The Sun has set at Actium. The great Egyptian Sun God Ra has fled the Earth and left his domain to the darkness of night just as he deserted the navy of the Egyptian queen and her Roman consort. They have eaten their last meal together in her palace and Marc Antony is pacing in front of the lilly pond in the center of the open air chamber while Cleopatra reclines on an array of cushions, two burly slaves fan her with ostrich feathers. At her side is a glass case containing a live cobra, the symbol of her power in the Desert Kingdom. Antony was weighing the chances of saving himself by betraying Cleopatra. He wondered if he could bring himself to do it. He stopped pacing and regarded her beautiful curves, she moistened her lips and began to speak.
    "Has my big strong Roman had enough to eat? Why doesn't he come over here and snuggle his with his little queeny weeny?" Antony cringed at the grating sound of her voice, why couldn't she just keep quiet?
    "Enough with the baby talk, Cleopatra! We're finished. We've lost the battle of Actium. We've lost everything we've worked and fought for. Octavian's troops will be here soon enough." Marc Antony held his stomach with both hands, he really had eaten too much.
    "Why doesn't the angry Roman want to snuggle with his itsy bitsy Queen of the Nile? Is her little snookums cross with her?" That's it, he decided, he'd sell her to Octavian and be rid of her once and for all.
    "If her majesty's naughty boy doesn't kiss and make up with her she'll hold her breath and won't talk to him until he gives her a smoochy woochy."
    He was about to tell her how nauseous she was making him when his dinner began to make the return trip out of his stomach. He fell to his knees, bent over the pond and disgorged his dinner. While he was still on his knees Cleopatra snapped her fingers and the two slaves dropped their feathers. She nodded to them and they grabbed Marc Antony's ankles and picked him up submersing his head in the lilly pond in the process.
    "That was easy enough," she said as she got up and walked over to her glass case and looked into the beautiful, deadly eyes of the cobra. "And it means you, my pretty, can save your venom for my next conquest, Octavian!"
    The final struggle of her erstwhile lover finished, the slaves let go of him and his limp body fell over and knocked Cleopatra into the glass case which gave way under her weight. The startled snake struck in a flash and inflicted a mortal wound.
    "Ouch! I fell on my asp!"
    The slaves fell on the floor and began laughing hysterically.
    "You'll pay for your insolent behavior!" Cleopatra screamed at her disobedient slaves. She was more upset at their lack of respect than she was about dying.
    The two slaves stopped laughing and looked at each other with trepidation. They well knew the severity of punishment for even minor offenses at Cleopatra's court but the absurdity of the situation was too much for them and they burst out laughing louder than before.
    "Hey, we're eunuchs!", one of them bellowed to the dying Cleopatra, "What have we got to lose?"