silent? Your nimble tongue finds no reply. How could you have
forgotten that you aided me to win the wager which forced Antony to gaze
into the beaker before I filled it for him? How grateful I was to Anubis
when he finally consented to trust to my care this marvel of the temple
treasures, when the first trial succeeded, and Antony, at my bidding,
placed the magnificent wreath which he wore upon the bald brow of that
crabbed old follower of Aristoteles, Diomedes, whom he detested in his
inmost soul! It was scarcely a year ago, and you know how rarely at
first I used the power of the terrible vessel. The man whom I loved
obeyed my slightest glance, without its aid. But later--before the
battle--I felt how gladly he would have sent me, who might ruin all,
back to Egypt. Besides, I felt--I have already said so--that something
had come between us. Yet, often as he was on the point of sacrificing me
to the importunate Romans, I need only bid him gaze into the beaker,
and exclaim 'You will not send me hence. We belong together. Whither one
goes, the other will follow!' and he besought me not to leave him. The
very morning before the battle I gave him the drinking cup, urging him,
whatever might happen, never, never to leave me. And he obeyed this time
also, though the person to whom a magic spell bound him was a fleeing
woman. It is terrible. And yet, have I a right to execrate the thrall
of the beaker? Scarcely! For without the Magian's glittering vessel--a
secret voice in my soul has whispered the warning a thousand times
during the sleepless nights--he would have taken another on the
galley. And I believe I know this other--I mean the woman whose
singing enthralled my heart too at the Adonis festival just before our
departure. I noticed the look with which his eyes sought hers. Now I
know that it was not merely my old deceitful foe, jealousy, which warned
me against her. Alexas, the most faithful of his friends, also confirmed
what I merely feared--ah! and he told me other things which the stars
had revealed to him. Besides, he knows the siren, for she was the wife
of his own brother. To protect his honour, he cast off the coquettish
Circe."

"Barine!" fell in resolute tones from the lips of Iras.

"So you know her?" asked Cleopatra, eagerly. The girl raised her clasped
hands beseechingly to the Queen, exclaiming:

"I know this woman only too well, and how my heart rages against her! O
my mistress, that I, too, should ai