Complex sentence: Failing to escape on board a ship, he stabbed himself; and, as he did not die at once, insisted on being taken to the mausoleum in which Cleopatra was shut up, and there died in her arms.
Split into simpler sentences: Failing to escape on board a ship, he stabbed himself. He did not die at once and insisted on being taken to the mausoleum in which Cleopatra was locked up, and died in her arms.