BELZANOR (furiously). Hag: you have hidden her to sell to Caesar or her
brother. (He grasps her by the left wrist, and drags her, helped by a
few of the guard, to the middle of the courtyard, where, as they fling
her on her knees, he draws a murderous looking knife.) Where is she?
Where is she? or--(He threatens to cut her throat.)

FTATATEETA (savagely). Touch me, dog; and the Nile will not rise on your
fields for seven times seven years of famine.

BELZANOR (frightened, but desperate). I will sacrifice: I will pay. Or
stay. (To the Persian) You, O subtle one: your father's lands lie far
from the Nile. Slay her.

PERSIAN (threatening her with his knife). Persia has but one god; yet he
loves the blood of old women. Where is Cleopatra?

FTATATEETA. Persian: as Osiris lives, I do not know. I chide her for
bringing evil days upon us by talking to the sacred cats of the priests,
and carrying them in her arms. I told her she would be left alone here
when the Romans came as a punishment for her disobedience. And now she
is gone--run away--hidden. I speak the truth. I call Osiris to witness.

THE WOMEN (protesting officiously). She speaks the truth, Belzanor.

BELZANOR. You have frightened the child: she is hiding.
Search--quick--into the palace--search every corner.

The guards, led by Belzanor, shoulder their way into the palace through
the flying crowd of women, who escape through the courtyard gate.

FTATATEETA (screaming). Sacrilege! Men in the Queen's chambers! Sa--
(Her voice dies away as the Persian puts his knife to her throat.)

BEL AFFRIS (laying a hand on Ftatateeta's left shoulder). Forbear her
yet a moment, Persian. (To Ftatateeta, very significantly) Mother: your
gods are asleep or away hunting; and the sword is at your throat. Bring
us to where the Queen is hid, and you shall live.

FTATATEETA (contemptuously). Who shall stay the sword in the hand of a
fool, if the high gods put it there? Listen to me, ye young men without
understanding. Cleopatra fears me; but she fears the Romans more. There
is but one power greater in her eyes than the wrath of the Queen's nurse
and the cruelty of Caesar; and that is the power of the Sphinx that sits
in the desert watching the way to the sea. What she would have it know,
she tells into the ears of the sacred cats; and on her birthday she
sacrifices to it and decks it with poppies. Go ye therefore into the
desert and seek Cleopatra in the shadow of the Sphinx; and o