mistaken; Cleopatra, it is true, toiled unceasingly, but her lover with
his enormous bunch of roses gave the signal for the maddest revelry
which the imagination of the wildest devotee of pleasure could conceive.
The performances of the 'Inimitable Livers' were far surpassed by those
of the 'Comrades of Death'."

"Antony is at their head, and he, whose giant frame resists even
the most unprecedented demands, succeeds in stupefying himself and
forgetting the impending ruin. When he comes to us after a night of
revelry his eyes sparkle as brightly, his deep voice has as clear a
ring, as at the beginning of the banquet. The Queen is his goddess; and
who could remain unmoved when the giant bows obediently to the nod of
his delicate sovereign, and devises and offers the most unprecedented
things to win a smile from her lips? The changeful, impetuous wooing
of youth lies far behind him, but his homage, which the Ephebi of today
would perhaps term antiquated, has always seemed to me as if a mountain
were bending before a star. The stranger who sees her in his company
believes her a happy woman. Amid the fabulous radiance of the festal
array, when all who surround her admire, worship, and strew flowers in
her path, one might believe that the old sunny days had returned; but
when we are alone, how rarely I see her smile! Then she plans for the
tomb which, under Gorgias's direction, is rapidly rising, and considers
with him the best method of rendering it an inaccessible place of
retreat.

"She decided everything, down to the carving on the stone sarcophagi. In
addition, there are to be rooms and chambers in the lower story for the
reception of her treasures. Beneath them she has had corridors made for
the pitch and straw which, if the worst should come, are to be lighted.
She will then give to the flames the gold and silver, gems and jewels,
ebony and ivory, the costly spices--in short, all her valuables. The
pearls alone are worth many kingdoms. Who can blame her if she prefers
to destroy them rather than leave them for the foe."

"The garden in which you grew up, Barine, is now the scene of the happy,
busy life led by Alexander and the twins. There, under my brother's
guidance, they frolic, build, and dig. Cleopatra goes to it whenever she
longs for repose after the pursuit of pleasures which have lost their
zest.

"When, the day before yesterday, Antony, crowned with ivy as the new
Dionysus, drove up the Street of the Kin