words of approval, or a short laugh — drank them in, as a man perishing in the desert drinks the loathsome waters of a salt pool.

And what she heard was indeed well fitted to deprive her of her senses, but the more definite the facts to which the words referred that she could overhear, the more keenly she listened, and the more resolutely she collected her thoughts. Eulæus had used her own name to induce the Roman to keep an assignation at midnight in the desert close to the Apis tombs. He repeated the words that he had written to this effect on a tile, and which requested Publius to come quite alone to the spot indicated, since she dare not speak with him in the temple. Finally, he was invited to write his answer on the other side of the square of clay. As Klea heard these words, put into her own mouth by a villain, she could have sobbed aloud heartily with anguish, shame, and rage; but the point now was to keep her ears wide open, for Euergetes asked his odious tool, "And what was the Roman's answer?'

Eulæus must have handed the tile to the king, for he laughed loudly again, and cried out:

"So he will walk into the trap-will arrive by half an hour after midnight at the latest, and greets Klea from her sister Irene. He carries on love-making and abduction wholesale, and buys water-bearers by the pair, like doves in the market or sandals in a shoemaker's stall. Only see how the simpleton writes Greek; in these few words there are two mistakes, two regular schoolboy's blunders.

"The fellow must have had a very pleasant day of it, since he must have been reckoning on a not unsuccessful evening but the gods have an ugly habit of clenching the hand with which they have long caressed their favorites, and striking him with their fist.

"Amalthea's horn has been poured out on him to-day; first he snapped up, under my very nose, my little Hebe, the Irene of Irenes, whom I hope to-morrow to inherit from him; then he got the gift of my best Cyrenæan horses, and at the same time the flattering assurance of my valuable friendship; then he had audience of my fair sister—and it goes more to the heart of a republican than you would believe when crowned heads are graciously disposed toward him; finally the sister of his pretty sweetheart invites him to an assignation, and she, if you and Zoë speak the truth, is a beauty in the grand style. Now

these are really too many good things for one inhabitant of this most stingily provided world; and in one single day, too, which, once begun, is so soon ended; and justice requires that we should lend a helping hand to destiny, and cut off the head of this poppy that aspires to rise above its brethren; the thousands who have less good fortune than he would otherwise have great cause to complain of neglect."

"I am happy to see you in such good humor," said Eu

læus.

"My humor is as may be," interrupted the king. "I believe I am only whistling a merry tune to keep up my spirits in the dark. If I were on more familiar terms with what other men call fear, I should have ample reason to be afraid; for in the quail-fight we have gone in for I have wagered a crown — aye, and more than that even. To-morrow only will decide whether the game is lost or won, but I know already to-day that I would rather see my enterprise against Philometor fail, with all my hopes of the double crown, than our plot against the life of the Roman; for I was a man before I was a king, and a man I should remain, if my throne, which now indeed stands on only two legs, were to crash under my weight.

66

My sovereign dignity is but a robe, though the costliest, to be sure, of all garments. If forgiveness were any part of my nature, I might easily forgive the man who should soil or injure that but he who comes too near to Euergetes the man, who dares to touch this body and the spirit it contains, or to cross it in its desires and purposes — him I will crush unhesitatingly to the earth, I will see him torn in pieces. Sentence is passed on the Roman, and if your ruffians do their duty, and if the gods accept the holocaust that I had slain before them at sunset for the success of my project, in a couple of hours Publius Cornelius Scipio will have bled to death.

"He is in a position to laugh at me -as a man-but I, therefore, as a man-have the right, and—as a king — have the power, to make sure that that laugh shall be his last. If I could murder Rome as I can him how glad should I be for Rome alone hinders me from being the greatest of all the great kings of our time; and yet I shall rejoice to-morrow when they tell me 'Publius Cornelius Scipio has been torn by wild beasts, and his body is so mutilated that his own mother could not recognize it' more than if a messenger were to bring me the news that Carthage had broken the power of Rome."

Euergetes had spoken the last words in a voice that sounded like the roll of thunder as it growls in a rapidly approaching storm, louder, deeper, and more furious each instant. When at last he was silent, Eulæus said:

"The immortals, my lord, will not deny you this happiness. The brave fellows whom you condescended to see and to talk to strike as certainly as the bolt of our father Zeus, and as we have learned from the Roman's horse-keeper where he has hidden Irene, she will no more elude your grasp than the crowns of Upper and Lower Egypt. Now, allow me to put on your mantle, and then to call the bodyguard, that they may escort you as you return to your residence."

"One thing more," cried the king, detaining Eulæus. "There are always troops by the Tombs of Apis, placed there to guard the sacred places; may not they prove a hindrance to your friends?"

"I have withdrawn all the soldiers and armed guards to Memphis, down to the last man," replied Eulæus, "and quartered them within the White Wall. Early to-morrow, before you proceed to business, they will be replaced by a stronger division, so that they may not prove a reënforcement to your brother's troops here, if things come to fighting."

"I shall know how to reward your foresight," said Euergetes as Eulæus quitted the room.

Again Klea heard a door open, and the sound of many hoofs on the pavement of the courtyard, and when she went, all trembling, up to the window, she saw Euergetes himself, and the powerfully knit horse that was led in for him. The tyrant twisted his hand in the mane of the restless and pawing steed, and Klea thought that the monstrous mass could never mount on to the horse's back without the aid of many men; but she was mistaken, for with a mighty spring the giant flung himself high in the air and on to the horse, and then, guiding his panting steed by the pressure of his knees alone, he bounded out of the prison yard surrounded by his splendid train.

For some minutes the courtyard remained empty, then a man hurriedly crossed it, unlocked the door of the room where Klea was, and informed her that he was a subaltern under Glaucus, and had brought her a message from him.

"My lord," said the veteran soldier to the girl, "bid me greet you, and say that he found neither the Roman, Publius Scipio, nor his friend the Corinthian at home. He is prevented from

coming to you himself; he has his hands full of business, for soldiers in the service of both the kings are quartered within the White Wall, and all sorts of squabbles break out between them. Still, you cannot remain in this room, for it will shortly be occupied by a party of young officers who began the fray. Glaucus proposes for your choice that you should either allow me to conduct you to his wife or return to the temple to which you are attached. In the latter case a chariot shall convey you as far as the second tavern in Khakem on the borders of the desert for the city is full of drunken soldiery. There you may probably find an escort, if you explain to the host who you are. But the chariot must be back again in less than an hour, for it is one of the king's, and when the banquet is over there may be a scarcity of chariots."

"Yes I will go back to the place I came from," said Klea eagerly, interrupting the messenger. "Take me at once to the chariot."

"Follow me, then," said the old man.

"But I have no veil," observed Klea, "and have only this thin robe on. Rough soldiers snatched my wrapper from my face, and my cloak from off my shoulders."

"I will bring you the captain's cloak which is lying here in the orderly's room, and his traveling hat too; that will hide your face with its broad flap. You are so tall that you might be taken for a man, and that is well, for a woman leaving the palace at this hour would hardly pass unmolested. A slave shall fetch the things from your temple to-morrow. I may inform you that my master ordered me to take as much care of you as if you were his own daughter. And he told me too and I had almost forgotten it-to tell you that your sister was carried off by the Roman, and not by that other dangerous man -you would know whom he meant. Now please wait till I return; I shall not be gone long."

In a few minutes the guard returned with a large cloak, in which he wrapped Klea, and a broad-brimmed traveling hat which she pressed on her head; then led her to the quarter of the palace where the king's stables were. She kept close to the officer, and was soon seated on a chariot, and then conducted by the driver-who took her for a young Macedonian noble tempted out at night by an assignation - as far as the second tavern on the road back to the Serapeum.

BRAGGART AND PARASITE.

By TERENCE.

(From "The Eunuch.")

[P. TERENTIUS AFER was a Carthaginian, born probably B.C. 185; brought to Rome early, it is said, as a slave; was emancipated, became a protégé of the younger Scipio, exhibited his first play at nineteen, wrote five others in the next six years, and died B.c. 159 at twenty-six, one of the world's great classics from the purity and delicacy of his art, the universality of his types of character, the charm of his grace and humane irony. His work was largely a close imitation of the Greek Menander, and he combined scenes from other Greek originals; but his own contribution, like Virgil's to the epic, was still greater than his borrowing. The names of his plays are: "Andria" (The Maid of Andros), "Eunuchus" (The Eunuch), " Heautontimorumenos" (The Self-Tormentor), “Adelphi” (The Brothers), “Hecyra" (The Mother-in-Law), “Phormio.”] CHIEF DRAMATIS PERSONE: GNATHO, a parasite; THRASO, a military officer, braggart, and coxcomb; LACHES, an old Athenian gentleman, with two sons, PHEDRIA and CHÆREA, the former having a servant PARMENO; CHREMES, an Athenian youth; THAIS, a courtesan admired by Thraso, and one of the two heroines of the piece, the other being PAMPHILA, sister of Chremes, who is second only to Mrs. Grundy as a curious stage heroine, for the latter never appears at all, while Pamphila appears but once, and never opens her mouth. She is a slave girl, originally of good family, who has been kidnapped when a baby and brought up by Thais' courtesan mother with her own daughter in Rhodes; Thais goes to Athens, her mother dies, and Pamphila is bought by Thraso, who intends giving her to Thais at Athens as a present, not knowing their old relations. He finds Thais in liaison with Phædria, and will not give her the girl till she has discarded her new lover; she, finding who the girl is and having discovered from Chremes' talk that she must be his sister, is determined to get her back, but not to give up Phædria, whom she likes much better than Thraso. Finally she induces Phædria to leave Thraso a clear field for two days, promising to throw him over as soon as she has the girl in her possession; he agrees, and sends her a eunuch and a negro girl by Parmeno, while Thraso sends Pamphila by his lickspittle Gnatho. Chærea sees and admires Pamphila; his brother's servant, Parmeno, dresses him in the eunuch's clothes and lets him into the house as her guardian, where he takes full advantage of the situation. Thraso quarrels with Thais, and comes with a train to demand Pamphila back, but cannot get her. Finally Pamphila is recognized by Chremes, and Chærea makes amends by marrying her- the standpoint of Clarissa Harlowe not being intelligible then or usual at any time.

ACT II. SCENE III.

Enter GNATHO at a distance, leading PAMPHILA.

Gnatho [to himself] Immortal Gods! how much does

one man excel another!

What a difference there is between a