m that not even the long-deferred delights of the
afternoon could postpone. Chief of these were the arrangements for the
immediate departure of the Roman ladies for Alexandria. Agias, who was
called into the council, was invaluable in information and suggestion.
He said that Pothinus had acted at Pratinas's advice, when he took
Fabia and Cornelia to the palace. The eunuch had expected to use them
half as hostages, half as captives to be put to ransom. If Caesar had
delayed a few days, Pothinus would not have lied when he made excuse
that the ladies had been sent up the river. But now Agias believed
that the regent was afraid, having overreached himself, and it was
best to make a prompt demand for conveyance to Alexandria. This,
indeed, proved advantageous policy. The eunuch made difficulties and
suggested obstacles, but Drusus made his native Italian haughtiness
stand him in good stead. It would largely depend, he said
insinuatingly, on the way in which his demand was complied with, what
sort of a report he made to Caesar touching the execution of Lucius
Lentulus and Ahenobarbus. During his interview with Pothinus, the
Roman came face to face with Pratinas. No words were exchanged, but
Drusus noticed that the elegant Hellene flushed, and then turned pale,
when he fastened upon him a gaze steady and half menacing. Pothinus
ended by yielding everything--the use of the royal chariots and
horses, the use of the Nile boats needed for swift transit across the
Delta, and orders on the local garrisons and governors to provide
entertainment and assistance.

As a result Cornelia speedily found herself again journeying, not this
time in a slow barge following the main branches of the Nile, but by
more rapid, if less luxurious, conveyance, now by land, now by water,
hurrying westward. They passed through Sethroe and Tanis, Mendes and
Sebennytus, Xais and Sais, where were the tomb of Osiris and the great
Egyptian university in this the capital of the mighty Pharaohs who had
wrested the nation from the clutches of Assyria. Then they fared up
the Nile to the old Milesian trading factory of Naucratis,--now
dropping into decline beside the thriving Alexandria,--and then by
boat they pressed on to the capital itself. Never more delightful
journey for Cornelia or for Drusus; they saw the strange land through
one another's eyes; they expressed their own thoughts through one
another's lips; they were happy together, as if children at play;