m her a
Queen: here we know better. I will take her on the crupper of my horse.
When we soldiers have carried her out of Caesar's reach, then the
priests and the nurses and the rest of them can pretend she is a queen
again, and put their commands into her mouth.

PERSIAN. Listen to me, Belzanor.

BELZANOR. Speak, O subtle beyond thy years.

THE PERSIAN. Cleopatra's brother Ptolemy is at war with her. Let us sell
her to him.

THE GUARDSMEN. O subtle one! O serpent!

BELZANOR. We dare not. We are descended from the gods; but Cleopatra is
descended from the river Nile; and the lands of our fathers will grow no
grain if the Nile rises not to water them. Without our father's gifts we
should live the lives of dogs.

PERSIAN. It is true: the Queen's guard cannot live on its pay. But hear
me further, O ye kinsmen of Osiris.

THE GUARDSMEN. Speak, O subtle one. Hear the serpent begotten!

PERSIAN. Have I heretofore spoken truly to you of Caesar, when you
thought I mocked you?

GUARDSMEN. Truly, truly.

BELZANOR (reluctantly admitting it). So Bel Affris says.

PERSIAN. Hear more of him, then. This Caesar is a great lover of women:
he makes them his friends and counselors.

BELZANOR. Faugh! This rule of women will be the ruin of Egypt.

THE PERSIAN. Let it rather be the ruin of Rome! Caesar grows old now:
he is past fifty and full of labors and battles. He is too old for the
young women; and the old women are too wise to worship him.

BEL AFFRIS. Take heed, Persian. Caesar is by this time almost within
earshot.

PERSIAN. Cleopatra is not yet a woman: neither is she wise. But she
already troubles men's wisdom.

BELZANOR. Ay: that is because she is descended from the river Nile and a
black kitten of the sacred White Cat. What then?

PERSIAN. Why, sell her secretly to Ptolemy, and then offer ourselves to
Caesar as volunteers to fight for the overthrow of her brother and the
rescue of our Queen, the Great Granddaughter of the Nile.

THE GUARDSMEN. O serpent!

PERSIAN. He will listen to us if we come with her picture in our mouths.
He will conquer and kill her brother, and reign in Egypt with Cleopatra
for his Queen. And we shall be her guard.

GUARDSMEN. O subtlest of all the serpents! O admiration! O wisdom!

BEL AFFRIS. He will also have arrived before you have done talking, O
word spinner.

BELZANOR. That is true. (An affrighted uproar in the palace interrupts
him.) Quick: the flight has begun: guard th