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"O Harmachis, before thou judgest, remember what a thing is envy! that foul sickness of the mind which makes the jaundiced eye of pettiness to see all things distraught to read Evil written on the open face of Good, and find impurity in the whitest virgin's soul!
Then Charmion rose also and took her hands from her face, for she, too, had been stricken with dread. "How dost thou these things, royal Harmachis?" she said. "Tell me; for of a truth I fear thee." "Be not afraid," I answered. "Perchance thou didst see nothing but what was in my mind. All things are shadows. How canst thou, then, know their nature, or what is and what only seems to be?
And so I went to the tomb, but Antony fled to the palace. When I came to the tomb I knocked upon the door, and Charmion looked forth from the window. "Open," I cried, and she opened. "What news, Harmachis?" she whispered. "Charmion," I said, "the end is at hand. Antony is fled!" "It is well," she answered; "I am aweary." And there on her golden bed sat Cleopatra. "Speak, man!" she cried.
Thou must compass her death, Harmachis, in such fashion as shall be shown to thee, and with her blood anoint the Royal throne of Egypt. "Canst thou refuse, O our Hope? Doth not the holy love of country swell within thy heart? Canst thou dash the cup of Freedom from thy lips and bear to drink the bitter draught of slaves?
And how then?" "How then? Why, then we'll drum him back to Rome." "Ah, thou sayest so, and, perchance, Harmachis, had I not won that game we played together some twelve days gone, thou, being Pharaoh, mightest well have done this thing, for round thy throne old Egypt would have gathered.
She rose in her wrath, and she was terrible to see. "Let thee go to stir up evil against me! Nay, Harmachis, thou shalt not go to build new plots against my throne! I say to thee that thou, too, shalt come to visit Antony in Cilicia, and there, perchance, I will let thee go!" And ere I could answer, she had struck upon the silver gong that hung near her.
The men bowed low, and the knife, rusted red with blood, was dragged from the heart of Paulus and laid upon the table. Then they seized him by the head and body and staggered thence, and I heard their heavy footfalls as they bore him down the stairs. "Methinks, Harmachis, thou art in an evil case," she said, when the sound of the footfalls had died away. "How strangely the wheel of Fortune turns!
"What right have I? O Harmachis! art thou blind? Didst thou not know by what right I speak thus to thee? Then I must tell thee. Well, it is the fashion in Alexandria! By that first and holy right of woman by the right of the great love I bear thee, and which, it seems, thou hast no eyes to see by the right of my glory and my shame.
Harmachis, beware of this Charmion: for, like the ocean, she may float thee home; or, like the ocean, she may wreck thee, and, with thee, the hope of Egypt!" Thus it came to pass that on the next day I arrayed myself in a long and flowing robe, after the fashion of a magician or astrologer.
Art thou not overwhelmed, Harmachis, with the weight of mercy which I give thee, because such are a woman's reasons thou pleasest me, Harmachis? Nay, by Serapis!" she added with a little laugh, "I'll change my mind; I will not give thee so much for nothing. Thou shalt buy it from me, and the price shall be a heavy one it shall be a kiss, Harmachis."
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