Cleopatra — Chapter 3 Part 1

CHAPTER III.

"The lad is in an evil plight," said Gorgias, shaking his head thoughtfully as the equipage rolled over the stone pavement of the Street of the King.

"And over yonder," added Dion, "the prospect is equally unpleasing.

Philostratus is setting the people crazy.

But the hired mischief-maker will soon wish he had been less ready to seize Iras's gold coins."

"And to think," cried the architect, "that Barine was this scoundrel's wife!

How could it be----" "She was but a child when they married her," interrupted Dion.

"Who consults a girl of fifteen in the choice of a husband?

And Philostratus--he was my classmate at Rhodus--at that time had the fairest prospects.

His brother Alexas, Antony's favourite, could easily advance him.

Barine's father was dead, her mother was accustomed to follow Didymus's counsel, and the clever fellow had managed to strew dust in the old man's eyes.

Long and lank as he is, he is not bad-looking even now.

When he appeared as an orator he pleased his hearers.

This turned his head, and a spendthrift's blood runs in his veins.

To bring his fair young bride to a stately mansion, he undertook the bad cause of the thievish tax-collector Pyrrhus, and cleared him."

"He bought a dozen false witnesses."

"There were sixteen.

Afterwards they became as numerous as the open mouths you see shouting yonder.

It is time to silence them.

Go to the old man's house and soothe him--Barine also, if she is there.

If you find messengers from the Regent, raise objections to the unprecedented decree.

You know the portions of the law which can be turned to Didymus's advantage."

"Since the reign of Euergetes II, registered landed property has been unassailable, and his was recorded."

"So much the better.

Tell the officials also, confidentially, that you know of objections just discovered which may perhaps change the Regent's views."

"And, above all, I shall insist upon my right to choose the place for the twin statues.

The Queen herself directed the others to heed my opinion."

"That will cast the heaviest weight into the scale.

We shall meet later.

You will prefer to keep away from Barine to-night.

If you see her, tell her that Archibius said he would visit her later--for an object I will explain afterwards.

I shall probably go to Iras to bring her to reason.

It will be better not to mention Cæsarion's wish."

"Certainly--and you will give nothing to yonder brawler."

"On the contrary.

I feel very generous.

If Peitho will aid me, the insatiate fellow will get more than may be agreeable to him."

Then grasping the architect's hand, Dion forced his way through the throng surrounding the high platform on wheels, upon which the closely covered piece of sculpture had been rolled up.

The gate of the scholar's house stood open, for an officer in the Regent's service had really entered a short time before, but the Scythian guards sent by the exegetus Demetrius, one of Barine's friends, were keeping back the throng of curious spectators.

Their commander knew Gorgias, and he was soon standing in the impluvium of the scholar's house, an oblong, roofless space, with a fountain in the centre, whose spray moistened the circular bed of flowers around it.

The old slave had just lighted some three-branched lamps which burned on tall stands.

The officers sent by the Regent to inform Didymus that his garden would be converted into a public square had just arrived.

When Gorgias entered, these magistrates, their clerks, and the witnesses accompanying them--a group of twenty men, at whose head was Apollonius, a distinguished officer of the royal treasury--were in the house.

The slave who admitted the architect informed him of it.

In the atrium a young girl, doubtless a member of the household, stopped him.

He was not mistaken in supposing that she was Helena, Didymus's younger granddaughter, of whom Barine had spoken.

True, she resembled her sister neither in face nor figure, for while the young matron's hair was fair and waving, the young girl's thick black tresses were wound around her head in a smooth braid.

Very unlike Barine's voice, too, were the deep, earnest tones trembling with emotion, in which she confronted him with the brief question, concealing a faint reproach, "Another demand?"

After first ascertaining that he was really speaking to Helena, his friend's sister, he hastily told her his name, adding that, on the contrary, he had come to protect her grandfather from a serious misfortune.

When his glance first rested upon her in the dimly lighted room, the impression she made upon him was by no means favourable.

The pure brow, which seemed to him too high for a woman's face, wore an indignant frown; and though her mouth was beautiful in form, its outlines were often marred by a passionate tremor that lent the exquisitely chiselled features a harsh, nay, bitter expression.

But she had scarcely heard the motive of his presence ere, pressing her hand upon her bosom with a sigh of relief, she eagerly exclaimed: "Oh, do what you can to avert this terrible deed!

No one knows how the old man loves this house.

And my grandmother!

They will die if it is taken from them."

Her large eyes rested upon him with a warm, imploring light; and the stern, almost repellent voice thrilled with love for her relatives.

He must lend his aid here, and how gladly he would do so!

He assured her of this; and Helena, who had heard him mentioned as a man of ability, saw in him a helper in need, and begged him, with touching fervour, to show her grandfather, when he came before the officers, that all was not lost.

The astonished architect asked if Didymus did not know what was impending, and Helena hastily replied: "He is working in the summer-house by the sea.

Apollonius is a kind-hearted man, and will wait until I have prepared my grandfather.

I

must go to him.

He has already sent Philotas--his pupil, who finds and unrolls his books--a dozen times to inquire the cause of the tumult outside; but I replied that the crowds were flocking to the harbour on account of the Queen.

There is often a mob shouting madly; but nothing disturbs my grandfather when he is absorbed in his work; and his pupil--a young student from Amphissa--loves him and does what I bid him.

My grandmother, too, knows nothing yet.

She is deaf, and the female slaves dare not tell her.

After her recent attack of giddiness, the doctor said that any sudden shock might injure her.

If only I can find the right words, that my grandfather may not be too sorely hurt!"

"Shall I accompany you?"

asked Gorgias kindly.

"No," she answered hurriedly.

"He needs time ere he will trust strangers.

Only, if Apollonius discloses the terrible truth, and his grief threatens to overpower him, comfort him, and show him that we still have friends who are ready to protect us from such disaster."

She waved her hand in token of gratitude, and hurried through the little side gate into the garden.

Gorgias looked after her with sparkling eyes, and drew a long breath.

How good this girl must be, how wisely she cared for her relatives!

How energetically the young creature behaved!

He had seen his new acquaintance only in the dim light, but she must be beautiful.

Her eyes, lips, and hair certainly were.

How his heart throbbed as he asked himself the question whether this young girl, who was endowed with every gift which constituted the true worth of womanhood, was not preferable to her more attractive sister Barine!

--when the thought darted through his mind that he had cause to be grateful to the beard which covered his chin and cheeks, for he felt that he, a sedate, mature man, must have blushed.

And he knew why.

Only half an hour before he had felt and admitted to Dion that he considered Barine the most desirable of women, and now another's image cast a deep shadow over hers and filled his heart with new, perhaps stronger emotions.

He had had similar experiences only too often, and his friends, Dion at their head, had perceived his weakness and spoiled many an hour for him by their biting jests.

The series of tall and short, fair and dark beauties who had fired his fancy was indeed of considerable length, and every one on whom he had bestowed his quickly kindled affections had seemed to him the one woman he must make his own, if he would be a happy man.

But ere he had reached the point of offering his hand, the question had arisen in his mind whether he might not love another still more ardently.

So he had begun to persuade himself that his heart yearned for no individual, but the whole sex--at least the portion which was young and could feel love--and therefore he would scarcely be wise to bind himself to any one.

True, he knew that he was capable of fidelity, for he clung to his friends with changeless loyalty, and was ready to make any sacrifice in their behalf.

With women, however, he dealt differently.

Was Helena's image, which now floated before him so bewitchingly, destined to fade as swiftly?

The contrary would have been remarkable.

Yet he firmly believed that this time Eros meant honestly by him.

The laughing loves who twined their rose garlands around him and Helena's predecessors had nothing to do with this grave maiden.

These reflections darted through his brain with the speed of lightning, and still stirred his heart when he was ushered into the impluvium, where the magistrates were impatiently awaiting the owner of the house.

With the lucidity peculiar to him, he explained his reasons for hoping that their errand would be vain, and Apollonius replied that no one would rejoice more than he himself if the Regent should authorize him, on the morrow, to countermand his mission.

He would gladly wait there longer to afford the old man's granddaughter an opportunity to soften the tidings of the impending misfortune.

The kind-hearted man's patience, however, was not tested too long; for when Helena entered the summer-house Didymus had already been informed of the disaster which threatened him and his family.

The philosopher Euphranor, an elderly member of the Museum, had reached him through the garden gate, and, spite of Philotas's warning sign, told him what was occurring.

But Didymus knew the old philosopher, who, a recluse from the world like himself, was devoting the remainder of his life and strength to the pursuit of science.

So he only shook his head incredulously, pushed back the thin locks of grey hair which hung down on his cheeks over the barest part of his skull, and exclaimed reproachfully, though as if the matter under discussion was of the most trivial importance: "What have you been hearing?

We'll see about it!"

He had risen as he spoke, and too abruptly surprised by the news to remember the sandals on the mat and the upper robe which lay on a chest of drawers at the end of the room, he was in the act of quitting it, when his friend, who had silently watched his movements, stopped him, and Helena entered.

The grey-haired sage turned to her, and, vexed by his friend's doubts, begged her to convince her grandfather that even matters which do not please us may nevertheless be of some importance.

She did so as considerately as possible, thinking meanwhile of the architect and his hopes.

Didymus, with his eyes bent on the ground, shook his grey head again and again.

Then, suddenly raising it, he rushed to the door, and without heeding the upper garment which Helena still held in her hand, tore it open, shouting, "But things must and shall be changed!"

Euphranor and his granddaughter followed.

Though his head was bowed, he crossed the little garden with a swift, firm tread, and, without noticing the questions and warnings of his companions, walked at once to the impluvium.

The bright light dazzled his weakened eyes, and his habit of gazing into vacancy or on the ground compelled him to glance from side to side for some time, ere he could accustom himself to it.

Apollonius approached, greeted him respectfully, and assured him that he deeply regretted having interrupted him in the work for which the whole world was waiting, but he had come on important business.

"I know, I know," the old scholar answered with a smile of superiority.

"What is all this ado about?"

As he spoke he looked around the group of spectators, among whom he knew no one except Apollonius, who had charge of the museum accounts, and the architect, for whom he had composed the inscription on the Odeum, which he had recently built.

But when his eyes met only unfamiliar faces, the confidence which hitherto had sustained him began to waver, though still convinced that a demand such as the philosopher suggested could not possibly be made upon him, he continued: "It is stated that there is a plan for turning my garden into a public square.

And for what purpose?

To erect a piece of sculpture.

But there can be nothing serious in the rumour, for my property is recorded in the land register, and the law----" "Pardon me," Apollonius broke in, "if I interrupt you.

We know the ordinance to which you refer, but this case is an exceptional one.

The Regent desires to take nothing from you.

On the contrary, he offers, in the name of the Queen, any compensation you yourself may fix for the piece of land which is to be honoured by the statues of the highest personages in the country--Cleopatra and Antony, hand in hand.

The piece of sculpture has already been brought here.

A work by the admirable artist Lysander, who passed too early to the nether world, certainly will not disfigure your house.

The little summer-house by the sea must be removed to-morrow, it is true; you know that our gracious Queen may return any day--victorious if the immortals are just.

This piece of sculpture, which is created in her honour, to afford her pleasure, must greet her on her arrival, so the Regent send me to-day to communicate his wish, which, as he represents the Queen----" "Yet," interrupted the architect, who had again warmly assured the old man's granddaughter of his aid--"yet your friends will endeavour to persuade the Regent to find another place for the statues."

"They are at liberty to do so," said the officer.

"What will happen later the future will show.

My office merely requires me to induce the worthy owner of this house and garden to submit to-day to the Queen's command, which the Regent and my own heart bid me clothe in the form of a request."

During this conversation the old man had at first listened silently to the magistrate's words, gazing intently into his face.

So it was true.

The demand to yield up his garden, and even the little house, for fifty years the scene of his study and creative work, for the sake of a statue, would be made.

Since this had become a certainty, he had stood with his eyes fixed upon the ground.

Grief had paralyzed his tongue, and Helena, who felt this, for the aged head seemed as if it were bending under a heavy burden, had drawn close to his side.

The shouts and howls of the throng outside echoed through the open roof of the impluvium, but the old man did not seem to hear them, and did not even notice his granddaughter.

Yet, no sooner did he feel her touch than he hurriedly shrank away, flung back his drooping head, and gazed around the circle of intruders.

The dull, questioning eyes of the old commentator and writer of many books now blazed with the hot fire of youthful passion and, like a wrestler who seeks the right grip, he measured Apollonius and his companions with wrathful glances.

The fragile recluse seemed transformed into a warrior ready for battle.

His lips and the nostrils of his delicate nose quivered, and when Apollonius began to say that it would be wise to remove the contents of the summer-house that day, as it would be torn down early the next morning, Didymus raised his arms, exclaiming: "That will not be done.

Not a single roll shall be removed!

They will find me at work as usual early to-morrow morning, and if it is still your wish to rob me of my property you must use violence to attain your purpose."

"Calm yourself," replied Apollonius.

"Every one beneath the moon must submit to a higher power; the gods bow to destiny, we mortals to the sovereign.

You are a sage; I, merely mindful of the behests of duty, administer my office.

But I know life, and if I may offer my counsel, you will accept what cannot be averted, and I will wager ten to one that you will have the best of it; that the Queen will place in your hands means----" "Sufficient to build a palace on the site of the little house of which I was robbed," Didymus interrupted bitterly.

Then rage burst forth afresh "What do I care for your money?

I want my rights, my good, guaranteed rights.

I insist upon them, and whoever assails the ground which my grandfather and father bequeathed to me----" He hesitated, for the throng outside had burst into a loud shout of joy;

and when it died away, and the old man began once more defiantly to claim his rights, he was interrupted by a woman's clear tones, addressing him with the Greek greeting, "Rejoice!"

--a voice so gay and musical that it seemed to dispel the depression which rested like a grey fog on the whole company.

While Didymus was listening to the excited populace, and the new-comer was gazing at the old man whose rigid obstinacy could scarcely be conquered by kindness, the younger men were looking at the beautiful woman who joined them.

Her haste had flushed her cheeks, and from beneath the turquoise-blue kerchief that covered her fair locks a bewitching face smiled at her sister, the architect, and her grandfather.

Apollonius and many of his companions felt as if happiness in person had entered this imperilled house, and many an eye brightened when the infuriated old man exclaimed in an altered tone, "You here, Barine?"

and she, without heeding the presence of the others, kissed his cheek with tender affection.

Helena, Gorgias, and the old philosopher Euphranor, had approached her, and when the latter asked with loving reproach, "Why, Barine, how did you get through the howling mob?"

she answered gaily: "That a learned member of the Museum may receive me with the query whether I am here, though from childhood a kind or--what do you think, grandfather?

--a malign fate has preserved me from being overlooked, and some one else reprovingly asks how I passed through the shouting mob, as if it were a crime to wade into the water to hold out a helping hand to those we love best when it is up to their chins!

But, oh!

dear, this howling is too hideous!"

While speaking, she pressed her little hands on the part of the kerchief which concealed her ears, and said no more until the noise subsided, although she declared that she was in a hurry, and had only come to learn how matters were.

Meanwhile it seemed as if she was so full of quick, pulsing life, that it was impossible to leave even a moment unused, if it were merely to bestow or answer a friendly glance.

The architect and her sister were obliged to return hurried answers to hasty questions; and as soon as she ascertained what had brought the strangers there she thanked Apollonius, and said that old friends would do their best to spare her grandfather such a sorrow.

In reply to repeated inquiries from the two old men in regard to her arrival there, she answered: "Nobody will believe it, because in this hurry I could not keep my mouth shut; but I acted like a mute fish and reached the water."

Then, drawing her grandfather aside, she whispered to him that, when she left her boat at the harbour, Archibius had seen her from his carriage, and instantly stopped it to inform her of his intended visit that evening.

He was coming to discuss an important matter.

Therefore she must receive the worthy man, whom she sincerely liked, so she could not stay.

Then turning to the others--still with her kerchief on her head ready for departure--she asked what the people meant by their outcries.

The architect replied that Philostratus had endeavoured to make the crowd believe that the only appropriate site for the statues of which she had heard was her grandfather's garden, and he thought he knew in whose behalf the fellow was acting.

"Certainly not in the Regent's," said Apollonius, in a tone of sincere conviction; but Barine, over whose sunny brow a shadow had flitted when Gorgias uttered the orator's name, assented with a slight bend of the head, and then whispered hurriedly, yet earnestly, that she would answer for the old man's allowing himself to be persuaded, if he had only time to collect his thoughts.

The next morning, when the market was crowded, the officer might commence his negotiations afresh, if the Regent insisted on his plan.

Meanwhile she would do her best to persuade her grandfather to yield, though he was not exactly one of the class who are easily guided.

Apollonius might remind the Regent that it would be advisable at this time to avoid a public scandal, to remember Didymus's age, and the validity of his claim.

While Apollonius was talking with his companions, Barine beckoned to the architect, and hastily took leave of the others, protesting that she was in no danger, since she would slip away again like a fish, only this time she would use her tongue, and hoped by its means to win to the support of Didymus's just cause a man who would already have ended all the trouble had the Queen only been in Alexandria.

Until now the eyes and ears of the whole company had been fixed upon Barine.

No one had desired anything better than to gaze at and listen to her.

Not until she had quitted the room with Gorgias did the officials discuss the matter together, and soon after Apollonius went away with his companions, to hold another conference with the Regent about this unpleasant business.

This time the architect had followed the young beauty with very mingled feelings.

Only an hour before he would have rejoiced to be permitted to accompany and protect Barine; now he would have gladly remained with her sister, who had returned his farewell greeting so gratefully and yet with such maidenly modesty.

But even the most vacillating man cannot change one fancy for another as he would replace a black piece on the draughtboard with a white one, and he still found it delightful to be so near Barine.

Only the thought that Helena might believe that he stood on very intimate terms with her sister had darted with a disquieting influence through his brain when the latter invited him to accompany her.

In the garden Barine begged him, before they went to the landing-place where the boat was moored, to help her ascend the narrow flight of steps leading to the flat roof of the gatekeeper's little house.

Here they could watch unseen the tumult in the square below, for it was surrounded by dense laurel bushes.

Bright flames were blazing in the pitch-pans before the two temples at the side of the Corner of the Muses, and their light was increased by the torches held in the hands of Scythians.

Yet no individuals could be distinguished in the throng.

The marble walls of the temples shimmered, the statues at Didymus's gate, and the hermæ along the street of the King which passed the threatened house and connected the north of the Corner of the Muses with the sea-shore, loomed from the darkness in the brilliancy of the reflected light, but the smoke of the torches darkened the sky and dimmed the starlight.

The only persons distinctly visible were Dion, who had stationed himself on the lofty framework of the platform on which the muffled statues had been drawn hither, and the attorney Philostratus, who stood on the pedestal of one of the dolphins which surrounded the fountain between the Temple of Isis and the street.

The space, a dozen paces wide, which divided them, permitted the antagonists to understand each other, and the attention of the whole throng was fixed upon the wranglers.

These verbal battles were one of the greatest pleasures of the Alexandrians, and they greeted every clever turn of speech with shouts of applause, every word which displeased them with groans, hisses, and cat-calls.

Barine could see and hear what was passing below.

She had pushed aside the foliage of the laurel bushes which concealed her, and, with her hand raised to her ear, stood listening to the two disputants.

When the scoundrel whom she had called husband, and for whom her contempt had become too deep for hate, sneeringly assailed her family as having been fed from generation to generation from the corn-bin of the Museum, she bit her lips.

But they soon curled, as if what she heard aroused her disgust, for the speaker now turned to Dion and accused him of preventing the kindly disposed Regent from increasing the renown of the great Queen and affording her noble heart a pleasure.

"My tongue," he cried, "is the tool which supports me.

Why am I using it here till it is weary and almost paralyzed?

In honour of Cleopatra, our illustrious Queen, and her generous friend, to whom we all owe a debt of gratitude.

Let all who love her and the divine Antony, the new Herakles and Dionysus--both will soon make their entry among us crowned with the laurels of victory--join the Regent and every well-disposed person in seizing yonder bit of land so meanly withheld by base avarice and a sentiment--a sentiment, do you hear?

--which I do not name more plainly, simply because wickedness is repulsive to me, and I do not stand here as an accuser.

Whoever upholds the word-monger who spouts forth books as the dolphin at my side does water, may do so.

I shall not envy him.

But first look at Didymus's ally and panegyrist.

There he stands opposite to me.

It would have been better for him had the dolphin at his feet taught him silence.

Then he might have remained in the obscurity which befits him.

But whether willing or not, I must drag him forth, and I will show you Dion, fellow-citizens, though I would far rather have you see things which arouse less ire.

The dim light prevents your distinguishing the colour of his robe, but I know it, for I saw it in the glare of day.

It is hyacinthine purple.

You know what that costs.

It would support the wives and children of many among you for ten long years.

'How heavy must be the purse which can expose such a treasure to sun and rain!'

is the thought of every one who sees him strutting about as proudly as a peacock.

And his purse _is_ loaded with many talents.

Only it is a pity that, day after day, most of you must give your children a little less bread and deprive yourselves of many a draught of wine to deck him out so bravely.

His father, Eumenes, was a tax-collector, and what the leech extorted from you and your children, the son now uses to drive, clad in hyacinthine purple, a four-horse chariot, which splashes the mire from the street into your faces as it rolls onward.

By the dog!

the gentleman does not weigh so very much, yet he needs four horses to drag him.

And, fellow-citizens, do you know why?

I'll tell you.

He's afraid of sticking fast everywhere, even in his speech."

Here Philostratus lowered his voice, for the phrase "sticking fast" had drawn a laugh from some of his hearers; but Dion, whose father had really amassed, in the high position of a receiver of taxes, the handsome fortune which his son possessed, did not delay his reply.

"Yes, yes," he retorted scornfully, "yonder Syrian babbler hit the mark this time.

He stands before me, and who does not easily stick fast when marsh and mire are so near?

As for the hyacinthine purple cloak, I wear it because I like it.

His crocus-yellow one is less to my taste, though he certainly looks fine enough in it in the sunlight.

It shines like a buttercup in the grass.

You know the plant.

When it fades--and I ask whether you think Philostratus looks like a bud--when it fades, it leaves a hollow spiral ball which a child's breath could blow away.

Suppose in future we should call the round buttercup seed-vessels 'Philostratus heads'?

You like the suggestion?

I am glad, fellow-citizens, and I thank you.

It proves your good taste.

Then we will stick to the comparison.

Every head contains a tongue, and Philostratus says that his is the tool which supports him."

"Hear the money-bag, the despiser of the people!"

interrupted Philostratus furiously.

"The honest toil by which a citizen earns a livelihood is a disgrace in his eyes."

"_Honest_ toil, my good friend," replied Dion, "is scarcely in question here.

I spoke only of _your_ tongue.

--You understand me, fellow-citizens.

Or, if any of you are not yet acquainted with this worthy man, I will show him to you, for I know him well.

He is my foe, yet I can sincerely recommend him to many of you.

If any one has a very bad, shamefully corrupt cause to bring before the courts, I most earnestly counsel him to apply to the buttercup man perched on yonder fountain.

He will thank me for it.

Believe me, Didymus's cause is just, precisely because this advocate so eagerly assails it.

I told you just now the matter under discussion.

Which of you who owns a garden can say in future, 'It is mine,' if, during the absence of the Queen, it is allowable to take it away to be used for any other purpose?

But this is what threatens Didymus.

If this is to be the custom here, let every one beware of sowing a radish or planting a bush or a tree, for should the wife of some great noble desire to dry her linen there, he may be deprived of it ere the former can ripen or the latter give shade."

Loud applause followed this sentence, but Philostratus shouted in a voice that echoed far and wide: "Hear me, fellow-citizens; do not allow your selves to be deceived!

No one is to be robbed here.

The project is to purchase, at a high price, the spot which the city needs for her adornment, and to honour and please the Queen.

Are the Regent and the citizens to lose this opportunity of expressing the gratitude of years, and the rejoicing over the greatest of victories, of which we shall soon hear, because an evil-disposed person--the word must be uttered--a foe to his country, opposes it?"

"Now the mire is coming too near me," Dion angrily responded, "and I might really stick fast, as I was warned; for I do not envy the ready presence of mind of any person whose tongue would not falter when the basest slander scattered its venom over him.

You all know, fellow-citizens, through how many generations the Didymus family has lived to the honour of this city, doing praiseworthy work in yonder house.

You know that the good old man who dwells there was one of the teachers of the royal children."

"And yet," cried Philostratus, "only the day before yesterday he walked arm in arm in the Paneum garden with Arius, the tutor of Octavianus, our own and our Queen's most hated foe.

In my presence, and before I know not how many others, Didymus distinguished this Arius as his most beloved pupil."

"To give you that title," retorted Dion, "would certainly fill any teacher with shame and anger, no matter how far you had surpassed him in wisdom and knowledge.

Nay, had you been committed to the care of the herring dealers, instead of the rhetoricians, every honest man among them would disown you, for they sell only good wares for good money, while you give the poorest in exchange for glittering gold.

This time you trample under foot the fair name of an honourable man.

But I will not suffer it; and you hear, fellow-citizens, I now challenge this Syrian to prove that Didymus ever betrayed his native land, or I will brand him in your presence a base slanderer, an infamous, venal destroyer of character!"

"An insult from such lips is easily borne," replied Philostratus in a tone of scornful superiority; but there was a pause ere he again turned to the listening throng, and with all the warmth he could throw into his voice continued: "What do I desire, then, fellow-citizens?

What is the sole object of my words?

I stand here with clean hands, impelled solely by the impulse of my heart, to plead for the Queen.

In order to secure the only suitable site for the statues to be erected to Cleopatra's honour and fame, I enter into judgment with her foes, expose myself to the insult with which boastful insolence is permitted to vent its wrath upon me.

But I am not dismayed, though, in pursuing this course, I am acting against the law of Nature; for the infamous man against whom I raise my voice was my teacher, too, and ere he turned from the path of right and virtue--under influences which I will not mention here--he numbered me also, in the presence of many witnesses, among his best pupils.

I was certainly one of the most grateful--I chose his granddaughter--the truth must be spoken--for my wife.

The possession----" "Possession!"

interrupted Dion in a loud, excited tone.

"The corpse cast ashore by the waves might as well boast possession of the sea!"

The dim torchlight was sufficient to reveal Philostratus's pallor to the bystanders.

For a moment the orator seemed to lose his self-control, but he quickly recovered himself, and shouted: "Fellow-citizens, dear friends!

I was about to make you witnesses of the misery which a woman, whose wickedness is even greater than her beauty, brought upon an inexperienced----" But he went no further; for his hearers--many of whom knew the brilliant, generous Dion, and Barine, the fair singer at the last Adonis festival--gave the orator tokens of their indignation, which were all the more pitiless because of the pleasure they felt in seeing an expert vanquished by an untrained foe.

The wordy war would not have ended so quickly, however, had not restlessness and alarm taken possession of the crowd.

The shout, "Back!

disperse!"

ran through the multitude, and directly after the trampling of hoofs and the commands of the leader of a troop of Libyan cavalry were heard.

The matter at stake was not sufficiently important to induce the populace to offer an armed force resistance which might have entailed serious danger.

Besides, the blustering war of tongues had reached a merry close, and loud laughter blended with the shouts of fear and warning; for the surging throng had swept with unexpected speed towards the fountain and plunged Philostratus into the basin.

Whether this was due to the wrath of some enemy, or to mere accident, could not be learned; the vain efforts of the luckless man to crawl out of the water up the smooth marble were so comical, and his gestures, after helping hands had dragged him dripping upon the pavement of the square, were so irresistibly funny, that more laughing than angry voices were heard, especially when some one cried, "His hands were soiled by blackening Didymus, so the washing will do him good."

"Some wise physicians flung him into the water," retorted an other; "he needed the cold application after the blows Dion dealt him."

The Regent, who had sent the troop of horsemen to drive the crowd away from Didymus's house, might well be pleased that the violent measure encountered so little resistance.

The throng quickly scattered, and was speedily attracted by something new at the Theatre of Dionysus--the zither-player Anaxenor had just announced from its steps that Cleopatra and Antony had won the most brilliant victory, and had sung to the accompaniment of his lute a hymn which had deeply stirred all hearts.

He had composed it long before, and seized the first opportunity--the report had reached his ears while breakfasting in Kanopus--to try its effect.