The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1894-06-06
CLEOPATRA.
Being an Account of the Fall and
Vengeance of Harmachis, the
Royal Egyptian,
AS SET FORTH BY HIS OWN HAND.
BY H. RIDER HAGGARD,
author of "KIna solomon,s Mine.

Author OF King Solomou's Mines"
"She," Allan Quatcrnain,"
Etc, Etc, Etc.
night to unbar that small gate which faces
10 the east.
All 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 Athuc, armed
companies were gathered. and from their
walls spies looked out, awaiting the COM
ing of the messenger who should bring
,fidiugs that Cleopatra was no 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 / sat at the royal
feast my heart was heavy, and shadow of
coming woe lay cold within my mind. sat
there in 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 beholdcr 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 liz her breast.
Again, and yet again, | gazed and strove
10 hate her, strove to rejoice that she must
die--and could not. There, too, behind
her-watching me now, as ever, with her
deep-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 miserably
perish the Queen who loved heri Who
would dream that locked in her girlish
breast was the secret of so much doathl l
gazed, and grew sick at heart because /
must anont my throne with blood, and by
evil sweep away the evil of the land. At
that hour l wished, indeed, that l was
naught but some humble husbandman, who
in it's season sows and in its season
gamers the golden gram! Alas the seed
that had been doomed TO SOW was the red
seed of Death, and now l must reap the
fruit of the harvest
"Why Harmachis, what ais theeln said
Cleopatra, smiling her slow smile HAS
thu golden ske;n of stars got tangled, my
astronomer or dost thou plan some new
feat of maglci Say what Is 1t, that thou
dost so poorly grace our feast. Nay, now,
did | not know, having made inquiry
thereon, that things so low as we poor
women are far beneath thy gaze, why, l
should swear that Eros had found thee
cut, Harmachis ~
"Nay, that | am sped, o Queen" |
answered ''The servant of the star marks
not the smaller light Of woman S eyes, and
therein he is happy"
Cleopatra leaned herself toward me, look.
ing on me long and steadily in such fashion
that despite my will the blood fluttered at
my heart,
''Boast not, thou proud Egyptian" she
said in low voice which none but | and
Charmion could hear, "lest perchance thou
dost tempt me to match my magic against
thine What woman can forgive that man
should push us by as things of no ACCOUNT
IT'S an insult TO our sex that Natures self
abhors." and she leaned back and laughed
most unsteady. But glancing up, l saw
Charmion, her teeth upon her lip and an
angry frown upon her brow.
Pardon, Royal Egypt" l answered,
coldly, but with such wit as / could sum-
mon, ''before the Queen Of Heaven even
stars grow palem This / said of the
moon, which is the sign of the Holy
Mother whom Cleopatra dared to rival,
naming herself Isis come to earth.
s'Happly said" she answered, clappng
her viii c hands. "Why, here's an astron-
umer who hath wit and can shape a COM
pliment. Nay, sucha wonder must not pass
unpoted, lest the Gods resent it. Char
mion, take thou this chaplet from MY hair
aud set it upon the learned brow of our
Harmachis. King Of Louc he shall be
crowned, whether he will it or will 1t not"
Charinion lifted the chapet from Cleo.
;patra's brows and bearing it to where
was, with smile set it upon my head, yet
warm and fragrant from the Queens hair,
hut so roughly that she panied me some.
what And this she did because she was
wrotn, although she smiled with her lips
and whispered: AN omen, Royal Har
inachs." For though she was so much &
woman, yet, when she was angered or suf
fered jealousy, Charmion had childish
way
Having thus fixed the chaplet, she court
esied low before me, and with the softes,
tone of mockery named me, in the Greek
tongue, "Harmachis, King of Love. '
Thereon Cleopatra laughed and pledged me
as liking Of love-" and so did all the com
pany, finding the jest a merry one. For In
Alexandria they love not those who live
straightly and turn aside from women.
But sat there, a smile upon my lips ant
black anger in my heart. For, knowing
who and what was, 1t irked me to thinl
myself jest to the frivolous mobiles anC
light beauties of Cleopatra's Court. Blu
chiefly was l angered against Charmion
because she laughed the loudest, and then
did not know that laughter and bitterness:
are often the walls of sore heart where
with it wraps its weakness from the world
IAN omen,' she said itwas-that crown o
fiowers-and so it proved indeed. For
was fated TO barter the double diadem o
the Upper and the Lower Land for wreatl
Of PASSIONS roses that fade even ere the,
fully bloom, and Pharaoh's ivory bed o
state for the pillow of faithless woman
breast
"Ktng Of Love" they crowned me in theil
mockery; aye, and King of Shame! And
with the perfumed roses on my brow-I, b,
descent and ordination the Pharaoh o
ssSElamTzAllgT
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