Sardou's Cleopatra — page 262: what you’re looking at

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

SARDOU’S CLEOPATRA. 247 The stillness of the grave reigned in that vaulted chamber. No noise or tumult of the city could penetrate. those thick walls. Cesar was master of Alexandria, and the proud daughter of the Ptolemies was a prisoner in the superb pile she had built for her tomb. Cleopatra’s breast was racked with a hundred conflicting emotions. Was this rich realm, over which she had reigned so long in limitless power, to be taken from her? Was she, whose ambition it had:been to one day rule at the Capitol, to fol- low, a prisoner and in chains, the victorious chariot of Octavius as it rolled through the streets of Rome? Never! But still her chief thought was how to save Antony. Even now, could he escape, perchance it was not too late to recover his lost supremacy, and his supremacy meant her own, and the freeing of Egypt from the galling yoke of the invader. Once she started to awake An- tony to consult with him, but she refrained, think- ing: “Tis useless! Let him sleep. Oblivion is best. He might, perchance, awake but to fall into a sleep from which there would be no waking.”’ But how, how could she save him. Oh! this Octavius! Were it not for him, all would be ‘GOmMmicbooks (GO) m