CHAPTER I.
THE VALLEY OF THE NILE.
The parentage and birth of Cleopatra .-- Cleopatra's residence in Egypt .-- Physical aspect of Egypt .-- The eagle's wings and science .-- Physical peculiarities of Egypt connected with the laws of rain .-- General laws of rain .-- Causes which modify the quantity of rain .-- Striking contrasts .-- Rainless regions .-- Great rainless region of Asia and Africa .-- The Andes .-- Map of the rainless region .-- Valley of the Nile .-- The Red Sea .-- The oases .-- Siweh .-- Mountains of the Moon .-- The River Nile .-- Incessant rains .-- Inundation of the Nile .-- Course of the river .-- Subsidence of the waters .-- Luxuriant vegetation .-- Absence of forests .-- Great antiquity of Egypt .-- Her monuments .-- The Delta of the Nile .-- The Delta as seen from the sea .-- Pelusiac mouth of the Nile .-- The Canopic mouth .-- Ancient Egypt .-- The Pyramids .-- Conquests of the Persians and Macedonians .-- The Ptolemies .-- Founding of Alexandria .-- The Pharos.
The story of Cleopatra is a story of crime.

It is a narrative of the course and the consequences of unlawful love.

In her strange and romantic history we see this passion portrayed with the most complete and graphic fidelity in all its influences and effects; its uncontrollable impulses, its intoxicating joys, its reckless and mad career, and the dreadful remorse and ultimate despair and ruin in which it always and inevitably ends.
Cleopatra was by birth an Egyptian; by ancestry and descent she was a Greek.

Thus, while Alexandria and the Delta of the Nile formed the scene of the most important events and incidents of her history, it was the blood of Macedon which flowed in her veins.

Her character and action are marked by the genius, the courage, the originality, and the impulsiveness pertaining to the stock from which she sprung.