surprising that the collection was the admiration of the world. In fact,
the whole body of ancient literature was there recorded. Caesar set fire
to some Egyptian galleys, which lay so near the shore that the wind blew
the sparks and flames upon the buildings on the quay. The fire spread
among the palaces and other magnificent edifices of that part of the
city, and one of the great buildings in which the library was stored was
reached and destroyed. There was no other such collection in the world;
and the consequence of this calamity has been, that it is only detached
and insulated fragments of ancient literature and science that have come
down to our times. The world will never cease to mourn the
irreparable loss.

[Sidenote: Caesar returns to Rome.]

Notwithstanding the various untoward incidents which attended the war in
Alexandria during its progress, Caesar, as usual, conquered in the end.
The young king Ptolemy was defeated, and, in attempting to make his
escape across a branch of the Nile, he was drowned. Caesar then finally
settled the kingdom upon Cleopatra and a younger brother, and, after
remaining for some time longer in Egypt, he set out on his return
to Rome.

[Illustration: Cleopatra's Barge]

[Sidenote: Subsequent adventures of Cleopatra.]

The subsequent adventures of Cleopatra were as romantic as to have given
her name a very wide celebrity. The lives of the virtuous pass smoothly
and happily away, but the tale, when told to others, possesses but
little interest or attraction; while those of the wicked, whose days are