a while, things
were, and none knew who should reign in Egypt. But then Cleopatra took
up the dice, and threw them, and this was the throw she made--in truth,
it was a bold one. For, leaving the army at Pelusium, she came at dusk
to the harbour of Alexandria, and alone with the Sicilian Apollodorus
entered and landed. Then Apollodorus bound her in a bale of rich rugs,
such as are made in Syria, and sent the rugs as a present to Caesar. And
when the rugs were unbound in the palace, behold! within them was the
fairest girl on all the earth--ay, and the most witty and the most
learned. And she seduced the great Caesar--even his weight of years did
not avail to protect him from her charms--so that, as a fruit of his
folly, he wellnigh lost his life, and all the glory he had gained in a
hundred wars."

"The fool!" I broke in--"the fool! Thou callest him great; but how can
the man be truly great who has no strength to stand against a woman's
wiles? Caesar, with the world hanging on his word! Caesar, at whose breath
forty legions marched and changed the fate of peoples! Caesar the cold!
the far-seeing! the hero!--Caesar to fall like a ripe fruit into a false
girl's lap! Why, in the issue, of what common clay was this Roman Caesar,
and how poor a thing!"

But Sepa looked at me and shook his head. "Be not so rash, Harmachis,
and talk not with so proud a voice. Knowest thou not that in every suit
of mail there is a joint, and woe to him who wears the harness if the
sword should search it out! For Woman, in her weakness, is yet the
strongest force upon the earth. She is the helm of all things human; she
comes in many shapes and knocks at many doors; she is quick and patient,
and her passion is not ungovernable like that of man, but as a gentle
steed that she can guide e'en where she will, and as occasion offers can
now bit up and now give rein. She has a captain's eye, and stout must be
that fortress of the heart in which she finds no place of vantage. Does
thy blood beat fast in youth? She will outrun it, nor will her kisses
tire. Art thou set toward ambition? She will unlock thy inner heart,
and show thee roads that lead to glory. Art thou worn and weary? She has
comfort in her breast. Art thou fallen? She can lift thee up, and to the
illusion of thy sense gild defeat with triumph. Ay, Harmachis, she can
do these things, for Nature ever fights upon her side; and while she
does them she can deceive and shape a secret end in whic