One of Cleopatra's Nights and Other Fantastic Romances

he between her delicate white fingers. "Those, are the words I longed for. What in

at which has scented a mouse, placed her little ivory feet in her embroidered tatbebs, threw

silvery ripples. A gentle breeze, such as might have been mistaken for the respiration of the slumbering sphinxes, quivered among the reeds and shook the azure bells of the lotus flowers; the cables of the vessels moored to the Nile's banks groaned feebly, and the rippling tide moaned upon the shore like a dove

leaned out, with half of her fair body beyond the sill of the window, in the effort to catch another glimpse of the mysterious swimmer; but a grove of Nile acacias, dhoum-palms, and sayals flung its deep shadow upon the river in that direction, and

rowers, and have two boats despatched in pursuit of that man!" c

et in form, and clad only in a pair of narrow drawers diagonally striped with white and blue. His huge torso, entirely nude, black and

f the twenty vigorous rowers, but the pursuit was all in vain. After searching the river banks in every direction, and carefully exploring every patch of reeds, Phrehipephbour re

the grindstone. Happily, Charmion interceded for the trembling unfortunate, who turned pale with fear, despite his black skin. It was the first time in Cleopatra's life that o

s sculptured on the walls of the temples)-she to find an obstacle in her path, to have wished aught that failed of accomplishment, to have spoken and not been obeyed! As well be the wife of some wretched Paras

ich shot that arrow; it was not from a mummy's heart that came those three words which have moved even you-you who smilingly watched your poisoned slaves dashing their heads and beating their fe

ed in them; robes from the land of Serica, so fine and subtly light that they could be drawn through the ring worn upon your little finger; Orient pearls of wondrous color; cups wrought by Myron or Lysippus; Indian paroquets that speak l

ith blows. The bosom of the unskilful waiting-maid will be apt to prove a cushion for the golden pins of

the Apollo of the Greeks? What think you, Charmion? Or perhaps Cheapsiro, commander of Hermothybia, who is so boastful of his conquests in the land of Kush? Or

rior Cheapsiro thinks of nothing save the pleasure of recounting his victories. As for Sextus, he is so seriously occupied with the preparation of a new cosmetic that he cannot dream of anything else. Besides, he had just purchased some Laconia

ur presence, to fall at your feet and supplicate your mercy; and that your sole remaining resource would be to awake some ancient,

of Death. She incessantly repeated that she was the most unhappy of queens, that every one sought to persecute her, and that her life

sively upon each noble of the court. Let us return to Me?amoun, and as we are much more sag

d had succeeded in swimming the current and gaining the little grove of dhoum

moun. Perhaps that thought might be one of wrath; but then he had at least been able to awake some feeling within her, whether of fear, anger, or pity. He had forced her to the consciousness of his existence. It was true that he had forgotten to inscribe his name upon the papyrus scroll, but what more of him coul

It had traversed the air; it had even reached the queen herself, the apex of the triangle, the inaccessib

uides the souls of the dead to Amenthi, by the sacred birds Bermou and Ghenghen, by Typhon and by Osiris, and by all things awful in Egyptian mythology, that he shoul

en he who was wont to gaze fearlessly into the yellow eyes of the lion-or how the tiny seed of love, chance-fallen upon his heart, had grown there so rapidly a

ose lamp still shone through the window curtains like a painted star. Never did Leander swim with more courage and vigor toward the tower of Sestos; yet for

as certainly the worst he had to fear, and in

an instant before a submerged archway into which the water rushed downward in eddying whirls. Twice, thric

ted canal which conducted the waters o