It is, however, far otherwise with such connections as that of Antony and Cleopatra.

Conscience, which remains calm and quiet in prosperity and sunshine, rises up with sudden and unexpected violence as soon as the hour of calamity comes; and thus, instead of mutual comfort and help, each finds in the thoughts of the other only the means of adding the horrors of remorse to the anguish of disappointment and despair.

So extreme was Antony's distress, that for three days he and Cleopatra neither saw nor spoke to each other.

She was overwhelmed with confusion and chagrin, and he was in such a condition of mental excitement that she did not dare to approach him.

In a word, reason seemed to have wholly lost its sway--his mind, in the alternations of his insanity, rising sometimes to fearful excitement, in paroxysms of uncontrollable rage, and then sinking again for a time into the stupor of despair.
In the mean time, the ships were passing down as rapidly as possible on the western coast of Greece.