riend. (He draws his sword, and
springs to his guard with unruffled grace.)

FTATATEETA (suddenly seizing the sentinel's arms from behind).
Thrust your knife into the dog's throat, Apollodorus. (The chivalrous
Apollodorus laughingly shakes his head; breaks ground away from the
sentinel towards the palace; and lowers his point.)

SENTINEL (struggling vainly). Curse on you! Let me go. Help ho!

FTATATEETA (lifting him from the ground). Stab the little Roman reptile.
Spit him on your sword.

A couple of Roman soldiers, with a centurion, come running along the
edge of the quay from the north end. They rescue their comrade, and
throw off Ftatateeta, who is sent reeling away on the left hand of the
sentinel.

CENTURION (an unattractive man of fifty, short in his speech and
manners, with a vine wood cudgel in his hand). How now? What is all
this?

FTATATEETA (to Apollodorus). Why did you not stab him? There was time!

APOLLODORUS. Centurion: I am here by order of the Queen to--

CENTURION (interrupting him). The Queen! Yes, yes: (to the sentinel)
pass him in. Pass all these bazaar people in to the Queen, with their
goods. But mind you pass no one out that you have not passed in--not
even the Queen herself.

SENTINEL. This old woman is dangerous: she is as strong as three men.
She wanted the merchant to stab me.

APOLLODORUS. Centurion: I am not a merchant. I am a patrician and a
votary of art.

CENTURION. Is the woman your wife?

APOLLODORUS (horrified). No, no! (Correcting himself politely) Not that
the lady is not a striking figure in her own way. But (emphatically) she
is NOT my wife.

FTATATEETA (to the Centurion). Roman: I am Ftatateeta, the mistress of
the Queen's household.

CENTURION. Keep your hands off our men, mistress; or I will have you
pitched into the harbor, though you were as strong as ten men. (To his
men) To your posts: march! (He returns with his men the way they came.)

FTATATEETA (looking malignantly after him). We shall see whom Isis loves
best: her servant Ftatateeta or a dog of a Roman.

SENTINEL (to Apollodorus, with a wave of his pilum towards the palace).
Pass in there; and keep your distance. (Turning to Ftatateeta) Come
within a yard of me, you old crocodile; and I will give you this (the
pilum) in your jaws.

CLEOPATRA (calling from the palace). Ftatateeta, Ftatateeta.

FTATATEETA (Looking up, scandalized). Go from the window, go from the
window. There are men here.

CLE