onately. "For
he is master, in the fullest and widest meaning of the word, of the
queen's favor--nay--if I may permit myself to speak out freely--of
Cleopatra's more than warm liking, and he enjoys this sweetest of gifts
with a thankful heart. Philometor--as he always does--lets matters go as
they may, and Cleopatra and Publius--Publius and Cleopatra triumph even
publicly in their love; gaze into each other's eyes like any pair of
pastoral Arcadians, exchange cups and kiss the rim on the spot where the
lips of the other have touched it. Promise and grant what you will to
this man, he will stand by your sister; and if you should succeed in
expelling her from the throne he would boldly treat you as Popilius
Laenas did your uncle Antiochus: he would draw a circle round your
person, and say that if you dared to step beyond it Rome would march
against you."

Euergetes listened in silence, then, flinging away the draperies that
wrapped his body, he paced up and down in stormy agitation, groaning
from time to time, and roaring like a wild bull that feels itself
confined with cords and bands, and that exerts all its strength in vain
to rend them.

Finally he stood still in front of Eulaeus and asked him:

"What more do you know of the Roman?"

"He, who would not allow you to compare yourself to Alcibiades, is
endeavoring to out-do that darling of the Athenian maidens; for he
is not content with having stolen the heart of the king's wife, he is
putting out his hand to reach the fairest virgin who serves the
highest of the gods. The water-bearer whom Lysias, the Roman's friend,
recommended for a Hebe is beloved by Publius, and he hopes to enjoy her
favors more easily in your gay palace than he can in the gloomy temple
of Serapis."

At these words the king struck his forehead with his hand, exclaiming:
"Oh! to be a king--a man who is a match for any ten! and to be obliged
to submit with a patient shrug like a peasant whose grain my horsemen
crush into the ground!

"He can spoil everything; mar all my plans and thwart all my
desires--and I can do nothing but clench my fist, and suffocate with
rage. But this fuming and groaning are just as unavailing as my raging
and cursing by the death-bed of my mother, who was dead all the same and
never got up again.

"If this Publius were a Greek, a Syrian, an Egyptian--nay, were he my
own brother--I tell you, Eulaeus, he should not long stand in my way;
but he is plenipotentiary from