The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1889-11-02


wealth and splendor Of her mind that for
richness and variety was as woven cloth
Of gold throwing back all lights from its
changing face. She feared me some what,
and therefore was fain to make a friend Of
me, asking me many matters that seemed
to be beyond the province of my office. OF
the Lady Charmion also saw much
indeed, she was ever at my side, SO that I
scarce knew when she came and when she
went For with that soft step of hers
would she draw nigh, and would turn me
to find her at hand and watching beneath
the long lashes of her doWncast eyes.
There was no service that was too hard for
her, and no task too long, for day and night
she labored for me and for our cause. But
when thanked her for her loyalty and said
it should be had in mind in that time which
was at hand. she stamped her foot and
pouted with her lips like an angry child,
saying that, among all the things which I
had learned, this had l not learned-that
Loves ser-ice asked no payment and was
its own guerdon. And being innocent in
such matters and foolish that was, hold
ing the ways of women as Of small account,
read her sayings in the sense that her serv-
ices to the cause of Khem, which she
loved, brought with them their own reward.
But when I praised 50 fine a spirit she
burst into angry tears and left me wonder
ing; fer I knew naught Of the trouble at her
heart. L knew not then that, unsoIght,
this oman had given me all her love and
that she was rent and torn by pangs OF
passion fixed like arrows in her breast l
did not know--how should know it, who
never looked upon her otherwise than as
an instrument of our joint and holy causee
when she leaned over me and breathed
upon my hair, never thought of it other
wise than as man thinks OF the beauty Of
statue. What had to do with such de-
lights? I who was sworn to Isis and dedi-
Gated to the cause of Egypt. 0, We Gods,
bear me witness that am innocent of this
thing, which was the source of all my woe
and the woe Of Kheml
How strange is this love of woman that
it is so small in its beginning and in its
end so great! See, at the first it is even as
the little spring of water yelling from
mountains heart. And at the last what is
it? It is mighty river that foweth ar
gosies Of Joy and makes wide lands to
smile. Or, perchance it is a torrent to wash
in a Hood of ruin across the fields Of Hope,
bursting in the barriers Of design, and
bring to tumbled nothingness the tenement
of mans purity and the temples Of his
faith. For when the Invisible conceived
the order of the universe, He set within it's
plan this seed of woman's love that by it's
most unequal growth is doomed to bring
about equality of law For now it lifts the
low to heights untold, and now it brings the
noble to the level Of the dust. And thus,
while woman, that great surprise OF Nature,
is. Good and Evil can never grow apart.
For still she stands, and, blind with love,
shoots the shuttle of our fate, and pours
sweet water into the cup of bitterness and
poisons the wholesome breath OF life with
the doom Of her desire. Turn this way and
turn that, she is at hand to meet thee. Her
weakness is thy siren 9Th, her might is thy
undoing OF her thou art, to her thou
goest. She is thy slave, yet holds thee
captive; at her touch honor withers, locks
open, and barriers fail. She is infinite as
ocean, she is variable as heaven, and her
name is the Unforeseen. Man, strive not to
escape from woman and the love Of woman:
Tor, fly where thou wilt, she is yet thy fate,
and vhate'er thou buildest thou buildest it
for her .s'..
And thus it came to pass that /, Harna-
CHS, who had put such matters far from
me. was yet doomed to fall by the thing
held of no account. For, see, this Char
mion; she loves newly, knew not. OF
her own thought she learned to love me,
and of her love came what shall be told.
Butt, knowing naught, treated her even as
sister, walking as it were hand in hand with
her toward our common end.
And SO the time passed on till, at length,
all things were made ready.
It was the night before the night when
the blow should fall, and there were revel~
ings in the palace. That very day had seen
Sepa and with him the captains Of a band
of five hundred men, who should burst into
the palace at midnight On the morrow,
when I had slain Cleopatra the Queen, and
put the Roman and the Gallo DICTIONARIES
to the sword. That very day had l sub.
orned the Captain Paulus, who, since drew
him through the gates, was my willis slave.
Half by fear and half by promises of great
reward had prevailed upon him, for his
was the watch, at the signal Oh the morrow
night to unbar that small gate which faces
to the east.
ALI was made ready--the flower of Free
dom that had been five and twenty years
in growth was on the point of bloom In
every city, from Abu unto Athue, armed
companies were gathered. and from their
walls spies looked out, awaiting the COM
ing of the messenger who should bring
tidings that Cleopatra was nc more, and
that Harmachis, the Egyptian, had seized
the throne All was prepared, triumph
hung to my hand as ripe fruit to the hand
of the plucker. Yet, as I sat at the royal
feast my heart was heavy, and shadow OF
coming woe lay cold within my mind. sat
there in a place of honor, nigh to the
majesty of Cleopatra, and looked down the
lines Of guests, bright with gems and gar
landed with flowers, marking those whom
had doomed to die. There before me lay
Cleopatra's self, in all her beauty, which
thrilled the beholder as he is thrilled by the
rushing of the midnight gale, or by the
sight of stormy waters. gazed on her as
she touched her lips with wine and toyed
with the chaplet Of roses on her brow, be-
thinking me of the dagger beneath my
robe that had sworn to bury il her breast.
Again, and yet again, / gazed and strove.
to hate her, strove to rejoice that she must
die-and could not. There, too, behind
her-watching me now, as ever, with her
-fringed eyes-was the lovely Lady
Charmion Who, to look at her innocent
face, would believe that she was the setter
of that snare wherein should Iuiserably
perish the Queen who loved her? Who
Uonld dream that locked in her pirlish