""Where is the chariot?" I asked.
""We go by boat," he answered, and led the way towards the river. As we threaded the big palm grove men appeared from between the trees.
""You have betrayed me," I cried.
""Nay," he answered, "I am myself betrayed."
"Then for the first time I knew his voice for that of Laban.
"The men seized us; at the head of them was Ki.
""This is the witch," he said, "who, her wickedness finished, flies with her Hebrew lover, who is also the familiar of her sorceries."
"They tore the cloak and the false beard from him and there before me stood Laban. I cursed him to his face. But all he answered was:
""Merapi, what I have done I did for love of you. It was my purpose to take you away to our people, for here I knew that they would kill you.
This magician promised you to me if I could tempt you from the safety of the palace, in return for certain tidings that I have given him."
"These were the only words that pa.s.sed between us till the end. They dragged us to the secret prison of the great temple where we were separated. Here all day long Ki and the priests tormented me with questions, to which I gave no answer. Towards the evening they brought me out and led me here with Laban at my side. When the people saw me a great cry went up of "Sorceress! Hebrew witch!" They broke through the guard; they seized me, threw me to the ground and beat me. Laban strove to protect me but was torn away. At length the people were driven off, and oh! my lord, you know the rest. I have spoken truth, I can no more."
So saying her knees loosened beneath her and she swooned. We bore her to the chariot.
"You have heard, Ki," said the Prince. "Now, what answer?"
"None, O Pharaoh," he replied coldly, "for Pharaoh you are, as I promised that you should be. My spirit has deserted me, those Hebrews have stolen it away. That writing should have faded from the scroll as soon as it was read by yonder lady, and then I would have told you another story; a story of secret love, of betrayal and attempted flight with her lover. But some evil G.o.d kept it there until you also had read, you who knew that you had not written what appeared before your eyes.
Pharaoh, I am conquered. Do your will with me, and farewell. Beloved you shall always be as you have always been, but happy never in this world."
"O People," cried Seti, "I will not be judge in my own cause. You have heard, do you judge. For this wizard, what reward?"
Then there went up a great cry of "Death! Death by fire. The death he had made ready for the innocent!"
That was the end, but they told me afterwards that, when the great pyre had burned out, in it was found the head of Ki looking like a red-hot stone. When the sunlight fell on it, however, it crumbled and faded away, as the writing had faded from the roll. If this be true I do not know, who was not present at the time.
We bore Merapi to the palace. She lived but three days, she whose body and spirit were broken. The last time I saw her was when she sent for me not an hour before death came. She was lying in Seti"s arms babbling to him of their child and looking very sweet and happy. She thanked me for my friendship, smiling the while in a way which showed me that she knew it was more than friendship, and bade me tend my master well until we all met again elsewhere. Then she gave me her hand to kiss and I went away weeping.
After she was dead a strange fancy took Seti. In the great hall of the palace he caused a golden throne to be put up, and on this throne he set her in regal garments, with pectoral and necklaces of gems, crowned like a queen of Egypt, and thus he showed her to the lords of Memphis. Then he caused her to be embalmed and buried in a secret sepulchre, the place of which I have sworn never to reveal, but without any rites because she was not of the faith of Egypt.
There then she sleeps in her eternal house until the Day of Resurrection, and with her sleeps her little son.
It was within a moon of this funeral that the great ones of Egypt came to Memphis to name the Prince as Pharaoh, and with them came her Highness, the Queen Userti. I was present at the ceremony, which to me was very strange. There was the Vizier Nehesi; there was the high-priest Roi and with him many other priests; and there was even the old chamberlain Pambasa, pompous yet grovelling as before, although he had deserted the household of the Prince after his disinheritance for that of the Pharaoh Amenmeses. His appearance with his wand of office and long white beard, of which he was so proud because it was his own, drew from Seti the only laugh I had heard him utter for many weeks.
"So you are back again, Chamberlain Pambasa," he said.
"O most Holy, O most Royal," answered the old knave, "has Pambasa, the grain of dust beneath your feet, ever deserted the House of Pharaoh, or that of him who will be Pharaoh?"
"No," replied Seti, "it is only when you think that he will not be Pharaoh that you desert. Well, get you to your duties, rogue, who perhaps at bottom are as honest as the rest."
Then followed the great and ancient ceremony of the Offering of the Crown, in which spoke priests disguised as G.o.ds and other priests disguised as mighty Pharaohs of the past; also the n.o.bles of the Nomes and the chief men of cities. When all had finished Seti answered:
"I take this, my heritage," and he touched the double crown, "not because I desire it but because it is my duty, as I swore that I would to one who has departed. Blow upon blow have smitten Egypt which, I think, had my voice been listened to, would never have fallen. Egypt lies bleeding and well-nigh dead. Let it be your work and mine to try to nurse her back to life. For no long while am I with you, who also have been smitten, how it matters not, yet while I am here, I who seem to reign will be your servant and that of Egypt. It is my decree that no feasts or ceremonials shall mark this my accession, and that the wealth which would have been scattered upon them shall be distributed among the widows and children of those who perished in the Sea of Reeds. Depart!"
They went, humble yet happy, since here was a Pharaoh who knew the needs of Egypt, one too who loved her and who alone had shown himself wise of heart while others were filled with madness. Then her Highness entered, splendidly apparelled, crowned and followed by her household, and made obeisance.
"Greeting to Pharaoh," she cried.
"Greeting to the Royal Princess of Egypt," he answered.
"Nay, Pharaoh, the Queen of Egypt."
By Seti"s side there was another throne, that in which he had set dead Merapi with a crown upon her head. He turned and looked at it a while.
Then, he said:
"I see that this seat is empty. Let the Queen of Egypt take her place there if so she wills."
She stared at him as if she thought that he was mad, though doubtless she had heard something of that story, then swept up the steps and sat herself down in the royal chair.
"Your Majesty has been long absent," said Seti.
"Yes," she answered, "but as my Majesty promised she would do, she has returned to her lawful place at the side of Pharaoh--never to leave it more."
"Pharaoh thanks her Majesty," said Seti, bowing low.
Some six years had gone by, when one night I was seated with the Pharaoh Seti Meneptah in his palace at Memphis, for there he always chose to dwell when matters of State allowed.
It was on the anniversary of the Death of the Firstborn, and of this matter it pleased him to talk to me. Up and down the chamber he walked and, watching him by the lamplight, I noted that of a sudden he seemed to have grown much older, and that his face had become sweeter even than it was before. He was more thin also, and his eyes had in them a look of one who stares at distances.
"You remember that night, Friend, do you not," he said; "perhaps the most terrible night the world has ever seen, at least in the little piece of it called Egypt." He ceased, lifted a curtain, and pointed to a spot on the pillared portico without. "There she sat," he went on; "there you stood; there lay the boy and there crouched his nurse--by the way, I grieve to hear that she is ill. You are caring for her, are you not, Ana? Say to her that Pharaoh will come to visit her--when he may, when he may."
"I remember it all, Pharaoh."
"Yes, of course you would remember, because you loved her, did you not, and the boy too, and even me, the father. And so you will love us always when we reach a land where s.e.x with its walls and fires are forgotten, and love alone survives--as we shall love you."
"Yes," I answered, "since love is the key of life, and those alone are accursed who have never learned to love."
"Why accursed, Ana, seeing that, if life continues, they still may learn?" He paused a while, then went on: "I am glad that he died, Ana, although had he lived, as the Queen will have no children, he might have become Pharaoh after me. But what is it to be Pharaoh? For six years now I have reigned, and I think that I am beloved; reigned over a broken land which I have striven to bind together, reigned over a sick land which I have striven to heal, reigned over a desolated land which I have striven to make forget. Oh! the curse of those Hebrews worked well. And I think that it was my fault, Ana, for had I been more of a man, instead of casting aside my burden, I should have stood up against my father Meneptah and his policy and, if need were, have raised the people. Then the Israelites would have gone, and no plagues would have smitten Egypt.
Well, what I did, I did because I must, perhaps, and what has happened, has happened. And now my time comes to an end, and I go hence to balance my account as best I may, praying that I may find judges who understand, and are gentle."
"Why does Pharaoh speak thus?" I asked.
"I do not know, Ana, yet that Hebrew wife of mine has been much in my mind of late. She was wise in her way, as wise as loving, was she not, and if we could see her once again, perhaps she would answer the question. But although she seems so near to me, I never can see her, quite. Can you, Ana?"
"No, Pharaoh, though one night old Bakenkhonsu vowed that he perceived her pa.s.sing before us, and looking at me earnestly as she pa.s.sed."
"Ah! Bakenkhonsu. Well, he is wise too, and loved her in his fashion.
Also the flesh fades from him, though mayhap he will live to make offerings at both our tombs. Well, Bakenkhonsu is at Tanis, or is it at Thebes, with her Majesty, whom he ever loves to observe, as I do. So he can tell us nothing of what he thought he saw. This chamber is hot, Ana, let us stand without."