ch both seas in the same galleys, and by which, less than five
hundred years before, Darius, the founder of the Persian Empire, had
brought his fleet to his support.

With the tireless desire for knowledge characteristic of her, Cleopatra
had sought information concerning all these matters, and in quiet hours
had more than once pondered over plans for again uniting the Grecian and
Arabian seas.

Clearly, plainly, fully, with more thorough knowledge of many details
than even the superintendent of the water works, she explained her
design to the assembled professionals. If it proved practicable, the
rescued ships of the fleet, with others lying in the roadstead of
Alexandria, could be conveyed across the isthmus into the Red Sea, and
thus saved to Egypt and withdrawn from the foe. Supported by this
force, many things might be attempted, resistance might be considerably
prolonged, and the time thus gained used in gathering fresh aid and
allies.

If the opportunity to make an attack arrived, a powerful fleet would
be at her disposal, for which smaller ships also should now be built at
Klysma, on the basis of the experience gained at Actium. The men who had
been robbed of their night's rest listened in amazement to the melodious
words of this woman who, in the deepest disaster, had devised a plan
of escape so daring in its grandeur, and understood how to explain it
better than any one of their number could have done. They followed every
sentence with the keenest attention, and Cleopatra's language grew
more impassioned, gained greater power and depth, the more plainly
she perceived the unfeigned, enthusiastic admiration paid her by her
listeners.

Even the oldest and most experienced men did not consider the surprising
proposal utterly impossible and impracticable. Some, among them Gorgias,
who during the restoration of the Serapeum had helped his father on
the eastern frontier of the Delta, and thus became familiar with
the neighbourhood of Heroonopolis, feared the difficulties which an
elevation of the earth in the centre of the isthmus would place in
the way of the enterprise. Yet, why should an undertaking which was
successful in the days of Sesostris appear unattainable?

The shortness of the time at their disposal was a still greater source
of anxiety, and to this was added the information that one hundred and
twenty thousand workmen had perished during the restoration of the canal
which Pharaoh Necho nearly comp