Page:Plutarch's Lives (Clough, v.4, 1865).djvu/315

 another time with thanks. Caesar replied that he did not want Egyptians to be his counsellors, and soon after privately sent for Cleopatra from her retirement. She took a small boat, and one only of her confidents, Apollodorus, the Sicilian, along with her, and in the dusk of the evening landed near the palace. .She was at a loss how to get in undiscovered, till she thought of put- ting herself into the coverlet of a bed and lying at length, whilst Apollodorus tied up the bedding and car- ried it on his back through the gates to Caesar's apart* ment. Caesar was first captivated by this proof of Cleopa- tra's bold wit, and was afterwards so overcome by the charm of her society, that he made a reconciliation be- tween her and her brother, on condition that she should rule as his colleague in the kingdom. A festival was kept to celebrate this reconciliation, where Caesar's bar- ber, a busy, listening fellow, whose excessive timidity made him inquisitive into every thing, discovered that there was a plot carrying on against Caesar by Achillas, general of the king's forces, and Pothinus, the eunuch. Caesar, upon the first intelligence of it, set a guard upon the hall where the feast was kept, and killed Pothinus. Achillas escaped to the army, and raised a troublesome and embarrassing war against Caesar, which it was not easy for him to manage with his few soldiers against so powerful a city and so large an army. The first difficulty he met with was want of water, for the enemies bad turned the canals Another was, when the enemy en- deavored to cut off his communication by sea, he was forced to divert that danger by setting fire to his own ships, which, after burning the docks, thence spread on and destroyed the great library. A third was, when in an engagement near Pharos, he leaped from the mole into a