DIGITISED MANUSCRIPTS

Cae? with her royal suitors of various creeds and na- tionalities she played off one against the other; and by coaxing each of the rivals in turn, she offended none individually, and remained on fairly good terms with the majority of the pretenders to her hand and throne. But what she gained by this means poli- tically, she lost in her own happiness. A desolate woman, with no husband to support her declining years, no children to brighten her home and to continue her race; the loneliness of her life deepened as she drew towards the grave. The statesmen, the warriors, and the favourites of her palmy days, had dropped off one by one, and yet, though her end was approaching, she clung to life with a fierce tenacity. She hunted and danced, she coquetted and scolded, at sixty-seven as she had done at thirty. But Death crept on, and she became haggard and worn to a skeleton; her mind decayed, and her memory failed her. Her temper became unbearable, and she seemed to lose even her courage. She kept a sword constantly beside her, and thrust it from time to time through the tapestry curtains at imaginary ghosts and assassins. For days and nights she sat propped up with pillows and cushions, without taking any sustenance, weeping, sighing, and speechless. Once only she broke the silence, once only a flash of her queenly mind triumphed over the wreck of her bodily faculties.