He lifted up his head and called for wine, which I gave him, mixing therein a draught that might allay his pain, for it was great.  And when he had drunk he bade Cleopatra lie down on the bed beside him, and put her arms about him; and this she did.  Then was Antony once more a man; for, forgetting his own misery and pain, he counselled her as to her own safety:  but to this talk she would not listen.

“The hour is short,” she said; “let us speak of this great love of ours that hath been so long and may yet endure beyond the coasts of Death.  Mindest thou that night when first thou didst put thine arms about me and call me ‘Love’?  Oh! happy, happy night!  Having known that night it is well to have lived—­even to this bitter end!”

“Ay, Egypt, I mind it well and dwell upon its memory, though from that hour fortune has fled from me—­lost in my depth of love for thee, thou Beautiful.  I mind it!” he gasped; “then didst thou drink the pearl in wanton play, and then did that astrologer of thine call out his hour—­’The hour of the coming of the curse of Menkau-ra.’  Through all the after-days those words have haunted me, and now at the last they ring in my ears.”

“He is long dead, my love,” she whispered.

“If he be dead, then I am near him.  What meant he?”

“He is dead, the accursed man!—­no more of him!  Oh! turn and kiss me, for thy face grows white.  The end is near!”

He kissed her on the lips, and for a little while so they stayed, to the moment of death, babbling their passion in each other’s ears, like lovers newly wed.  Even to my jealous heart, it was a strange and awful thing to see.

Presently, I saw the Change of Death gather on his face.  His head fell back.

“Farewell, Egypt; farewell!—­I die!”

Cleopatra lifted herself upon her hands, gazed wildly on his ashen face, and then, with a great cry, she sank back swooning.

But Antony yet lived, though the power of speech had left him.  Then I drew near and, kneeling, made pretence to minister to him.  And as I ministered I whispered in his ear: 

“Antony,” I whispered, “Cleopatra was my love before she passed from me to thee.  I am Harmachis, that astrologer who stood behind thy couch at Tarsus; and I have been the chief minister of thy ruin.

“Die, Antony!—­the curse of Menkau-ra hath fallen!”

He raised himself, and stared upon my face.  He could not speak, but, gibbering, he pointed at me.  Then with a groan his spirit fled.

Thus did I accomplish my revenge upon Roman Antony, the World-loser.

Thereafter, we recovered Cleopatra from her swoon, for not yet was I minded that she should die.  And taking the body of Antony, Caesar permitting, I and Atoua caused it to be most skilfully embalmed after our Egyptian fashion, covering the face with a mask of gold fashioned like to the features of Antony.  Also I wrote upon his breast his name and titles, and painted his name and the name of his father within his inner coffin, and drew the form of the Holy Nout folding her wings about him.