His expectations in this respect were realized.  The people of Alexandria rallied around Cleopatra, and called upon her to take the crown.  She did so, feeling, perhaps, some misgivings in respect to the danger which such a step might possibly bring upon her absent boy.  She quieted herself, however, by the thought that he was in the hands of his own father, and that he could not possibly come to harm.

After some little time had elapsed, and Cleopatra was beginning to be well established in her possession of the supreme power at Alexandria, her birth-day approached, and arrangements were made for celebrating it in the most magnificent manner.  When the day arrived, the whole city was given up to festivities and rejoicing.  Grand entertainments were given in the palace, and games, spectacles, and plays in every variety, were exhibited and performed in all quarters of the city.  Cleopatra herself was enjoying a magnificent entertainment, given to the lords and ladies of the court and the officers of her army, in one of the royal palaces.

In the midst of this scene of festivity and pleasure, it was announced to the queen that a large box had arrived for her.  The box was brought into the apartment.  It had the appearance of containing some magnificent present, sent in at that time by some friend in honor of the occasion.  The curiosity of the queen was excited to know what the mysterious coffer might contain.  She ordered it to be opened; and the guests gathered around, each eager to obtain the first glimpse of the contents.  The lid was removed, and a cloth beneath it was raised, when, to the unutterable horror of all who witnessed the spectacle, there was seen the head and hands of Cleopatra’s beautiful boy, lying among masses of human flesh, which consisted of the rest of his body cut into pieces.  The head had been left entire, that the wretched mother might recognize in the pale and lifeless features the countenance of her son.  Physcon had sent the box to Alexandria, with orders that it should be retained until the evening of the birth-day, and then presented publicly to Cleopatra in the midst of the festivities of the scene.  The shrieks and cries with which she filled the apartments of the palace at the first sight of the dreadful spectacle, and the agony of long-continued and inconsolable grief which followed, showed how well the cruel contrivance of the tyrant was fitted to accomplish its end.

It gives us no pleasure to write, and we are sure it can give our readers no pleasure to peruse, such shocking stories of bloody cruelty as these.  It is necessary, however, to a just appreciation of the character of the great subject of this history, that we should understand the nature of the domestic influences that reigned in the family from which she sprung.  In fact, it is due, as a matter of simple justice to her, that we should know what these influences were, and what were the examples set before her in her early life; since the privileges and advantages which the young enjoy in their early years, and, on the other hand, the evil influences under which they suffer, are to be taken very seriously into the account when we are passing judgment upon the follies and sins into which they subsequently fall.