But the ruler of the state must be silent. I entered this room to give
the woman her just rights, and the woman shall have them. He will soon
be here. He cannot live without me. It is not alone the beaker of
Nektanebus which draws him after me!"

"When the greatest of the great, Julius Caesar, sued for your love in
Alexandria, and Antony on the Cydnus, you did not possess the goblet,"
observed Iras. "It is two years since Anubis permitted you to borrow the
masterpiece from the temple treasures, and within a few days you will be
obliged to restore it. That a mysterious spell emanates from the cup is
certain, but one still more powerful dwells in the magic of your own
nature."

"Would that it might assert itself to-day!" cried the Queen. "At any
rate the power of the beaker impelled Antony to do many things. I am not
vain enough to believe that it was love, that it was solely the spell of
my own personality which drew him to me in that disastrous hour. That
battle, that incomprehensible, disgraceful battle! You were ill, and
could not see our fleet when it set sail; but even experienced spectators
said that handsomer, larger vessels were never beheld. I was right in
insisting that the decision of the conflict should be left to them. I
was entitled to call them mine. Had we conquered, what a proud delight
it would have been to say, 'The weapons which you gave to the man you
loved gained him the sovereignty of the world!' Besides, the stars had
assured me that good fortune would attend us on the sea. They had given
the same message to Anubis here and to Alexas upon Antony's galley. I
also trusted the spell of the goblet, which had already compelled Antony
to do many things he opposed. So I succeeded in having the decision of
the conflict left to the fleet, but the prediction was false, false,
false!--how utterly, was to be proved only too soon.