ch a tenderness for him as I imagined might
have power to touch his heart. My envoy served me so well, he set my
fidelity in so fair a light, and gave such reasons to Antony why he ought
to see and receive me with kindness, that Cleopatra was alarmed. All her
arts were employed to prevent him from seeing me, and to draw him again
into Egypt. Those arts prevailed. He sent me back into Italy, and gave
himself up more absolutely than ever to the witchcraft of that Circe. He
added Africa to the States he had bestowed on her before, and declared
Caesario, her spurious son by Julius Caesar, heir to all her dominions,
except Phoenicia and Cilicia, which with the Upper Syria he gave to
Ptolemy, his second son by her; and at the same time declared his eldest
son by her, whom he had espoused to the Princess of Media, heir to that
kingdom and King of Armenia; nay, and of the whole Parthian Empire which
he meant to conquer for him. The children I had brought him he entirely
neglected as if they had been bastards. I wept. I lamented the wretched
captivity he was in; but I never reproached him. My brother, exasperated
at so many indignities, commanded me to quit the house of my husband at
Rome and come into his. I refused to obey him. I remained in Antony's
house; I persisted to take care of his children by Fulvia, the same
tender care as of my own. I gave my protection to all his friends at
Rome. I implored my brother not to make my jealousy or my wrongs the
cause of a civil war. But the injuries done to Rome by Antony's conduct
could not possibly be forgiven. When he found he should draw the Roman
arms on himself, he sent orders to me to leave his house. I did so, but
carried with me all his children by Fulvia, except Antyllus, the eldest,
who was then with him in Egypt. After his death and Cleopatra's, I took
her children by him, and bred them up with my own.

_Arria_.--Is it possible, madam? the children of Cleopatra?

_Octavia_.--Yes, the children of my rival. I married her daughter to
Juba, King of Mauritania, the most accomplished and the handsomest prince
in the world.

_Arria_.--Tell me, Octavia, did not your pride and resentment entirely
cure you of your passion for Antony, as soon as you saw him go back to
Cleopatra? And was not your whole conduct afterwards the effect of cool
reason, undisturbed by the agitations of jealous and tortured love?

_Octavia_.--You probe my heart very deeply. That I had so