Sardou's Cleopatra — page 238: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

SARDOU’S CLEOPATRA. 223: “It was. fatality! Listen! Before us com- menced the carnage. Flaming brands swept by us on the water; on all sides shot up the flames. It was a frightful spectacle in its confused horror —those ships struggling furiously upon the water; on the shore, the motionless army watch- ing the fight, trying to judge of the varying for- tunes through the smoke, the savage cries, the hissing of the arrows and javelins, the blood which crimsoned the blue of the waves Oh! it was too much for even the pride of a queen! I could no longer see you—my reason was totter- ing, when a fatal chance came to complete my agony. One of my sailors was wounded and fell upon the deck of the vessel, his blood pouring forth and staining the deck. I approached him. Ye gods! he resembled you! I do not know what horrible presage of evil seized me, but, as I saw death upon that-noble face, I suddenly thought that, like that sailor, you might in your turn perish in the fight. You, dead! You die for Cesar! You! Misery! Madness! When one can live for love, to die for a vain name! I con- fess that, in that wretched moment, I knew noth- © ing of pride, of courage, of glory, of that false embalming in memory that is called history; % . (eo) Eomicbooks