I

The End of the Magnus

I

The months had come and gone for Cornelia as well as for Quintus
Drusus, albeit in a very different manner. The war was raging upon
land and sea. The Pompeian fleet controlled all the water avenues; the
Italian peninsula was held by the Caesarians. Cornelia wrote several
times to old Mamercus at Praeneste, enclosing a letter which she begged
him to forward to her lover wherever he might be. But no answer came.
Once she learned definitely that the ship had been captured. For the
other times she could imagine the same catastrophe. Still she had her
comfort. Rumours of battles, of sieges, and arduous campaigning
drifted over the Mediterranean. Now it was that a few days more would
see Caesar an outlaw without a man around him, and then Cornelia would
believe none of it. Now it was that Pompeius was in sore straits, and
then she was all credulity. Yet beside these tidings there were other
stray bits of news very dear to her heart. Caesar, so it was said,
possessed a young aide-de-camp of great valour and ability, one
Quintus Drusus, and the Imperator was already entrusting him with
posts of danger and of responsibility. He had behaved gallantly at
Ilerda; he had won more laurels at the siege of Massilia. At
Dyrrachium he had gained yet more credit. And on account of these
tidings, it may easily be imagined that Cornelia was prepared to be
very patient and to be willing to take the trying vicissitudes of her
own life more lightly.

As a matter of fact, her own position at Alexandria had begun to grow
complicated. First of all, Agias had made one day a discovery in the
city which it was exceeding well for Artemisia was not postponed for a
later occasion. Pratinas was in Alexandria. The young Greek had not
been recognized when, as chance meetings will occur, he came across
his one-time antagonist face to face on the street. He had no fears
for himself. But Artemisia was no longer safe in the city. Cleomenes
arranged that the girl should be sent to a villa, owned by the
relatives of his late wife, some distance up the Nile. Artemisia would
thus be parted from Agias, but she would be quite safe; and to secure
that, any sacrifice of stolen looks and pretty coquetry was cheerfully
accepted.

Soon after this unpleasant little discovery, a far more serious event
occurred. Pothinus the eunuch, Achillas, the Egyptian commander of the
army, and Theodotus, a "rhetoric teacher," whose real business w