So we passed up the beautiful chamber till we came to where the eunuchs stood with drawn swords, and these would have barred my entry.  But Charmion frowned, and drawing the signet from her bosom held it before their eyes.  Having examined the writing that was on the ring, they bowed, dropping their sword points and we passed through the heavy curtains broidered with gold into the resting-place of Cleopatra.  It was beautiful beyond imagining—­beautiful with many coloured marbles, with gold and ivory, gems and flowers—­all art can furnish and all luxury can dream of were here.  Here were pictures so real that birds might have pecked the painted fruits; here were statues of woman’s loveliness frozen into stone; here were draperies fine as softest silk, but woven of a web of gold; here were couches and carpets such as I never saw.  The air, too, was sweet with perfume, while through the open window places came the far murmur of the sea.  And at the further end of the chamber, on a couch of gleaming silk and sheltered by a net of finest gauze, Cleopatra lay asleep.  There she lay—­the fairest thing that man ever saw—­fairer than a dream, and the web of her dark hair flowed all about her.  One white, rounded arm made a pillow for her head, and one hung down towards the ground.  Her rich lips were parted in a smile, showing the ivory lines of teeth; and her rosy limbs were draped in so thin a robe of the silk of Cos, held about her by a jewelled girdle, that the white gleam of flesh shone through it.  I stood astonished, and though my thoughts had little bent that way, the sight of her beauty struck me like a blow, so that for a moment I lost myself as it were in the vision of its power, and was grieved at heart because I must slay so fair a thing.

Turning suddenly from the sight, I found Charmion watching me with her quick eyes—­watching as though she would search my heart.  And, indeed, something of my thought must have been written on my face in a language that she could read, for she whispered in my ear: 

“Ay, it is pity, is it not?  Harmachis, being but a man, methinks that thou wilt need all thy ghostly strength to nerve thee to the deed!”

I frowned, but before I could frame an answer she touched me lightly on the arm and pointed to the Queen.  A change had come upon her:  her hands were clenched, and about her face, all rosy with the hue of sleep, gathered a cloud of fear.  Her breath came quick, she raised her arms as though to ward away a blow, then with a stifled moan sat up and opened the windows of her eyes.  They were dark, dark as night; but when the light found them they grew blue as the sky grows blue before the blushing of the dawn.

“Caesarion?” she said; “where is my son Caesarion?—­Was it then a dream?  I dreamed that Julius—­Julius who is dead—­came to me, a bloody toga wrapped about his face, and having thrown his arms about his child led him away.  Then I dreamed I died—­died in blood and agony; and one I might not see mocked me as I died. Ah! who is that man?”