Do so now! Then, follow me." While speaking, she hastened with the swift step of youth into the atrium and up the staircase which led to the sleeping-rooms of the princes and princesses.
Archibius and Charmian obeyed her bidding; the brother clasped his sister affectionately in his arms, and in hurried tones, with tears streaming from her eyes, she informed him that to her all seemed lost.
Antony had behaved in a manner for which no words of condemnation or regret were adequate.

Probably he would follow Cleopatra; the fleet, and perhaps the army also, were destroyed.

Her fate lay in the hands of Octavianus.
Then she preceded him towards the staircase, where Iras was standing with a tall Syrian, who bore a striking resemblance to Philostratus, Barine's former husband.

It was his brother Alexas, the trusted favourite of Mark Antony.

His place should now have been with him, and Archibius asked his sister with a hasty look how this man chanced to be in the Queen's train.
"His skill in reading the stars," was the reply.