It is two years since Anubis permitted you to borrow the
masterpiece from the temple treasures, and within a few days you will be
obliged to restore it. That a mysterious spell emanates from the cup
is certain, but one still more powerful dwells in the magic of your own
nature."

"Would that it might assert itself to-day!" cried the Queen. "At any
rate the power of the beaker impelled Antony to do many things. I am not
vain enough to believe that it was love, that it was solely the spell
of my own personality which drew him to me in that disastrous hour. That
battle, that incomprehensible, disgraceful battle! You were ill,
and could not see our fleet when it set sail; but even experienced
spectators said that handsomer, larger vessels were never beheld. I was
right in insisting that the decision of the conflict should be left to
them. I was entitled to call them mine. Had we conquered, what a proud
delight it would have been to say, 'The weapons which you gave to the
man you loved gained him the sovereignty of the world!' Besides, the
stars had assured me that good fortune would attend us on the sea. They
had given the same message to Anubis here and to Alexas upon Antony's
galley. I also trusted the spell of the goblet, which had already
compelled Antony to do many things he opposed. So I succeeded in having
the decision of the conflict left to the fleet, but the prediction was
false, false, false!--how utterly, was to be proved only too soon.

"If I had only been told in time what I learned later! After the defeat
people were more loquacious. That one remark of a veteran commander of
the foot-soldiers would probably have sufficed to open my eyes. He had
asked Mark Antony why he fixed his hopes on miserable wood, exclaiming,
'Let the Phoenician's and Egyptians war on the water, but leave us the
land where we are accustomed, with our feet firmly set upon the earth,
to fight, conquer, or die!' This alone, I am sure, would have changed my
resolve in a happy hour. But it was kept from me.

"The conflict began. Our troops had lost patience. The left wing of the
fleet advanced. At first I watched the battle eagerly, with a throbbing
heart. How proudly the huge galleys moved forward! Everything was going
admirably. Antony had made an address, assuring the warriors that, even
without soldiers, our ships would destroy the foe by their mere height
and size. What orator can so carry his hearers with him! I, too,
was still fearl