"Indeed. Do you know anything of Neter-Tua?"
"As much as any other man knows; but what do you mean?"
"I mean that I shall be sorry for the husband who marries her against her will, however beautiful and high-placed she may be. I tell you that woman is a flame. She has more strength in her than all the magicians in Egypt, yourself among them. They say she is a daughter of Amen, and I believe it. I believe that the G.o.d dwells in her, and woe be to him whom she may chance to hate, if he comes to her as a husband."
"That is Abi"s business, is it not? Our business, Merytra, is to get him there. Now we may take it this will not be with her consent."
"Certainly not, Kaku," she answered. "The gossip goes that she is in love with young Count Rames, who fought and killed the Prince of Kesh before her eyes, and now has gone to make amends to the king his father at the head of an army."
"That may be true, Merytra. Why not? He is her foster-brother and of royal blood, bold, too, and handsome, they say. Well, queens have no business to be in love. That is the privilege of humbler folk like you and me, Merytra. Say, is she suspicious--about Prince Abi, I mean?"
"I do not know, but Asti, her nurse and favourite lady, the wife of Mermes and mother of Rames, is suspicious enough. She is a greater magician than you are, Kaku, and if she could have had her way Pharaoh would never have set foot in Memphis. But I got your letter and over-persuaded him, the poor fool. You see he thinks me faithful to his House, and that is why I am allowed to be here to-night, to collect information."
"Ah! Well, what Asti knows the Queen will know, and she is stronger than Pharaoh, and notwithstanding all Abi"s ships and soldiers, may break away from Memphis and make war upon him. So it comes to this--Pharaoh must stay here, for his daughter will not desert him."
"How will you make him stay here, Kaku? Not by----" and she glanced towards the shrouded crystal.
"Nay, no blood if it can be helped. He must not even seem to be a prisoner, it is too dangerous. But there are other ways."
"What ways? Poison?"
"Too dangerous again. Now, if he fell sick, and he has been sick before, and could not stir, it would give us time to bring about the marriage, would it not? Oh! I know that he is well at present--for him, but look here, Merytra, I have something to show you."
Then going to a chest Kaku took from it a plain box of cedar wood which was shaped like a mummy case, and, lifting off its lid, revealed within it a waxen figure of the length of a hand. This figure was beautifully fashioned to the living likeness of Pharaoh, and crowned with the double crown of Egypt.
"What is it?" asked Merytra, shrinking back. "An _ushapti_ to be placed in his tomb?"
"No, woman, a magic Ka fashioned with many a spell out of yonder ancient roll, that can bring _him_ to the tomb if it be rightly used, as you shall use it."
"I!" she exclaimed, starting. "How?"
"Thus: You, as one of Pharaoh"s favourite ladies, have charge of the chamber where he sleeps. Now you must make shift to enter there alone and lay this figure in his bed, that the breath of Pharaoh may enter into it. Then take it from the bed and say these words, "Figure, figure, I command thee by the power within thee and in the name of the Lord if Ill, that as thy limbs waste, so shall the limbs of him in whose likeness thou art fashioned waste also." Having spoken thus, hold the legs of the image over the flame of a lamp until it be half melted, and convey the rest of it away to your own sleeping-place and hide it there.
So it shall come about that during that night the nerves and muscles in the legs of Pharaoh will wither and grow useless to him, and he be paralysed and unable to stir. Afterwards, if it be needful, I will tell you more."
Now, bold though she was, Merytra grew afraid.
"I cannot do it," she said, "it is black sorcery against one who is a G.o.d, and will bring my soul to h.e.l.l. Find some other instrument, or place the waxen imp in the bed of Pharaoh yourself, Kaku."
The face of the magician grew fierce and cruel.
"Come with me, Merytra," he said, and taking her by the wrist he led her to the open window-place whence he observed the stars.
So giddy was the height at the top of this lofty tower that the houses beneath looked small and far away, and the sky quite near.
"Behold Memphis and the Nile, and the wide lands of Egypt gleaming in the moonlight, and the Pyramids of the ancient kings. You wish to rule over all these, like myself--do you not, Merytra?--and if you obey me you shall do so."
"And if I do not obey?"
"Then I will throw my spell upon you, and your senses shall leave you and you shall fall headlong to that white line, which is a street, and before to-morrow morning the dogs will have picked your broken bones, so that none can know you, for you have heard too much to go hence alive unless it be to do my bidding. Oh, no! Think not to say "I will" and afterwards deceive me, for that image which you take with you is my servant, and will keep watch on you and make report to me and to the G.o.d, its master. Now choose."
"I will obey," said Merytra faintly, and as she spoke she thought that she heard a laugh in the air outside the window.
"Good. Now hide the box beneath your cloak and drop it not, for if so that which is within will call aloud after you, and they will kill you for a sorceress. Unless my word come to you, lay the figure in Pharaoh"s bed to-morrow evening, and at the hour of moonrise hold its limbs in the flame in your own chamber, and hide it away, and afterwards bring it back to me that I may enchant it afresh, if there be any need. Now come, and I will guard you to the gates of the old temple of Sekhet, where Pharaoh dwells."
CHAPTER IX
THE DOOM OF PHARAOH
On the morrow when the lady Asti came to dress the Queen for that day"s ceremony, she asked her if Amen had given her the wisdom that she sought.
"Not so," answered the young Queen, "all he gave me was very bad dreams, and in every one of them was mixed up that waiting woman of my father, Merytra, of whom you spoke to me. If I believed in omens I should say that she was about to bring some evil upon our House."
"It may well be so, Queen," answered Asti, "and in that case I think that she is at the work. At any rate, watching from the little window of my room, by the light of the moon I saw her return across the temple court at midnight. Moreover, it seemed to me that she was carrying something beneath her robe."
"Whence did she return?"
"From the city, I suppose. She has Pharaoh"s pa.s.s, and can go in and out when she will. I have caused Mermes to question the officer of the guard, and he says that she came to the gate accompanied by a tall man wrapped in a dark cloak, who spoke with her earnestly, and left her.
From this description I think it must have been the astrologer, Kaku, with whom she was talking at the feast."
"That is bad news, Nurse. What else have you to tell?"
"Only this, Queen. The gates are guarded more closely even than we thought. I tried to send out a man to Thebes this morning with a message on my own account--never mind what it was--and the sentries turned him back."
"By the G.o.ds!" exclaimed Tua, "before I have reigned a year every gate in Memphis shall be melted down for cooking vessels, and I will set their captains to work in the desert mines. Nay, such threats are foolishness, I"ll not threaten, I"ll strike when the time comes, but that is not yet. Can I speak with the Pharaoh?"
"No, Queen. He is up already giving audience to the n.o.bles of Memphis, and trying cases from the Lower Land with his Counsellors; until it is time to start for this ceremony of the laying of the foundation-stone of the temple, whither you accompany him in state. Also it is as well--by to-night we may learn more. Come, let me set the crown upon your head that these dogs of Memphis may know their mistress."
The ceremony proved very wearisome. First there was the long chariot ride through the crowded, shouting streets, Pharaoh and Abi going in the first chariot, and Tua, attended by Abi"s eldest daughter, a round-eyed lady much older than herself, in the second. Next came the office of the priests of Amen, over which Neter-Tua as daughter of Amen and high-priestess, must preside, to dedicate the temple to the glory of the G.o.d. Then the foundation deposit of little vases of offerings and models of workmen"s tools, and a ring drawn from Pharaoh"s hand engraved with his royal name, were blessed and set by the masons in hollows prepared for them, and the two great corner-stones let down, hiding them for ever, and declared respectively by Pharaoh and by Neter-Tua, Morning Star of Amen, Joint Sovereign of Egypt, to be well and truly laid.
Afterwards architects, those who "drew the line," exhibited plans of the temple, and received gifts from Pharaoh, and when these things were done came the mid-day feast and speeches.
At length all was over, and the great procession returned by another route to the temple of Sekhet, where Pharaoh lodged, a very tedious journey in the hot sun, since it involved a circuit of the endless walls of Memphis, with stoppages before all the temples of the G.o.ds, at each of which Pharaoh must make offerings. Nor, weary as he was, might he rest, for in the outer court of the old shrine thrones had been set up and seated on them he and Tua must hear pet.i.tions till sunset and give judgment, or postpone them for further consideration.
At last there came to an end, but, as Pharaoh, tired out, rose from his throne, Abi, his brother, who all this time had not left them, said that he also had a private pet.i.tion to prefer. So they went into an inner court that had been a sanctuary, and sat down again, there being present besides the scribes only Pharaoh, the Queen, some councillors, Mermes, captain of the guard, and certain women of the royal household, among them Asti, the Queen"s nurse, and Merytra, Pharaoh"s favourite attendant. With Abi were his astrologer, Kaku, his two eldest sons, and a few of the great officers of his government, also the high-priests of the temples of Memphis, and three powerful chiefs of the Desert tribes.
"What is your prayer, my brother?" asked Pharaoh, as soon as the doors were closed.
"A great one, your Majesties," answered the Prince, prostrating himself, "which for the good of Egypt, and for your own good, and for my good, who reverence you as a loyal subject, I pray that you will be pleased to grant." Then he drew himself up and said slowly, "I am here to ask the hand of the glorious Queen Neter-Tua, daughter of Amen, in marriage."
Now Pharaoh stared at him, while Tua, who knew well what was coming, turned her head aside, and asked a councillor who stood near, if in the history of the land any Queen of Egypt had ever married her uncle.
The councillor who was noted for his historical studies, answered that at the moment he could recall no such case.
"Then," said Tua coolly, and still addressing him, "it seems that it would be scarcely wise to create a precedent which other poor young women of the royal race might be called upon to follow."