mere clumsy
attendant. Besides, what is the great crime he has committed? Is it a
slander which need rouse you to such fury when a cautious old man says
in all innocence of a young one--a man belonging to a world which knows
nothing of the mysterious sanctity of Serapis--that he has taken a fancy
to a girl, who is admired by all who see her, that he seeks her out, and
gives her flowers--"

"Gives her flowers?" exclaimed Cleopatra, breaking out afresh. "No, he
is accused of persecuting a maiden attached to Serapis--to Serapis I
say. But it is simply false, and you would be as angry as I am if you
were ever capable of feeling manly indignation, and if you did not want
to make use of Eulaeus for many things, some of which I know, and others
which you choose to conceal from me. Only let him fetch the girl; and
when once we have her here, and if I find that the Roman's indictment
against Eulaeus--which I will hear to-morrow morning--is well founded,
you shall see that I have manly vigor enough for both of us. Come away
now; they are waiting for us in the other room."

The queen gave a call, and chamberlains and servants hurried in; her
shell-shaped litter was brought, and in a few minutes, with her husband
by her side, she was borne into the great peristyle where the grandees
of the court, the commanders of the troops, the most prominent of the
officials of the Egyptian provinces, many artists and savants, and the