One of Cleopatra's Nights by Theophile Gautier (1839)

This originally appeared with other novellas in a collection called A Tear of the Devil. In it Gautier reveals himself as a voluptuary. It is a classic reaction to what he calls the 'long fast of Christianity'. A handsome but insignificant young man, Meiamoun, has taken an enormous fancy to his queen, Cleopatra, following her whenever he can, watching from the shadows and on the edge of crowds, as she presides over national celebrations and important events. He knows his passion for her is ridiculous and that he has no business with her at all - she's so far above him as to be of another plane entirely, but he can't help himself and sees no other path. He follows her cangia down the Nile on his small foot-craft after a panegyris in the temple of Hermonthis. Watching her disembark up gigantic steps into a palace from the waterside, he decides that nothing else matters - he must make contact somehow. Meantime, Cleopatra is bored, hankering after something more, some meaning to which she can attach herself. She becomes increasingly bad-tempered, seething with dulness. That night Meiamoun takes his crazy chance - he fires an arrow through her window with a note attached which simply says 'I love you'. The queen and her chief maid, Charmion (no doubt the origin of the character of the same name in Mankiewicz's Taylor-Burton 1963 epic), scan the waters below the window fascinatedly, and Cleopatra's boredom is temporarily alleviated. She sends a trusted slave to find the bowman - he searches all over the Nile without result as Meiamoun manages to evade him, much to the queen's irritation. Next morning he has entered an underwater vent which leads up into the baths of the queen. As she bathes naked (dribblingly described by Gautier) she spots Meiamoun hiding in a corner behind some trees and cries out, outraged. This is it. Meiamoun assumes that, as he has been caught, especially in these circumstances, he will be executed. Cleopatra, quickly over the surprise, confirms that this will be the case, but recognizes him from the background of recent celebrations, and clearly likes what she sees. Here is a perfect boredom-alleviator. She lets him know that she will spend the day and night with him before he will be required to die. Gautier, as he has done all through, takes us lovingly through the sensuous orgiasticism of a huge banquet and private celebration with choreographed fires, lights, foods and experiences mingling in a heady, drug-like miasma. Then Meiamoun, now a satiated votary, willingly slugs down his bubbling poison. This is sensualism, impure and simple, but elegantly limned.