Whatever proportion of truth there may have been in their spiritual claims and imaginings, if indeed there was any, such men as the Prince Harmachis have been told of in the annals of every great religion, and, as is shown by the testimony of monumental and sacred inscriptions, they were not unknown among the worshippers of the Egyptian Gods, and more especially of Isis. The reader is asked to bear in mind, however, that the story is told, not from the modern point of view, but as from the broken heart and with the lips of an Egyptian patriot of royal blood no mere beast-worshipper, but a priest instructed in the inmost mysteries, who believed firmly in the personal existence of the gods of Khem, in the possibility of communion with them, and in the certainty of immortal life with its rewards and punishments to whom also the bewildering and often gross symbolism of the Osirian Faith was nothing but a veil woven to obscure secrets of the Sanctuary. What malign influence and secret hates were at work, continually sapping their prosperity and blinding their judgment? Why did Cleopatra fly at Actium, and why did Antony follow her, leaving his fleet and army to destruction? An attempt is made in this romance to suggest a possible answer to these and some other questions. The history of the ruin of Antony and Cleopatra must have struck many students of the records of their age as one of the most inexplicable of tragic tales.

I trust that you will receive from my romance of Cleopatra some such pleasure as lightened the labour of its building up and that it may convey to your mind a picture, however imperfect, of the old and mysterious Egypt in whose lost glories you are so deeply interested.

Haggard knows a good deal about Zululand, and rifle shooting, and of the wilder pleasures of the country, and he has contrived to make a lively story out of these and other materials.I have for a long while hoped to be allowed to dedicate some book of mine to you, and now I bring you this work, because whatever its shortcomings, and whatever judgment may be passed upon it by yourself and others, it is yet the one I should wish you to accept. Haggard later named his daughter Dorothy after the heroine in the novel. The book was a minor success, earning Haggard a profit of fifty pounds. Haggard later wrote that 'although, except for the African part, it is not in my opinion so good a story as Dawn, it was extremely well received and within certain limits very successful.' The 1893 edition was illustrated by Charles H. He was unable to find any magazine that would serialise the story, but it was accepted for publication by the firm that had put out Dawn. Haggard wrote the novel following his debut effort Dawn. Rider Haggard, which he wrote just prior to King Solomon's Mines.

The Witch's Head is the second novel by H.

Cleopatra by h rider haggard