The officers and attendants of Pompey watched all these movements from
the deck of his galley. They scrutinized every thing that occurred with
the closest attention and the greatest anxiety, to see whether the
indications denoted an honest friendship or intentions of treachery. The
appearances were not favorable. Pompey's friends observed that no
preparations were making along the shore for receiving him with the
honors due, as they thought, to his rank and station. The manner, too,
in which the Egyptians seemed to expect him to land was ominous of evil.
Only a single insignificant boat for a potentate who recently had
commanded half the world! Then, besides, the friends of Pompey observed
that several of the principal galleys of Ptolemy's fleet were getting up
their anchors, and preparing apparently to be ready to move at a sudden
call These and other indications appeared much more like preparations
for seizing an enemy than welcoming a friend. Cornelia, who, with her
little son, stood upon the deck of Pompey's galley, watching the scene
with a peculiar intensity of solicitude which the hardy soldiers around
her could not have felt, became soon exceedingly alarm ad. She begged
her husband Dot to go on shore. But Pompey decided that it was now too
late to retreat. He could not escape from the Egyptian galleys if they
had received orders to intercept him, nor could he resist violence if
violence were intended. To do any thing like that would evince distrust,
and to appear like putting himself upon his guard would be to take at
once, himself, the position of an enemy, and invite and justify the
hostility of the Egyptians in return. As to flight, he could not hope to
escape from the Egyptian galleys if they had received orders to prevent
it; and, besides, if he were determined on attempting an escape, whither
should he fly? The world was against him. His triumphant enemy was on
his track in full pursuit, with all the vast powers and resources of the
whole Roman empire at his command. There remained for Pompey only the