MYSTERY DEATH.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 31, 6 February 1937, Page 4 (Supplement)

MYSTERY DEATH.

which lost its head and assassinated Chief Justice Kilwardcn as he passed by in his carnage.

But the mob hesitated to follow Emmet to Dublin Castle. At the first volley from a small parcel of: soldiers they dispersed, leaving him unsupported. Fleeing for his life to Wioklow Mountains, he remained in hiding until word micrht come that he could safely escape to 'France.

But the little blind god who is at the bottom of most of life's tragedies proved to be the dashing young patriot's undoing. That ho might take one more fond farewell of his beloved Sarah Curran, the daughter of the noted barrister, John P. Curran, to which lady ho was betrothed, he delayed escape ■ too long, was captured and, like Sir Roger Casement, was tried for high treason against the British Government. Defended Own Case. He defended his own case and most of us have been stirred by reading the eloquent address which ho made to the Court when asked if he could show any cause why sentence should not be imposed upon him. The death penalty inflicted nj>oll Emmet was more cruel than that suffered by Casement.

After ho had been hanged the executioner beheaded him and exhibited his bloody head to the multitude. Then his body was taken to Kilmainham gaol, quicklime, it was kept a waitin.2* orders from his family. It happened, however, that all of his relatives and friends hiding, the latter not during: to make known their whereabouts. Beyond stating that it was returned to the gaol, history does not relate what became of It was Emmet's dyiiij! request that iiis grave bear no epitaph until Ireland should be freed, and out of respect for Ms wishes doubtless grew the deep Sh^Te aS t0 thG PlaC<? ' WllCrc llis last Buried in Sulley's Acre? corpse, when unclaimed, was taken from tlio prison and buried in Sulley's Acre the potters field whore unclaimed pampers and executed criminals were buried, but was afterward claimed and exhumed by a certain Dr. Gamble and reintorred in Dublin at some spot ivhwc location has escaped the memory of the populace which held him as their idol.

THE ARCH TEMPTRESS. A RIDDLE OF THE SPHINX. UT7OR her actual beauty, it is said, I 1 was not in itself so remarkable that none could be compared with her, or that no one could Fee her without being struck by it, but the contact of her presence, if you lived with her, was irresistible; the attraction of her person ioiniii" with the charm of her conversation, ' and the character that attended all she said or did, was something bewitching. It was a pleasure increlv to hear the sound of her voice, with "which, like an instrument of many strings, she could pass, from one language to another; so that there were few'of the barbarian nations that she answered by an interpreter."

In these words did Plutarch describe Cleopatra, the last Queen of- Egypt, daughter of Ptolemy Aultes. This arch-temptress of all tho ages was born at Alexandria, Egypt, BO years 8.C., and with her brother Ptolemy became joint ruler- over Egypt when she was a sprightly girl of IS." Dethroned. After having enjoyed a reign of but three years she was dethroned by her brother's partisans. While their respecCaesar arrived in Egypt and reinstated her upon the throne. Then followed a

I liaison between the voung Queen of the l' Xile and the middle-aged conqueror of the world. It lasted until there was ,- born to them a son, Cosarion, and during I two years afterward, at which time i Cleopatra lived with Caesar in Rome, . not returning to Egypt until after his - murder in the Senate. 1 Three, years later the calm of the "■ siren of the Xile was to be again disturbed by a noble Roman—this time the ! handsome and dashing Mark Antony, 5 who had been appointed ruler of Asia i and the East. Being summoned before ; Antony to answer accusations of having 1 aided his enemies, Cleopatra came sail- • ing to him in "a barge with gilded stern and outspread sails of. purple, while oars • of silver beat time to the music of flutes and pipes and harps. She herself 1 lay all alone under a canopy of cloth of gold, dressed as Venus in a picture, and beautiful young boys, liko painted Cupids, stood on each side to fan her. Her maids were dressed like sea nymphs and graces, some steering at the rudder, some working at the ropes." Antony Yielded to Her Charms. As ,a result of this excursion Antony became her captive instead of her captor. "Were Antony serious or disposed to mirth," siiys Plutarch, "she had at any moment some new delight or charm to meet his wishes; at every turn she was upon him, and let him escape her neither by day nor by night. She played at dice with him, drank with him, hunted with himj and when he exercised in arms she was there to see.' As a result of this'adventure Antony divorced his wife, the sister of the Emperor Augustus, which resulted in the Emperor's declaring war on Cleopatra. The fleet of Antony and Cleopatra was defeated by that of Augustus when the little queen was 38. She fled from the Romans, followed by her lover, who, on hearing a false report of her death, killed himself. To make Augusta's triumph complete it was decreed that Cleopatra should be exhibited in Rome, but she thwarted these arrangements. Visiting the monument which sheltered Antony's tomb, she shut herself up therein with only her two maids of honour. She wrote to the Emperor a letter, making pathetic entreaties that she might be buried in some soldiers opened the doors' of the monument, they found the beautiful Cleopatra dead, "lying upon ■, bod of gold, set out in all her royal ornaments." Her two maids by her side were in a I dying condition.

Stung by an Asp? As to hnw Cleopatra met her (loath has for centuries boon one of tho riddles of the sphinx. One story was that just before she shut herself "in tile tomb a countryman bearing a basket of figs was allowed to pass the guards and cmer her presence with an asp hidden in.dor the fruit. By allowing this serpent to sting her—sonic say upon the arm, others aver upon the bosom—she is alleged to have committed suicide. According to another account she kept tin , asp in a vase, and with a golden spindle tantalised it until it stung her. Another story was that she killed herself with poison carried in a hollow hodkin upon which she wound her wonderful hair.

But it has been argued that if she had chosen any serpent to sting her it would have been the small viper rather than the large asp. Moreover, it is related that she was found dead "without any mark of suspicion of poison on her body" and that a serpent's bite would have left an unmistakable blemish. .Many authorities have argued that Cleopatra's vanity would never have allowed her to select a mode of deatli that would have disfigured her so frightfully as a serpent's still" "What really took place is "known to no one," says Plutarch.