"Spare not!" I gasped; "_vae victis!_" Then a
flush gathered on her brow--methinks it was a flush of shame!
"Dost after all love this man at heart, Charmion," she said with a
little laugh, "that thou didst thrust thy tender body between him and
the knives of these sexless hounds?" and she cast a look of scorn upon
the eunuchs.
"Nay!" the girl answered fiercely; "but I cannot stand by to see a brave
man murdered by such as these."
"Ay!" said Cleopatra, "he is a brave man, and he fought gallantly; I
have never seen so fierce a fight even in the games at Rome! Well, I
spare his life, though he is weak of me--womanish weak. Take him to his
own chamber and guard him there till he is healed or--dead."
Then my brain reeled, a great sickness seized upon me, and I sank into
the nothingness of a swoon.
Dreams, dreams, dreams! without end and ever-changing, as for years and
years I seemed to toss upon a sea of agony. And through them a vision of
a dark-eyed woman's tender face and the touch of a white hand soothing
me to rest. Visions, too, of a royal countenance bending at times over
my rocking bed--a countenance that I could not grasp, but whose beauty
flowed through my fevered veins and was a part of me--visions of
childhood and of the Temple towers of Abouthis, and of the white-haired
Amenemhat, my father--ay, and an ever-present vision of that dread hall
in Amenti, and of the small altar and the Spirits clad in flame! There I
seemed to wander everlastingly, calling on the Holy Mother, whose memory
I could not grasp; calling ever and in vain! For no cloud descended upon
the altar, only from time to time the great Voice pealed aloud: "Strike
out the name of Harmachis, child of Earth, from the living Book of Her
who Was and Is and Shall Be! _Lost! lost! lost!_"
And then another voice would answer:
"Not yet! not yet! Repentance is at hand; strike not out the name of
Harmachis, child of Earth, from the living Book of Her who Was and Is
and Shall Be! By suffering may sin be wiped away!"
I woke to find myself in my own chamber in the tower of the palace.
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