But Sepa looked at me and shook his head.  “Be not so rash, Harmachis, and talk not with so proud a voice.  Knowest thou not that in every suit of mail there is a joint, and woe to him who wears the harness if the sword should search it out!  For Woman, in her weakness, is yet the strongest force upon the earth.  She is the helm of all things human; she comes in many shapes and knocks at many doors; she is quick and patient, and her passion is not ungovernable like that of man, but as a gentle steed that she can guide e’en where she will, and as occasion offers can now bit up and now give rein.  She has a captain’s eye, and stout must be that fortress of the heart in which she finds no place of vantage.  Does thy blood beat fast in youth?  She will outrun it, nor will her kisses tire.  Art thou set toward ambition?  She will unlock thy inner heart, and show thee roads that lead to glory.  Art thou worn and weary?  She has comfort in her breast.  Art thou fallen?  She can lift thee up, and to the illusion of thy sense gild defeat with triumph.  Ay, Harmachis, she can do these things, for Nature ever fights upon her side; and while she does them she can deceive and shape a secret end in which thou hast no part.  And thus Woman rules the world.  For her are wars; for her men spend their strength in gathering gains; for her they do well and ill, and seek for greatness, to find oblivion.  But still she sits like yonder Sphinx, and smiles; and no man has ever read all the riddle of her smile, or known all the mystery of her heart.  Mock not! mock not!  Harmachis; for he must be great indeed who can defy the power of Woman, which, pressing round him like the invisible air, is often strongest when the senses least discover it.”

I laughed aloud.  “Thou speakest earnestly, my uncle Sepa,” I said; “one might almost think that thou hadst not come unscathed through this fierce fire of temptation.  Well, for myself, I fear not woman and her wiles; I know naught of them, and naught do I wish to know; and I still hold that this Caesar was a fool.  Had I stood where Caesar stood, to cool its wantonness that bale of rugs should have been rolled down the palace steps, into the harbour mud.”

“Nay, cease! cease!” he cried aloud.  “It is evil to speak thus; may the Gods avert the omen and preserve to thee this cold strength of which thou boastest.  Oh! man, thou knowest not!—­thou in thy strength and beauty that is without compare, in the power of thy learning and the sweetness of thy tongue—­thou knowest not!  The world where thou must mix is not a sanctuary as that of the Divine Isis.  But there—­it may be so!  Pray that thy heart’s ice may never melt, so thou shalt be great and happy and Egypt shall be delivered.  And now let me take up my tale—­thou seest, Harmachis, even in so grave a story woman claims her place.  The young Ptolemy, Cleopatra’s brother, being loosed of Caesar, treacherously turned on him.  Then Caesar and Mithridates stormed the camp of Ptolemy, who took to flight across the river.  But his boat was sunk by the fugitives who pressed upon it, and such was the miserable end of Ptolemy.