WHATEVER might have been the character of the person occupying the throne of the Ptolemies, during the time of the Cæsars and the Triumvirate, it may well be doubted, whether the independence of Egypt, under any other circumstances than those which attended the complete subjection of that kingdom to the Roman sway, could have been longer maintained in opposition to the colossal power whose victorious standards were planted on the rocky shores of the Atlantic, or fanned by the soft breezes of the Orient; and, perhaps, it was rather the misfortune than the fault, of the fair, but frail, descendant of a long line of illustrious princes, that she was the last of her dynasty and race who ruled in the home of her ancestors. Nay, is it not certain, that the charms which captivated Cæsar and enthralled the heart of Antony, though powerless to save her country from the doom that awaited it, put far off the evil day of its undoing? The Egyptian kings had long been the mere allies of |