patra!" I said.

"I swear, beloved! and thus I seal my oath!" and she kissed me on the
forehead. And I, too, kissed her; and we talked of what we would do when
we were wed, and how we should overcome the Roman.

And thus I was again beguiled; though I believe that, had it not been
for the jealous anger of Charmion--which, as shall be seen, was ever
urging her forward to fresh deeds of shame--Cleopatra would have wedded
me and broken with the Roman. And, indeed, in the issue, it had been
better for her and Egypt.

We sat far into the night, and I revealed to her somewhat of that
ancient secret of the mighty treasure hid beneath the mass of _Her_.
Thither, it was agreed, we should go on the morrow, and the second
night from now attempt its search. So, early on the next day, a boat
was secretly made ready, and Cleopatra entered it, veiled as an Egyptian
lady about to make a pilgrimage to the Temple of Horemkhu. And I also
entered, cloaked as a pilgrim, and with us ten of her most trusted
servants disguised as sailors. But Charmion went not with us. We sailed
with a fair wind from the Canopic mouth of the Nile; and that night,
pushing on with the moon, we reached Sais at midnight, and here rested
for a while. At dawn we once more loosed our craft, and all that day
sailed swiftly, till, at last, at the third hour from the sunset, we
came in sight of the lights of that fortress which is called Babylon.
Here, on the opposite bank of the river, we moored our ship safely in a
bed of reeds.

Then, on foot and secretly, we set out for the pyramids, which were at
a distance of two leagues, Cleopatra, I and one trusted eunuch, for
we left the other servants with the boat. Only I caught an ass for
Cleopatra to ride that was wandering in a tilled field, and threw a
cloak upon it. She sat on it and I led the ass by paths I knew, the
eunuch following us on foot. And, within little more than an hour,
having gained the great causeway, we saw the mighty pyramids towering up
through the moonlit air and aweing us to silence. We passed on in utter
silence, through the haunted city of the dead, for all around us stood
the solemn tombs, till at length we climbed the rocky hill, and stood in
the deep shadow of Khufu Khut, the splendid Throne of Khufu.

"Of a truth," whispered Cleopatra, as she gazed up the dazzling
marble slope above her, everywhere blazoned over with a million mystic
characters--"of a truth, there were Gods ruling in Khem