CHAPTER XII.
THE END OF CLEOPATRA.
Infatuation of Antony .-- His early character--Powerful influence of Cleopatra over Antony,--Indignation at Antony's conduct .-- Plans of Cleopatra .-- Antony becomes a misanthrope .-- His hut on the island of Pharos--Antony's reconciliation with Cleopatra .-- Scenes of revelry .-- Cleopatra makes a collection of poisons .-- Her experiments with them .-- Antony's suspicions .-- Cleopatra's stratagem .-- The bite of the asp .-- Cleopatra's tomb .-- Progress of Octavius .-- Proposal of Antony .-- Octavius at Pelusium .-- Cleopatra's treasures .-- Fears of Octavius .-- He arrives at Alexandria .-- The sally .-- The unfaithful captain .-- Disaffection of Antony's men .-- Desertion of the fleet .-- False rumor of Cleopatra's death .-- Antony's despair .-- Eros .-- Antony's attempt to kill himself .-- Antony taken to Cleopatra .-- She refuses to open the door .-- Antony taken in at the window .-- Cleopatra's grief .-- Death of Antony .-- Cleopatra made prisoner .-- Treatment of Cleopatra .-- Octavius takes possession of Alexandria .-- Antony's funeral .-- Cleopatra's wretched condition .-- Cleopatra's wounds and bruises .-- She resolves to starve herself .-- Threats of Octavius .-- Their effect .-- Octavius visits Cleopatra .-- Her wretched condition .-- The false inventory .-- Cleopatra in a rage .-- Octavius deceived .-- Cleopatra's determination .-- Cleopatra visits Antony's tomb .-- Her composure on her return .-- Cleopatra's supper .-- The basket of figs .-- Cleopatra's letter to Octavius .-- She is found dead .-- Death of Charmion .-- Amazement of the by-standers .-- Various conjectures as to the cause of Cleopatra's death .-- Opinion of Octavius .-- His triumph.
The case of Mark Antony affords one of the most extraordinary examples of the power of unlawful love to lead its deluded and infatuated victim into the very jaws of open and recognized destruction that history records.

Cases similar in character occur by thousands in common life; but Antony's, though perhaps not more striking in itself than a great multitude of others have been, is the most conspicuous instance that has ever been held up to the observation of mankind.
In early life, Antony was remarkable, as we have already seen, for a certain savage ruggedness of character, and for a stern and indomitable recklessness of will, so great that it seemed impossible that any thing human should be able to tame him.

He was under the control, too, of an ambition so lofty and aspiring that it appeared to know no bounds; and yet we find him taken possession of, in the very midst of his career, and in the height of his prosperity and success, by a woman, and so subdued by her arts and fascinations as to yield himself wholly to her guidance, and allow himself to be led about by her entirely at her will.
She displaces whatever there might have been that was noble and generous in his heart, and substitutes therefor her own principles of malice and cruelty.

She extinguishes all the fires of his ambition, originally so magnificent in its aims that the world seemed hardly large enough to afford it scope, and instead of this lofty passion, fills his soul with a love of the lowest, vilest, and most ignoble pleasures.

She leads him to betray every public trust, to alienate from himself all the affections of his countrymen, to repel most cruelly the kindness and devotedness of a beautiful and faithful wife, and, finally to expel this wife and all of his own legitimate family from his house; and now, at last, she conducts him away in a most cowardly and ignoble flight from the field of his duty as a soldier--he knowing, all the time, that she is hurrying him to disgrace and destruction, and yet utterly without power to break from the control of his invisible chains.
The indignation which Antony's base abandonment of his fleet and army at the battle of Actium excited, over all that part of the empire which had been under his command, was extreme.