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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/5448.txt b/5448.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c608224 --- /dev/null +++ b/5448.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2186 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook Uarda by Georg Ebers, Volume 10. +#10 in our series by Georg Ebers + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**EBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These EBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers***** + + +Title: Uarda, Volume 10. + +Author: Georg Ebers + +Release Date: April, 2004 [EBook #5448] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on April 29, 2002] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + + + + + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK UARDA BY GEORG EBERS, V10 *** + + + +This eBook was produced by David Widger <widger@cecomet.net> + + + +[NOTE: There is a short list of bookmarks, or pointers, at the end of the +file for those who may wish to sample the author's ideas before making an +entire meal of them. D.W.] + + + + + +UARDA + +Volume 10. + +By Georg Ebers + + + +CHAPTER XLII. + +The cloudless vault of heaven spread over the plain of Pelusium, the +stars were bright, the moon threw her calm light over the thousands of +tents which shone as white as little hillocks of snow. All was silent, +the soldiers and the Egyptians, who had assembled to welcome the king, +were now all gone to rest. + +There had been great rejoicing and jollity in the camp; three enormous +vats, garlanded with flowers and overflowing with wine, which spilt with +every movement of the trucks on which they were drawn by thirty oxen, +were sent up and down the little streets of tents, and as the evening +closed in tavern-booths were erected in many spots in the camp, at which +the Regent's servants supplied the soldiers with red and white wine. The +tents of the populace were only divided from the pavilion of the Pharaoh +by the hastily-constructed garden in the midst of which it stood, and the +hedge which enclosed it. + +The tent of the Regent himself was distinguished from all the others by +its size and magnificence; to the right of it was the encampment of the +different priestly deputations, to the left that of his suite; among the +latter were the tents of his friend Katuti, a large one for her own use, +and some smaller ones for her servants. Behind Ani's pavilion stood a +tent, enclosed in a wall or screen of canvas, within which old Hekt was +lodged; Ani had secretly conveyed her hither on board his own boat. Only +Katuti and his confidential servants knew who it was that lay concealed +in the mysteriously shrouded abode. + +While the banquet was proceeding in the great pavilion, the witch was +sitting in a heap on the sandy earth of her conical canvas dwelling; she +breathed with difficulty, for a weakness of the heart, against which she +had long struggled, now oppressed her more frequently and severely; a +little lamp of clay burned before her, and on her lap crouched a sick and +ruffled hawk; the creature shivered from time to time, closing the filmy +lids of his keen eyes, which glowed with a dull fire when Hekt took him +up in her withered hand, and tried to blow some air into his hooked beak, +still ever ready to peck and tear her. + +At her feet little Scherau lay asleep. Presently she pushed the child +with her foot. "Wake up," she said, as he raised himself still half +asleep. "You have young ears--it seemed to me that I heard a woman +scream in Ani's tent. Do you hear any thing?" + +"Yes, indeed," exclaimed the little one. "There is a noise like crying, +and that--that was a scream! It came from out there, from Nemu's tent." + +"Creep through there," said the witch, "and see what is happening!" + +The child obeyed: Hekt turned her attention again to the bird, which no +longer perched in her lap, but lay on one side, though it still tried to +use its talons, when she took him up in her hand. + +"It is all over with him," muttered the old woman, "and the one I called +Rameses is sleeker than ever. It is all folly and yet--and yet! the +Regent's game is over, and he has lost it. The creature is stretching +itself--its head drops--it draws itself up--one more clutch at my dress +--now it is dead!" + +She contemplated the dead hawk in her lap for some minutes, then she took +it up, flung it into a corner of the tent, and exclaimed: + +"Good-bye, King Ani. The crown is not for you!" Then she went on: "What +project has he in hand now, I wonder? Twenty times he has asked me +whether the great enterprise will succeed; as if I knew any more than he! +And Nemu too has hinted all kinds of things, though he would not speak +out. Something is going on, and I--and I? There it comes again." + +The old woman pressed her hand to her heart and closed her eyes, her +features were distorted with pain; she did not perceive Scherau's return, +she did not hear him call her name, or see that, when she did not answer +him, he left her again. For an hour or more she remained unconscious, +then her senses returned, but she felt as if some ice-cold fluid slowly +ran through her veins instead of the warm blood. + +"If I had kept a hawk for myself too," she muttered, "it would soon +follow the other one in the corner! If only Ani keeps his word, and has +me embalmed! + +"But how can he when he too is so near his end. They will let me rot and +disappear, and there will be no future for me, no meeting with Assa." + +The old woman remained silent for a long time; at last she murmured +hoarsely with her eyes fixed on the ground: + +"Death brings release, if only from the torment of remembrance. But +there is a life beyond the grave. I do not, I will not cease to hope. +The dead shall all be equally judged, and subject to the inscrutable +decrees.--Where shall I find him? Among the blest, or among the damned? +And I? It matters not! The deeper the abyss into which they fling me +the better. Can Assa, if he is among the blest, remain in bliss, when he +sees to what he has brought me? Oh! they must embalm me--I cannot bear +to vanish, and rot and evaporate into nothingness!" + +While she was still speaking, the dwarf Nemu had come into the tent; +Scherau, seeing the old woman senseless, had run to tell him that his +mother was lying on the earth with her eyes shut, and was dying. The +witch perceived the little man. + +"It is well," she said, "that you have come; I shall be dead before +sunrise." + +"Mother!" cried the dwarf horrified, "you shall live, and live better +than you have done till now! Great things are happening, and for us!" + +"I know, I know," said Hekt. "Go away, Scherau--now, Nemu, whisper in my +ear what is doing?" The dwarf felt as if he could not avoid the +influence of her eye, he went up to her, and said softly--"The pavilion, +in which the king and his people are sleeping, is constructed of wood; +straw and pitch are built into the walls, and laid under the boards. As +soon as they are gone to rest we shall set the tinder thing on fire. The +guards are drunk and sleeping." + +"Well thought of," said Hekt. "Did you plan it?" "I and my mistress," +said the dwarf not without pride. "You can devise a plot," said the old +woman, "but you are feeble in the working out. Is your plan a secret? +Have you clever assistants?" + +"No one knows of it," replied the dwarf, "but Katuti, Paaker, and I; we +three shall lay the brands to the spots we have fixed upon. I am going +to the rooms of Bent-Anat; Katuti, who can go in and out as she pleases, +will set fire to the stairs, which lead to the upper story, and which +fall by touching a spring; and Paaker to the king's apartments." + +"Good-good, it may succeed," gasped the old woman. "But what was the +scream in your tent?" The dwarf seemed doubtful about answering; but +Hekt went on: + +"Speak without fear--the dead are sure to be silent." The dwarf, +trembling with agitation, shook off his hesitation, and said: + +"I have found Uarda, the grandchild of Pinem, who had disappeared, and I +decoyed her here, for she and no other shall be my wife, if Ani is king, +and if Katuti makes me rich and free. She is in the service of the +Princess Bent-Anat, and sleeps in her anteroom, and she must not be burnt +with her mistress. She insisted on going back to the palace, so, as she +would fly to the fire like a gnat, and I would not have her risk being +burnt, I tied her up fast." + +"Did she not struggle?" said Hekt. + +"Like a mad thing," said the dwarf. "But the Regent's dumb slave, who +was ordered by his master to obey me in everything to-day, helped me. +We tied up her mouth that she might not be heard screaming!" + +"Will you leave her alone when you go to do your errand?" + +"Her father is with her!" + +"Kaschta, the red-beard?" asked the old woman in surprise. "And did he +not break you in pieces like an earthenware pot?" + +"He will not stir," said Nemu laughing. "For when I found him, I made +him so drunk with Ani's old wine that he lies there like a mummy. It was +from him that I learned where Uarda was, and I went to her, and got her +to come with me by telling her that her father was very ill, and begged +her to go to see him once more. She flew after me like a gazelle, and +when she saw the soldier lying there senseless she threw herself upon +him, and called for water to cool his head, for he was raving in his +dreams of rats and mice that had fallen upon him. As it grew late she +wanted to return to her mistress, and we were obliged to prevent her. +How handsome she has grown, mother; you cannot imagine how pretty she +is." + +"Aye, aye!" said Hekt. "You will have to keep an eye upon her when she +is your wife." + +"I will treat her like the wife of a noble," said Nemu. "And pay a real +lady to guard her. But by this time Katuti has brought home her +daughter, Mena's wife; the stars are sinking and--there--that was the +first signal. When Katuti whistles the third time we are to go to work. +Lend me your fire-box, mother." + +"Take it," said Hekt. "I shall never need it again. It is all over with +me! How your hand shakes! Hold the wood firmly, or you will drop it +before you have brought the fire." + +The dwarf bid the old woman farewell, and she let him kiss her without +moving. When he was gone, she listened eagerly for any sound that might +pierce the silence of the night, her eyes shone with a keen light, and a +thousand thoughts flew through her restless brain. When she heard the +second signal on Katuti's silver whistle, she sat upright and muttered: + +"That gallows-bird Paaker, his vain aunt and that villain Ani, are no +match for Rameses, even when he is asleep. Ani's hawk is dead; he has +nothing to hope for from Fortune, and I nothing to hope for from him. +But if Rameses--if the real king would promise me--then my poor old body +--Yes, that is the thing, that is what I will do." + +She painfully raised herself on her feet with the help of her stick, she +found a knife and a small flask which she slipped into her dress, and +then, bent and trembling, with a last effort of her remaining strength +she dragged herself as far as Nemu's tent. Here she found Uarda bound +hand and foot, and Kaschta lying on the ground in a heavy drunken +slumber. + +The girl shrank together in alarm when she saw the old woman, and +Scherau, who crouched at her side, raised his hands imploringly to the +witch. + +"Take this knife, boy," she said to the little one. "Cut the ropes the +poor thing is tied with. The papyrus cords are strong, saw them with the +blade." + + [Papyrus was used not only for writing on, but also for ropes. The + bridge of boats on which Xerxes crossed the Hellespont was fastened + with cables of papyrus.] + +While the boy eagerly followed her instructions with all his little +might, she rubbed the soldier's temples with an essence which she had in +the bottle, and poured a few drops of it between his lips. Kaschta came +to himself, stretched his limbs, and stared in astonishment at the place +in which he found himself. She gave him some water, and desired him to +drink it, saying, as Uarda shook herself free from the bonds: + +"The Gods have predestined you to great things, you white maiden. Listen +to what I, old Hekt, am telling you. The king's life is threatened, his +and his children's; I purpose to save them, and I ask no reward but this- +that he should have my body embalmed and interred at Thebes. Swear to me +that you will require this of him when you have saved him." + +"In God's name what is happening?" cried Uarda. "Swear that you will +provide for my burial," said the old woman. + +"I swear it!" cried the girl. "But for God's sake--" + +"Katuti, Paaker, and Nemu are gone to set fire to the palace when Rameses +is sleeping, in three places. Do you hear, Kaschta! Now hasten, fly +after the incendiaries, rouse the servants, and try to rescue the king." + +"Oh fly, father," cried the girl, and they both rushed away in the +darkness. + +"She is honest and will keep her word," muttered Hekt, and she tried to +drag herself back to her own tent; but her strength failed her half-way. +Little Scherau tried to support her, but he was too weak; she sank down +on the sand, and looked out into the distance. There she saw the dark +mass of the palace, from which rose a light that grew broader and +broader, then clouds of black smoke, then up flew the soaring flame, and +a swarm of glowing sparks. + +"Run into the camp, child," she cried, "cry fire, and wake the sleepers." + +Scherau ran off shouting as loud as he could. + +The old woman pressed her hand to her side, she muttered: "There it is +again." + +"In the other world--Assa--Assa," and her trembling lips were silent for +ever. + + + + +CHAPTER XLIII. + +Katuti had kept her unfortunate nephew Paaker concealed in one of her +servants' tents. He had escaped wounded from the battle at Kadesh, and +in terrible pain he had succeeded, by the help of an ass which he had +purchased from a peasant, in reaching by paths known to hardly any one +but himself, the cave where he had previously left his brother. Here he +found his faithful Ethiopian slave, who nursed him till he was strong +enough to set out on his journey to Egypt. He reached Pelusium, after +many privations, disguised as an Ismaelite camel-driver; he left his +servant, who might have betrayed him, behind in the cave. + +Before he was permitted to pass the fortifications, which lay across the +isthmus which parts the Mediterranean from the Red Sea, and which were +intended to protect Egypt from the incursions of the nomad tribes of the +Chasu, he was subjected to a strict interrogatory, and among other +questions was asked whether he had nowhere met with the traitor Paaker, +who was minutely described to him. No one recognized in the shrunken, +grey-haired, one-eyed camel-driver, the broad-shouldered, muscular and +thick-legged pioneer. To disguise himself the more effectually, he +procured some hair-dye--a cosmetic known in all ages--and blackened +himself. + + [In my papyrus there are several recipes for the preparation of + hair-dye; one is ascribed to the Lady Schesch, the mother of Teta, + wife of the first king of Egypt. The earliest of all the recipes + preserved to us is a prescription for dyeing the hair.] + +Katuti had arrived at Pelusium with Ani some time before, to superintend +the construction of the royal pavilion. He ventured to approach her +disguised as a negro beggar, with a palm-branch in his hand. She gave +him some money and questioned him concerning his native country, for she +made it her business to secure the favor even of the meanest; but though +she appeared to take an interest in his answers, she did not recognize +him; now for the first time he felt secure, and the next day he went up +to her again, and told her who he was. + +The widow was not unmoved by the frightful alteration in her nephew, and +although she knew that even Ani had decreed that any intercourse with the +traitor was to be punished by death, she took him at once into her +service, for she had never had greater need than now to employ the +desperate enemy of the king and of her son-in-law. + +The mutilated, despised, and hunted man kept himself far from the other +servants, regarding the meaner folk with undiminished scorn. He thought +seldom, and only vaguely of Katuti's daughter, for love had quite given +place to hatred, and only one thing now seemed to him worth living for-- +the hope of working with others to cause his enemies' downfall, and of +being the instrument of their death; so he offered himself to the widow +a willing and welcome tool, and the dull flash in his uninjured eye when +she set him the task of setting fire to the king's apartments, showed her +that in the Mohar she had found an ally she might depend on to the +uttermost. + +Paaker had carefully examined the scene of his exploit before the king's +arrival. Under the windows of the king's rooms, at least forty feet from +the ground, was a narrow parapet resting on the ends of the beams which +supported the rafters on which lay the floor of the upper story in which +the king slept. These rafters had been smeared with pitch, and straw had +been laid between them, and the pioneer would have known how to find the +opening where he was to put in the brand even if he had been blind of +both eyes. + +When Katuti first sounded her whistle he slunk to his post; he was +challenged by no watchman, for the few guards who had been placed in the +immediate vicinity of the pavilion, had all gone to sleep under the +influence of the Regent's wine. Paaker climbed up to about the height of +two men from the ground by the help of the ornamental carving on the +outside wall of the palace; there a rope ladder was attached, he +clambered up this, and soon stood on the parapet, above which were the +windows of the king's rooms, and below which the fire was to be laid. + +Rameses' room was brightly illuminated. Paaker could see into it without +being seen, and could bear every word that was spoken within. The king +was sitting in an arm-chair, and looked thoughtfully at the ground; +before him stood the Regent, and Mena stood by his couch, holding in his +hand the king's sleeping-robe. + +Presently Rameses raised his head, and said, as he offered his hand with +frank affection to Ani: + +"Let me bring this glorious day to a worthy end, cousin. I have found +you my true and faithful friend, and I had been in danger of believing +those over-anxious counsellors who spoke evil of you. I am never prone +to distrust, but a number of things occurred together that clouded my +judgment, and I did you injustice. I am sorry, sincerely sorry; nor am I +ashamed to apologize to you for having for an instant doubted your good +intentions. You are my good friend--and I will prove to you that I am +yours. There is my hand-take it; and all Egypt shall know that Rameses +trusts no man more implicitly than his Regent Ani. I will ask you to +undertake to be my guard of honor to-night--we will share this room. +I sleep here; when I lie down on my couch take your place on the divan +yonder." Ani had taken Rameses' offered hand, but now he turned pale as +he looked down. Paaker could see straight into his face, and it was not +without difficulty that he suppressed a scornful laugh. + +Rameses did not observe the Regent's dismay, for he had signed to Mena to +come closer to him. + +"Before I sleep," said the king, "I will bring matters to an end with you +too. You have put your wife's constancy to a severe test, and she has +trusted you with a childlike simplicity that is often wiser than the +arguments of sages, because she loved you honestly, and is herself +incapable of guile. I promised you that I would grant you a wish if your +faith in her was justified. Now tell me what is your will?" + +Mena fell on his knees, and covered the king's robe with kisses. + +"Pardon!" he exclaimed. "Nothing but pardon. My crime was a heavy one, +I know; but I was driven to it by scorn and fury--it was as if I saw the +dishonoring hand of Paaker stretched out to seize my innocent wife, who, +as I now know, loathes him as a toad--" + +"What was that?" exclaimed the king. "I thought I heard a groan +outside." + +He went up to the window and looked out, but he did not see the pioneer, +who watched every motion of the king, and who, as soon as he perceived +that his involuntary sigh of anguish had been heard, stretched himself +close under the balustrade. Mena had not risen from his knees when the +king once more turned to him. + +"Pardon me," he said again. "Let me be near thee again as before, and +drive thy chariot. I live only through thee, I am of no worth but +through thee, and by thy favor, my king, my lord, my father!" + +Rameses signed to his favorite to rise. "Your request was granted," said +he, "before you made it. I am still in your debt on your fair wife's +account. Thank Nefert--not me, and let us give thanks to the Immortals +this day with especial fervor. What has it not brought forth for us! It +has restored to me you two friends, whom I regarded as lost to me, and +has given me in Pentaur another son." + +A low whistle sounded through the night air; it was Katuti's last signal. + +Paaker blew up the tinder, laid it in the bole under the parapet, and +then, unmindful of his own danger, raised himself to listen for any +further words. + +"I entreat thee," said the Regent, approaching Rameses, "to excuse me. +I fully appreciate thy favors, but the labors of the last few days have +been too much for me; I can hardly stand on my feet, and the guard of +honor--" + +"Mena will watch," said the king. "Sleep in all security, cousin. I +will have it known to all men that I have put away from me all distrust +of you. Give the my night-robe, Mena. Nay-one thing more I must tell +you. Youth smiles on the young, Ani. Bent-Anat has chosen a worthy +husband, my preserver, the poet Pentaur. He was said to be a man of +humble origin, the son of a gardener of the House of Seti; and now what +do I learn through Ameni? He is the true son of the dead Mohar, and the +foul traitor Paaker is the gardener's son. A witch in the Necropolis +changed the children. That is the best news of all that has reached me +on this propitious day, for the Mohar's widow, the noble Setchem, has +been brought here, and I should have been obliged to choose between two +sentences on her as the mother of the villain who has escaped us. Either +I must have sent her to the quarries, or have had her beheaded before all +the people--In the name of the Gods, what is that?" + +They heard a loud cry in a man's voice, and at the same instant a noise +as if some heavy mass had fallen to the ground from a great height. +Rameses and Mena hastened to the window, but started back, for they were +met by a cloud of smoke. + +"Call the watch!" cried the king. + +"Go, you," exclaimed Mena to Ani. "I will not leave the king again in +danger." + +Ani fled away like an escaped prisoner, but he could not get far, for, +before he could descend the stairs to the lower story, they fell in +before his very eyes; Katuti, after she had set fire to the interior of +the palace, had made them fall by one blow of a hammer. Ani saw her robe +as she herself fled, clenched his fist with rage as he shouted her name, +and then, not knowing what he did, rushed headlong through the corridor +into which the different royal apartments opened. + +The fearful crash of the falling stairs brought the King and Mena also +out of the sleeping-room. + +"There lie the stairs! that is serious!" said the king cooly; then he +went back into his room, and looked out of a window to estimate the +danger. Bright flames were already bursting from the northern end of the +palace, and gave the grey dawn the brightness of day; the southern wing +or the pavilion was not yet on fire. Mena observed the parapet from +which Paaker had fallen to the ground, tested its strength, and found it +firm enough to bear several persons. He looked round, particularly at +the wing not yet gained by the flames, and exclaimed in a loud voice: + +"The fire is intentional! it is done on purpose. See there! a man is +squatting down and pushing a brand into the woodwork." + +He leaped back into the room, which was now filling with smoke, snatched +the king's bow and quiver, which he himself had hung up at the bed-head, +took careful aim, and with one cry the incendiary fell dead. + +A few hours later the dwarf Nemu was found with the charioteer's arrow +through his heart. After setting fire to Bent-Anat's rooms, he had +determined to lay a brand to the wing of the palace where, with the other +princes, Uarda's friend Rameri was sleeping. + +Mena had again leaped out of window, and was estimating the height of the +leap to the ground; the Pharaoh's room was getting more and more filled +with smoke, and flames began to break through the seams of the boards. +Outside the palace as well as within every one was waking up to terror +and excitement. + +"Fire! fire! an incendiary! Help! Save the king!" cried Kaschta, who +rushed on, followed by a crowd of guards whom he had roused; Uarda had +flown to call Bent-Anat, as she knew the way to her room. The king had +got on to the parapet outside the window with Mena, and was calling to +the soldiers. + +"Half of you get into the house, and first save the princess; the other +half keep the fire from catching the south wing. I will try to get +there." + +But Nemu's brand had been effectual, the flames flared up, and the +soldiers strained every nerve to conquer them. Their cries mingled with +the crackling and snapping of the dry wood, and the roar of the flames, +with the trumpet calls of the awakening troops, and the beating of drums. +The young princes appeared at a window; they had tied their clothes +together to form a rope, and one by one escaped down it. + +Rameses called to them with words of encouragement, but he himself was +unable to take any means of escape, for though the parapet on which he +stood was tolerably wide, and ran round the whole of the building, at +about every six feet it was broken by spaces of about ten paces. The +fire was spreading and growing, and glowing sparks flew round him and his +companion like chaff from the winnowing fan. + +"Bring some straw and make a heap below!" shouted Rameses, above the +roar of the conflagration. "There is no escape but by a leap down." + +The flames rushed out of the windows of the king's room; it was +impossible to return to it, but neither the king nor Mena lost his self- +possession. When Mena saw the twelve princes descending to the ground, +he shouted through his hands, using them as a speaking trumpet, and +called to Rameri, who was about to slip down the rope they had contrived, +the last of them all. + +"Pull up the rope, and keep it from injury till I come." + +Rameri obeyed the order, and before Rameses could interfere, Mena had +sprung across the space which divided one piece of the balustrade from +another. The king's blood ran cold as Mena, a second time, ventured the +frightful leap; one false step, and he must meet with the same fearful +death as his enemy Paaker. + +While the bystanders watched him in breathless silence--while the +crackling of the wood, the roar of the flames, and the dull thump of +falling timber mingled with the distant chant of a procession of priests +who were now approaching the burning pile, Nefert roused by little +Scherau knelt on the bare ground in fervent and passionate prayer to the +saving Gods. She watched every movement of her husband, and she bit her +lips till they bled not to cry out. She felt that he was acting bravely +and nobly, and that he was lost if even for an instant his attention were +distracted from his perilous footing. Now he had reached Rameri, and +bound one end of the rope made out of cloaks and handkerchiefs, round his +body; then he gave the other end to Rameri, who held fast to the window- +sill, and prepared once more to spring. Nefert saw him ready to leap, +she pressed her hands upon her lips to repress a scream, she shut her +eyes, and when she opened them again he had accomplished the first leap, +and at the second the Gods preserved him from falling; at the third the +king held out his hand to him, and saved him from a fall. Then Rameses +helped him to unfasten the rope from round his waist to fasten it to the +end of a beam. + +Rameri now loosened the other end, and followed Mena's example; he too, +practised in athletic exercises in the school of the House of Seti, +succeeded in accomplishing the three tremendous leaps, and soon the king +stood in safety on the ground. Rameri followed him, and then Mena, whose +faithful wife went to meet him, and wiped the sweat from his throbbing +temples. + +Rameses hurried to the north wing, where Bent-Anat had her apartments; he +found her safe indeed, but wringing her hands, for her young favorite +Uarda had disappeared in the flames after she had roused her and saved +her with her father's assistance. Kaschta ran up and down in front of +the burning pavilion, tearing his hair; now calling his child in tones of +anguish, now holding his breath to listen for an answer. To rush at +random into the immense-burning building would have been madness. The +king observed the unhappy man, and set him to lead the soldiers, whom he +had commanded to hew down the wall of Bent-Anat's rooms, so as to rescue +the girl who might be within. Kaschta seized an axe, and raised it to +strike. + +But he thought that he heard blows from within against one of the +shutters of the ground-floor, which by Katuti's orders had been securely +closed; he followed the sound--he was not mistaken, the knocking could be +distinctly heard. + +With all his might he struck the edge of the axe between the shutter and +the wall, and a stream of smoke poured out of the new outlet, and before +him, enveloped in its black clouds, stood a staggering man who held Uarda +in his arms. Kaschta sprang forward into the midst of the smoke and +sparks, and snatched his daughter from the arms of her preserver, who +fell half smothered on his knees. He rushed out into the air with his +light and precious burden, and as he pressed his lips to her closed +eyelids his eyes were wet, and there rose up before him the image of the +woman who bore her, the wife that had stood as the solitary green palm- +tree in the desert waste of his life. But only for a few seconds-Bent- +Anat herself took Uarda into her care, and he hastened back to the +burning house. + +He had recognized his daughter's preserver; it was the physician +Nebsecht, who had not quitted the princess since their meeting on Sinai, +and had found a place among her suite as her personal physician. + +The fresh air had rushed into the room through the opening of the +shutter, the broad flames streamed out of the window, but still Nebsecht +was alive, for his groans could be heard through the smoke. Once more +Kaschta rushed towards the window, the bystanders could see that the +ceiling of the room was about to fail, and called out to warn him, but he +was already astride the sill. + +"I signed myself his slave with my blood," he cried, "Twice he has saved +my child, and now I will pay my debt," and he disappeared into the +burning room. + +He soon reappeared with Nebsecht in his arms, whose robe was already +scorched by the flames. He could be seen approaching the window with his +heavy burden; a hundred soldiers, and with them Pentaur, pressed forward +to help him, and took the senseless leech out of the arms of the soldier, +who lifted him over the window sill. + +Kaschta was on the point of following him, but before he could swing +himself over, the beams above gave way and fell, burying the brave son of +the paraschites. + +Pentaur had his insensible friend carried to his tent, and helped the +physicians to bind up his burns. When the cry of fire had been first +raised, Pentaur was sitting in earnest conversation with the high-priest; +he had learned that he was not the son of a gardener, but a descendant of +one of the noblest families in the land. The foundations of life seemed +to be subverted under his feet, Ameni's revelation lifted him out of the +dust and set him on the marble floor of a palace; and yet Pentaur was +neither excessively surprised nor inordinately rejoiced; he was so well +used to find his joys and sufferings depend on the man within him, and +not on the circumstances without. + +As soon as he heard the cry of fire, he hastened to the burning pavilion, +and when he saw the king's danger, he set himself at the head of a number +of soldiers who had hurried up from the camp, intending to venture an +attempt to save Rameses from the inside of the house. Among those who +followed him in this hopeless effort was Katuti's reckless son, who had +distinguished himself by his valor before Kadesh, and who hailed this +opportunity of again proving his courage. Falling walls choked up the +way in front of these brave adventurers; but it was not till several had +fallen choked or struck down by burning logs, that they made up their +minds to retire--one of the first that was killed was Katuti's son, +Nefert's brother. + +Uarda had been carried into the nearest tent. Her pretty head lay in +Bent-Anat's lap, and Nefert tried to restore her to animation by rubbing +her temples with strong essences. Presently the girl's lips moved: with +returning consciousness all she had seen and suffered during the last +hour or two recurred to her mind; she felt herself rushing through the +camp with her father, hurrying through the corridor to the princess's +rooms, while he broke in the doors closed by Katuti's orders; she saw +Bent-Anat as she roused her, and conducted her to safety; she remembered +her horror when, just as she reached the door, she discovered that she +had left in her chest her jewel, the only relic of her lost mother, and +her rapid return which was observed by no one but by the leech Nebsecht. + +Again she seemed to live through the anguish she had felt till she once +more had the trinket safe in her bosom, the horror that fell upon her +when she found her escape impeded by smoke and flames, and the weakness +which overcame her; and she felt as if the strange white-robed priest +once more raised her in his arms. She remembered the tenderness of his +eyes as he looked into hers, and she smiled half gratefully but half +displeased at the tender kiss which had been pressed on her lips before +she found herself in her father's strong arms. + +"How sweet she is!" said Bent-Anat. "I believe poor Nebsecht is right +in saying that her mother was the daughter of some great man among the +foreign people. Look what pretty little hands and feet, and her skin is +as clear as Phoenician glass." + + + + +CHAPTER XLIV. + +While the friends were occupied in restoring Uarda to animation, and in +taking affectionate care of her, Katuti was walking restlessly backwards +and forwards in her tent. + +Soon after she had slipped out for the purpose of setting fire to the +palace, Scherau's cry had waked up Nefert, and Katuti found her +daughter's bed empty when, with blackened hands and limbs trembling with +agitation, she came back from her criminal task. + +Now she waited in vain for Nemu and Paaker. + +Her steward, whom she sent on repeated messages of enquiry whether the +Regent had returned, constantly brought back a negative answer, and added +the information that he had found the body of old Hekt lying on the open +ground. The widow's heart sank with fear; she was full of dark +forebodings while she listened to the shouts of the people engaged in +putting out the fire, the roll of drums, and the trumpets of the soldiers +calling each other to the help of the king. + +To these sounds now was added the dull crash of falling timbers and +walls. + +A faint smile played upon her thin lips, and she thought to herself: +"There--that perhaps fell on the king, and my precious son-in-law, who +does not deserve such a fate--if we had not fallen into disgrace, and if +since the occurrences before Kadesh he did not cling to his indulgent +lord as a calf follows a cow." + +She gathered fresh courage, and fancied she could hear the voice of +Ethiopian troops hailing the Regent as king--could see Ani decorated +with the crown of Upper and Lower Egypt, seated on Rameses' throne, and +herself by his side in rich though unpretending splendor. She pictured +herself with her son and daughter as enjoying Mena's estate, freed from +debt and increased by Ani's generosity, and then a new, intoxicating hope +came into her mind. Perhaps already at this moment her daughter was a +widow, and why should she not be so fortunate as to induce Ani to select +her child, the prettiest woman in Thebes, for his wife? Then she, the +mother of the queen, would be indeed unimpeachable, and all-powerful. +She had long since come to regard the pioneer as a tool to be cast aside, +nay soon to be utterly destroyed; his wealth might probably at some +future time be bestowed upon her son, who had distinguished himself at +Kadesh, and whom Ani must before long promote to be his charioteer or the +commander of the chariot warriors. + +Flattered by these fancies, she forgot every care as she walked faster +and faster to and fro in her tent. Suddenly the steward, whom she had +this time sent to the very scene of the fire, rushed into the tent, and +with every token of terror broke to her the news that the king and his +charioteer were hanging in mid air on a narrow wooden parapet, and that +unless some miracle happened they must inevitably be killed. It was said +that incendiaries had occasioned the fire, and he, the steward, had +hastened forward to prepare her for evil news as the mangled body of the +pioneer, which had been identified by the ring on his finger, and the +poor little corpse of Nemu, pierced through by an arrow, had been carried +past him. + +Katuti was silent for a moment. + +"And the king's sons?" she asked with an anxious sigh. + +"The Gods be praised," replied the steward, "they succeeded in letting +themselves down to the ground by a rope made of their garments knotted +together, and some were already safe when I came away." + +Katuti's face clouded darkly; once more she sent forth her messenger. +The minutes of his absence seemed like days; her bosom heaved in stormy +agitation, then for a moment she controlled herself, and again her heart +seemed to cease beating--she closed her eyes as if her anguish of anxiety +was too much for her strength. At last, long after sunrise, the steward +reappeared. + +Pale, trembling, hardly able to control his voice, he threw himself on +the ground at her feet crying out: + +"Alas! this night! prepare for the worst, mistress! May Isis comfort +thee, who saw thy son fall in the service of his king and father! May +Amon, the great God of Thebes, give thee strength! Our pride, our hope, +thy son is slain, killed by a falling beam." + +Pale and still as if frozen, Katuti shed not a tear; for a minute she did +not speak, then she asked in a dull tone: + +"And Rameses?" + +"The Gods be praised!" answered the servant, "he is safe-rescued by +Mena!" + +"And Ani?" + +"Burnt!--they found his body disfigured out of all recognition; they knew +him again by the jewels he wore at the banquet." + +Katuti gazed into vacancy, and the steward started back as from a mad +woman when, instead of bursting into tears, she clenched her small +jewelled hands, shook her fists in the air, and broke into loud, wild +laughter; then, startled at the sound of her own voice, she suddenly +became silent and fixed her eyes vacantly on the ground. She neither saw +nor heard that the captain of the watch, who was called "the eyes and +ears of the king," had come in through the door of her tent followed by +several officers and a scribe; he came up to her, and called her by her +name. Not till the steward timidly touched her did she collect her +senses like one suddenly roused from deep sleep. + +"What are you doing in my tent?" she asked the officer, drawing herself +up haughtily. + +"In the name of the chief judge of Thebes," said the captain of the watch +solemnly. "I arrest you, and hail you before the high court of justice, +to defend yourself against the grave and capital charges of high treason, +attempted regicide, and incendiarism." + +"I am ready," said the widow, and a scornful smile curled her lips. Then +with her usual dignity she pointed to a seat and said: + +"Be seated while I dress." + +The officer bowed, but remained standing at the door of the tent while +she arranged her black hair, set her diadem on her brow, opened her +little ointment chest, and took from it a small phial of the rapid poison +strychnine, which some months before she had procured through Nemu from +the old witch Hekt. + +"My mirror!" she called to a maid servant, who squatted in a corner of +the tent. She held the metal mirror so as to conceal her face from the +captain of the watch, put the little flask to her lips and emptied it at +one mouthful. The mirror fell from her hand, she staggered, a deadly +convulsion seized her--the officer rushed forward, and while she fixed +her dying look upon him she said: + +"My game is lost, but Ameni--tell Ameni that he will not win either." + +She fell forward, murmured Nefert's name, struggled convulsively and was +dead. + +When the draught of happiness which the Gods prepare for some few men, +seems to flow clearest and purest, Fate rarely fails to infuse into it +some drop of bitterness. And yet we should not therefore disdain it, for +it is that very drop of bitterness which warns us to drink of the joys of +life thankfully, and in moderation. + +The perfect happiness of Mena and Nefert was troubled by the fearful +death of Katuti, but both felt as if they now for the first time knew the +full strength of their love for each other. Mena had to make up to his +wife for the loss of mother and brother, and Nefert to restore to her +husband much that he had been robbed of by her relatives, and they felt +that they had met again not merely for pleasure but to be to each other +a support and a consolation. + +Rameses quitted the scene of the fire full of gratitude to the Gods who +had shown such grace to him and his. He ordered numberless steers to be +sacrificed, and thanksgiving festivals to be held throughout the land; +but he was cut to the heart by the betrayal to which he had fallen a +victim. He longed--as he always did in moments when the balance of his +mind had been disturbed--for an hour of solitude, and retired to the tent +which had been hastily erected for him. He could not bear to enter the +splendid pavilion which had been Ani's; it seemed to him infested with +the leprosy of falsehood and treason. + +For an hour he remained alone, and weighed the worst he had suffered at +the hands of men against that which was good and cheering, and he found +that the good far outweighed the evil. He vividly realized the magnitude +of his debt of gratitude, not to the Immortals only, but also to his +earthly friends, as he recalled every moment of this morning's +experience. + +"Gratitude," he said to himself, "was impressed on you by your mother; +you yourself have taught your children to be grateful. Piety is +gratitude to the Gods, and he only is really generous who does not forget +the gratitude he owes to men." + +He had thrown off all bitterness of feeling when he sent for Bent-Anat +and Pentaur to be brought to his tent. He made his daughter relate at +full length how the poet had won her love, and though he frequently +interrupted her with blame as well as praise, his heart was full of +fatherly joy when he laid his darling's hand in that of the poet. + +Bent-Anat laid her head in full content on the breast of the noble Assa's +grandson, but she would have clung not less fondly to Pentaur the +gardener's son. + +"Now you are one of my own children," said Rameses; and he desired the +poet to remain with him while he commanded the heralds, ambassadors, and +interpreters to bring to him the Asiatic princes, who were detained in +their own tents on the farther side of the Nile, that he might conclude +with them such a treaty of peace as might continue valid for generations +to come. Before they arrived, the young princes came to their father's +tent, and learned from his own lips the noble birth of Pentaur, and that +they owed it to their sister that in him they saw another brother; they +welcomed him with sincere affection, and all, especially Rameri, warmly +congratulated the handsome and worthy couple. + +The king then called Rameri forward from among his brothers, and thanked +him before them all for his brave conduct during the fire. He had +already been invested with the robe of manhood after the battle of +Kadesh; he was now appointed to the command of a legion of chariot- +warriors, and the order of the lion to wear round his neck was bestowed +on him for his bravery. The prince knelt, and thanked his father; but +Rameses took the curly head in his hands and said: + +"You have won praise and reward by your splendid deeds from the father +whom you have saved and filled with pride. But the king watches over the +laws, and guides the destiny cf this land, the king must blame you, nay +perhaps punish you. You could not yield to the discipline of school, +where we all must learn to obey if we would afterwards exercise our +authority with moderation, and without any orders you left Egypt and +joined the army. You showed the courage and strength of a man, but the +folly of a boy in all that regards prudence and foresight--things harder +to learn for the son of a race of heroes than mere hitting and slashing +at random; you, without experience, measured yourself against masters of +the art of war, and what was the consequence? Twice you fell a prisoner +into the hands of the enemy, and I had to ransom you. + +"The king of the Danaids gave you up in exchange for his daughter, and he +rejoices long since in the restoration of his child; but we, in losing +her, lost the most powerful means of coercing the seafaring nations of +the islands and northern coasts of the great sea who are constantly +increasing in might and daring, and so diminished our chances of securing +a solid and abiding peace. + +"Thus--through the careless wilfulness of a boy, the great work is +endangered which I had hoped to have achieved. It grieves me +particularly to humiliate your spirit to-day, when I have had so much +reason to encourage you with praise. Nor will I punish you, only +warn you and teach you. The mechanism of the state is like the working +of the cogged wheels which move the water-works on the shore of the Nile- +if one tooth is missing the whole comes to a stand-still however strong +the beasts that labor to turn it. Each of you--bear this in mind--is a +main-wheel in the great machine of the state, and can serve an end only +by acting unresistingly in obedience to the motive power. Now rise! we +may perhaps succeed in obtaining good security from the Asiatic king, +though we have lost our hostage." + +Heralds at this moment marched into the tent, and announced that the +representative of the Cheta king and the allied princes were in +attendance in the council tent; Rameses put on the crown of Upper and +Lower Egypt and all his royal adornments; the chamberlain who carried the +insignia of his power, and his head scribe with his decoration of plumes +marched before him, while his sons, the commanders in chief, and the +interpreters followed him. Rameses took his seat on his throne with +great dignity, and the sternest gravity marked his demeanor while he +received the homage of the conquered and fettered kings. + +The Asiatics kissed the earth at his feet, only the king of the Danaids +did no more than bow before him. Rameses looked wrathfully at him, and +ordered the interpreter to ask him whether he considered himself +conquered or no, and the answer was given that he had not come before the +Pharaoh as a prisoner, and that the obeisance which Rameses required of +him was regarded as a degradation according to the customs of his free- +born people, who prostrated them selves only before the Gods. He hoped +to become an ally of the king of Egypt, and he asked would he desire to +call a degraded man his friend? + +Rameses measured the proud and noble figure before him with a glance, and +said severely: + +"I am prepared to treat for peace only with such of my enemies as are +willing to bow to the double crown that I wear. If you persist in your +refusal, you and your people will have no part in the favorable +conditions that I am prepared to grant to these, your allies." + +The captive prince preserved his dignified demeanor, which was +nevertheless free from insolence, when these words of the king were +interpreted to him, and replied that he had come intending to procure +peace at any cost, but that he never could nor would grovel in the dust +at any man's feet nor before any crown. He would depart on the following +day; one favor, however, he requested in his daughter's name and his own +--and he had heard that the Egyptians respected women. The king knew, +of course, that his charioteer Mena had treated his daughter, not as a +prisoner but as a sister, and Praxilla now felt a wish, which he himself +shared, to bid farewell to the noble Mena, and his wife, and to thank him +for his magnanimous generosity. Would Rameses permit him once more to +cross the Nile before his departure, and with his daughter to visit Mena +in his tent. + +Rameses granted his prayer: the prince left the tent, and the +negotiations began. + +In a few hours they were brought to a close, for the Asiatic and Egyptian +scribes had agreed, in the course of the long march southwards, on the +stipulations to be signed; the treaty itself was to be drawn up after the +articles had been carefully considered, and to be signed in the city of +Rameses called Tanis--or, by the numerous settlers in its neighborhood, +Zoan. The Asiatic princes were to dine as guests with the king; but they +sat at a separate table, as the Egyptians would have been defiled by +sitting at the same table with strangers. + +Rameses was not perfectly satisfied. If the Danaids went away without +concluding a treaty with him, it was to be expected that the peace which +he was so earnestly striving for would before long be again disturbed; +and he nevertheless felt that, out of regard for the other conquered +princes, he could not forego any jot of the humiliation which he had +required of their king, and which he believed to be due to himself-- +though he bad been greatly impressed by his dignified manliness and +by the bravery of the troops that had followed him into the field. + +The sun was sinking when Mena, who that day had leave of absence from the +king, came in great excitement up to the table where the princes were +sitting and craved the king's permission to make an important +communication. Rameses signed consent; the charioteer went close up to +him, and they held a short but eager conversation in a low voice. + +Presently the king stood up and said, speaking to his daughter: + +"This day which began so horribly will end joyfully. The fair child who +saved you to-day, but who so nearly fell a victim to the flames, is of +noble origin." + +"She cones of a royal house," said Rameri, disrespectfully interrupting +his father. Rameses looked at him reprovingly. "My sons are silent," he +said, "till I ask them to speak." + +The prince colored and looked down; the king signed to Bent-Anat and +Pentaur, begged his guests to excuse him for a short time, and was about +to leave the tent; but Bent-Anat went up to him, and whispered a few +words to him with reference to her brother. Not in vain: the king +paused, and reflected for a few moments; then he looked at Rameri, who +stood abashed, and as if rooted to the spot where he stood. The king +called his name, and beckoned him to follow him. + + + + +CHAPTER XLV. + +Rameri had rushed off to summon the physicians, while Bent-Anat was +endeavoring to restore the rescued Uarda to consciousness, and he +followed them into his sister's tent. He gazed with tender anxiety into +the face of the half suffocated girl, who, though uninjured, still +remained unconscious, and took her hand to press his lips to her slender +fingers, but Bent-Anat pushed him gently away; then in low tones that +trembled with emotion he implored her not to send him away, and told her +how dear the girl whose life he had saved in the fight in the Necropolis +had become to him--how, since his departure for Syria, he had never +ceased to think of her night and day, and that he desired to make her his +wife. + +Bent-Anat was startled; she reminded her brother of the stain that lay on +the child of the paraschites and through which she herself had suffered +so much; but Rameri answered eagerly: + +"In Egypt rank and birth are derived through the mother and Kaschta's +dead wife--" + +"I know," interrupted Bent-Anat. "Nebsecht has already told us that she +was a dumb woman, a prisoner of war, and I myself believe that she was of +no mean house, for Uarda is nobly formed in face and figure." + +"And her skin is as fine as the petal of a flower," cried Rameri. "Her +voice is like the ring of pure gold, and--Oh! look, she is moving. +Uarda, open your eyes, Uarda! When the sun rises we praise the Gods. +Open your eyes! how thankful, how joyful I shall be if those two suns +only rise again." + +Bent-Anat smiled, and drew her brother away from the heavily-breathing +girl, for a leech came into the tent to say that a warm medicated bath +had been prepared and was ready for Uarda. The princess ordered her +waiting-women to help lift the senseless girl, and was preparing to +follow her when a message from her father required her presence in his +tent. She could guess at the significance of this command, and desired +Rameri to leave her that she might dress in festal garments; she could +entrust Uarda to the care of Nefert during her absence. + +"She is kind and gentle, and she knows Uarda so well," said the princess, +"and the necessity of caring for this dear little creature will do her +good. Her heart is torn between sorrow for her lost relations, and joy +at being united again to her love. My father has given Mena leave of +absence from his office for several days, and I have excused her from her +attendance on me, for the time during which we were so necessary to each +other really came to an end yesterday. I feel, Rameri, as if we, after +our escape, were like the sacred phoenix which comes to Heliopolis and +burns itself to death only to soar again from its ashes young and radiant +--blessed and blessing!" + +When her brother had left her, she threw herself before the image of her +mother and prayed long and earnestly; she poured an offering of sweet +perfume on the little altar of the Goddess Hathor, which always +accompanied her, had herself dressed in happy preparation for meeting her +father, and--she did not conceal it from herself--Pentaur, then she went +for a moment to Nefert's tent to beg her to take good care of Uarda, and +finally obeyed the summons of the king, who, as we know, fulfilled her +utmost hopes. + +As Rameri quitted his sister's tent he saw the watch seize and lead away +a little boy; the child cried bitterly, and the prince in a moment +recognized the little sculptor Scherau, who had betrayed the Regent's +plot to him and to Uarda, and whom he had already fancied he had seen +about the place. The guards had driven him away several times from the +princess's tent, but he had persisted in returning, and this obstinate +waiting in the neighborhood had aroused the suspicions of an officer; for +since the fire a thousand rumors of conspiracies and plots against the +king had been flying about the camp. Rameri at once freed the little +prisoner, and heard from him that it was old Hekt who, before her death, +had sent Kaschta and his daughter to the rescue of the king, that he +himself had helped to rouse the troops, that now he had no home and +wished to go to Uarda. + +The prince himself led the child to Nefert, and begged her to allow him +to see Uarda, and to let him stay with her servants till he himself +returned from his father's tent. + +The leeches had treated Uarda with judgment, for under the influence of +the bath she recovered her senses; when she had been dressed again in +fresh garments and refreshed by the essences and medicines which they +gave her to inhale and to drink, she was led back into Nefert's tent, +where Mena, who had never before seen her, was astonished at her peculiar +and touching beauty. + +"She is very like my Danaid princess," he said to his wife; "only she is +younger and much prettier than she." + +Little Scherau came in to pay his respects to her, and she was delighted +to see the boy; still she was sad, and however kindly Nefert spoke to her +she remained in silent reverie, while from time to time a large tear +rolled down her cheek. + +"You have lost your father!" said Nefert, trying to comfort her. "And +I, my mother and brother both in one day." + +"Kaschta was rough but, oh! so kind," replied Uarda. "He was always so +fond of me; he was like the fruit of the doom palm; its husk is hard and +rough, but he who knows how to open it finds the sweet pulp within. Now +he is dead, and my grandfather and grandmother are gone before him, and I +am like the green leaf that I saw floating on the waters when we were +crossing the sea; anything so forlorn I never saw, abandoned by all it +belonged to or had ever loved, the sport of a strange element in which +nothing resembling itself ever grew or ever can grow." + +Nefert kissed her forehead. "You have friends," she said, "who will +never abandon you." + +"I know, I know!" said Uarda thoughtfully, "and yet I am alone--for the +first time really alone. In Thebes I have often looked after the wild +swans as they passed across the sky; one flies in front, then comes the +body of the wandering party, and very often, far behind, a solitary +straggler; and even this last one I do not call lonely, for he can still +see his brethren in front of him. But when the hunters have shot down +all the low-flying loiterers, and the last one has lost sight of the +flock, and knows that he never again can find them or follow them he is +indeed to be pitied. I am as unhappy as the abandoned bird, for I have +lost sight to-day of all that I belong to, and I am alone, and can never +find them again." + +"You will be welcomed into some more noble house than that to which you +belong by birth," said Nefert, to comfort her. + +Uarda's eyes flashed, and she said proudly, almost defiantly: + +"My race is that of my mother, who was a daughter of no mean house; the +reason I turned back this morning and went into the smoke and fire again +after I had escaped once into the open air--what I went back for, because +I felt it was worth dying for, was my mother's legacy, which I had put +away with my holiday dress when I followed the wretched Nemu to his tent. +I threw myself into the jaws of death to save the jewel, but certainly +not because it is made of gold and precious stones--for I do not care to +be rich, and I want no better fare than a bit of bread and a few dates +and a cup of water--but because it has a name on it in strange +characters, and because I believe it will serve to discover the people +from whom my mother was carried off; and now I have lost the jewel, and +with it my identity and my hopes and happiness." + +Uarda wept aloud; Nefert put her arm around her affectionately. + +"Poor child!" she said, "was your treasure destroyed in the flames?" + +"No, no," cried Uarda eagerly. "I snatched it out of my chest and held +it in my hand when Nebsecht took me in his arms, and I still had it in my +hand when I was lying safe on the ground outside the burning house, and +Bent-Anat was close to me, and Rameri came up. I remember seeing him as +if I were in a dream, and I revived a little, and I felt the jewel in my +fingers then." + +"Then it was dropped on the way to the tent?" said Nefert. + +Uarda nodded; little Scherau, who had been crouching on the floor beside +her, gave Uarda a loving glance, dimmed with tears, and quietly slipped +out of the tent. + +Time went by in silence; Uarda sat looking at the ground, Nefert and Mena +held each other's hands, but the thoughts of all three were with the +dead. A perfect stillness reigned, and the happiness of the reunited +couple was darkly overshadowed by their sorrow. From time to time the +silence was broken by a trumpet-blast from the royal tent; first when the +Asiatic princes were introduced into the Council-tent, then when the +Danaid king departed, and lastly when the Pharaoh preceded the conquered +princes to the banquet. + +The charioteer remembered how his master had restored him to dignity and +honor, for the sake of his faithful wife; and gratefully pressed her +hand. + +Suddenly there was a noise in front of the tent, and an officer entered +to announce to Mena that the Danaid king and his daughter, accompanied by +body-guard, requested to see and speak with him and Nefert. + +The entrance to the tent was thrown wide open. Uarda retired modestly +into the back-ground, and Mena and Nefert went forward hand in hand to +meet their unexpected guests. + +The Greek prince was an old man, his beard and thick hair were grey, but +his movements were youthful and light, though dignified and deliberate. +His even, well-formed features were deeply furrowed, he had large, +bright, clear blue eyes, but round his fine lips were lines of care. +Close to him walked his daughter; her long white robe striped with purple +was held round her hips by a golden girdle, and her sunny yellow hair +fell in waving locks over her neck and shoulders, while it was confined +by a diadem which encircled her head; she was of middle height, and her +motions were measured and calm like her father's. Her brow was narrow, +and in one line with her straight nose, her rosy mouth was sweet and +kind, and beyond everything beautiful were the lines of her oval face and +the turn of her snow-white throat. By their side stood the interpreter +who translated every word of the conversation on both sides. Behind them +came two men and two women, who carried gifts for Mena and his wife. + +The prince praised Mena's magnanimity in the warmest terms. + +"You have proved to me," he said, "that the virtues of gratitude, of +constancy, and of faith are practised by the Egyptians; although your +merit certainly appears less to me now that I see your wife, for he who +owns the fairest may easily forego any taste for the fair." + +Nefert blushed. + +"Your generosity," she answered, "does me more than justice at your +daughter's expense, and love moved my husband to the same injustice, but +your beautiful daughter must forgive you and me also." + +Praxilla went towards her and expressed her thanks; then she offered her +the costly coronet, the golden clasps and strings of rare pearls which +her women carried; her father begged Mena to accept a coat of mail and a +shield of fine silver work. The strangers were then led into the tent, +and were there welcomed and entertained with all honor, and offered bread +and wine. While Mena pledged her father, Praxilla related to Nefert, +with the help of the interpreter, what hours of terror she had lived +through after she had been taken prisoner by the Egyptians, and was +brought into the camp with the other spoils of war; how an older +commander had asserted his claim to her, how Mena had given her his hand, +had led her to his tent, and had treated her like his own daughter. Her +voice shook with emotion, and even the interpreter was moved as she +concluded her story with these words: "How grateful I am to him, you will +fully understand when I tell you that the man who was to have been my +husband fell wounded before my eyes while defending our camp; but he has +recovered, and now only awaits my return for our wedding." + +"May the Gods only grant it!" cried the king, "for Praxilla is the last +child of my house. The murderous war robbed me of my four fair sons +before they had taken wives, my son-in-law was slain by the Egyptians at +the taking of our camp, and his wife and new-born son fell into their +hands, and Praxilla is my youngest child, the only one left to me by the +envious Gods." + +While he was still speaking, they heard the guards call out and a child's +loud cry, and at the same instant little Scherau rushed into the tent +holding up his hand exclaiming. + +"I have it! I have found it!" + +Uarda, who had remained behind the curtain which screened the sleeping +room of the tent--but who had listened with breathless attention to every +word of the foreigners, and who had never taken her eyes off the fair +Praxilla--now came forward, emboldened by her agitation, into the midst +of the tent, and took the jewel from the child's hand to show it to the +Greek king; for while she stood gazing at Praxilla it seemed to her that +she was looking at herself in a mirror, and the idea had rapidly grown to +conviction that her mother had been a daughter of the Danaids. Her heart +beat violently as she went up to the king with a modest demeanor, her +head bent down, but holding her jewel up for him to see. + +The bystanders all gazed in astonishment at the veteran chief, for he +staggered as she came up to him, stretched out his hands as if in terror +towards the girl, and drew back crying out: + +"Xanthe, Xanthe! Is your spirit freed from Hades? Are you come to +summon me?" + +Praxilla looked at her father in alarm, but suddenly she, too, gave a +piercing cry, snatched a chain from her neck, hurried towards Uarda, and +seizing the jewel she held, exclaimed: + +"Here is the other half of the ornament, it belonged to my poor sister +Xanthe!" + +The old Greek was a pathetic sight, he struggled hard to collect himself, +looking with tender delight at Uarda, his sinewy hands trembled as he +compared the two pieces of the necklet; they matched precisely--each +represented the wing of an eagle which was attached to half an oval +covered with an inscription; when they were laid together they formed the +complete figure of a bird with out-spread wings, on whose breast the +lines exactly matched of the following oracular verse: + + "Alone each is a trifling thing, a woman's useless toy + But with its counterpart behold! the favorite bird of Zeus." + +A glance at the inscription convinced the king that he held in his hand +the very jewel which he had put with his own hands round the neck of his +daughter Xanthe on her marriage-day, and of which the other half had been +preserved by her mother, from whom it had descended to Praxilla. It had +originally been made for his wife and her twin sister who had died young. +Before he made any enquiries, or asked for any explanations, he took +Uarda's head between his hands, and turning her face close to his he +gazed at her features, as if he were reading a book in which he expected +to find a memorial of all the blissful hours of his youth, and the girl +felt no fear; nor did she shrink when he pressed his lips to her +forehead, for she felt that this man's blood ran in her own veins. At +last the king signed to the interpreter; Uarda was asked to tell all she +knew of her mother, and when she said that she had come a captive to +Thebes with an infant that had soon after died, that her father had +bought her and had loved her in spite of her being dumb, the prince's +conviction became certainty; he acknowledged Uarda as his grandchild, +and Praxilla clasped her in her arms. + +Then he told Mena that it was now twenty years since his son-in-law had +been killed, and his daughter Xanthe, whom Uarda exactly resembled, had +been carried into captivity. Praxilla was then only just born, and his +wife died of the shock of such terrible news. All his enquiries for +Xanthe and her child had been fruitless, but he now remembered that once, +when he had offered a large ransom for his daughter if she could be +found, the Egyptians had enquired whether she were dumb, and that he had +answered "no." No doubt Xanthe had lost the power of speech through +grief, terror, and suffering. + +The joy of the king was unspeakable, and Uarda was never tired of gazing +at his daughter and holding her hand. + +Then she turned to the interpreter. + +"Tell me," she said. "How do I say 'I am so very happy?'" + +He told her, and she smilingly repeated his words. "Now 'Uarda will love +you with all her heart?'" and she said it after him in broken accents +that sounded so sweet and so heart-felt, that the old man clasped her to +his breast. + +Tears of emotion stood in Nefert's eyes, and when Uarda flung herself +into her arms she said: + +"The forlorn swan has found its kindred, the floating leaf has reached +the shore, and must be happy now!" Thus passed an hour of the purest +happiness; at last the Greek king prepared to leave, and the wished to +take Uarda with him; but Mena begged his permission to communicate all +that had occurred to the Pharaoh and Bent-Anat, for Uarda was attached to +the princess's train, and had been left in his charge, and he dared not +trust her in any other hands without Bent-Anat's permission. Without +waiting for the king's reply he left the tent, hastened to the banqueting +tent, and, as we know, Rameses and the princess had at once attended to +his summons. + +On the way Mena gave them a vivid description of the exciting events that +had taken place, and Rameses, with a side glance at Bent-Anat, asked +Rameri: + +"Would you be prepared to repair your errors, and to win the friendship +of the Greek king by being betrothed to his granddaughter?" + +The prince could not answer a word, but he clasped his father's hand, and +kissed it so warmly that Rameses, as he drew it away, said: + +"I really believe that you have stolen a march on me, and have been +studying diplomacy behind my back!" + +Rameses met his noble opponent outside Mena's tent, and was about to +offer him his hand, but the Danaid chief had sunk on his knees before him +as the other princes had done. + +"Regard me not as a king and a warrior," he exclaimed, "only as a +suppliant father; let us conclude a peace, and permit me to take this +maiden, my grandchild, home with me to my own country." + +Rameses raised the old man from the ground, gave him his hand, and said +kindly: + +"I can only grant the half of what you ask. I, as king of Egypt, am most +willing to grant you a faithful compact for a sound and lasting peace; as +regards this maiden, you must treat with my children, first with my +daughter Bent-Anat, one of whose ladies she is, and then with your +released prisoner there, who wishes to make Uarda his wife." + +"I will resign my share in the matter to my brother," said Bent-Anat, +"and I only ask you, maiden, whether you are inclined to acknowledge him +as your lord and master?" + +Uarda bowed assent, and looked at her grandfather with an expression +which he understood without any interpreter. + +"I know you well," he said, turning to Rameri. "We stood face to face in +the fight, and I took you prisoner as you fell stunned by a blow from my +sword. You are still too rash, but that is a fault which time will amend +in a youth of your heroic temper. Listen to me now, and you too, noble +Pharaoh, permit me these few words; let us betroth these two, and may +their union be the bond of ours, but first grant me for a year to take my +long-lost child home with me that she may rejoice my old heart, and that +I may hear from her lips the accents of her mother, whom you took from +me. They are both young; according to the usages of our country, where +both men and women ripen later than in your country, they are almost too +young for the solemn tie of marriage. But one thing above all will +determine you to favor my wishes; this daughter of a royal house has +grown up amid the humblest surroundings; here she has no home, no family- +ties. The prince has wooed her, so to speak, on the highway, but if she +now comes with me he can enter the palace of kings as suitor to a +princess, and the marriage feast I will provide shall be a right royal +one." + +"What you demand is just and wise," replied Rameses. "Take your grand- +child with you as my son's betrothed bride--my future daughter. Give me +your hands, my children. The delay will teach you patience, for Rameri +must remain a full year from to-day in Egypt, and it will be to your +profit, sweet child, for the obedience which he will learn through his +training in the army will temper the nature of your future husband. You, +Rameri, shall in a year from to-day--and I think you will not forget the +date--find at your service a ship in the harbor of Pelusium, fitted and +manned with Phoenicians, to convey you to your wedding." + +"So be it!" exclaimed the old man. "And by Zeus who hears me swear--I +will not withhold Xanthe's daughter from your son when he comes to claim +her!" + +When Rameri returned to the princes' tent he threw himself on their necks +in turn, and when he found himself alone with their surly old house- +steward, he snatched his wig from his head, flung it in the air, and then +coaxingly stroked the worthy officer's cheeks as he set it on his head +again. + + + + +CHAPTER XLVI. + +Uarda accompanied her grandfather and Praxilla to their tent on the +farther side of the Nile, but she was to return next morning to the +Egyptian camp to take leave of all her friends, and to provide for her +father's internment. Nor did she delay attending to the last wishes of +old Hekt, and Bent-Anat easily persuaded her father, when he learnt how +greatly he had been indebted to her, to have her embalmed like a lady of +rank. + +Before Uarda left the Egyptian camp, Pentaur came to entreat her to +afford her dying preserver Nebsecht the last happiness of seeing her once +more; Uarda acceded with a blush, and the poet, who had watched all night +by his friend, went forward to prepare him for her visit. + +Nebsecht's burns and a severe wound on his head caused him great +suffering; his cheeks glowed with fever, and the physicians told Pentaur +that he probably could not live more than a few hours. + +The poet laid his cool hand on his friend's brow, and spoke to him +encouragingly; but Nebsecht smiled at his words with the peculiar +expression of a man who knows that his end is near, and said in a low +voice and with a visible effort: + +"A few breaths more and here, and here, will be peace." He laid his hand +on his head and on his heart. + +"We all attain to peace," said Pentaur. "But perhaps only to labor more +earnestly and unweariedly in the land beyond the grave. If the Gods +reward any thing it is the honest struggle, the earnest seeking after +truth; if any spirit can be made one with the great Soul of the world it +will be yours, and if any eye may see the Godhead through the veil which +here shrouds the mystery of His existence yours will have earned the +privilege." + +"I have pushed and pulled," sighed Nebsecht, "with all my might, and now +when I thought I had caught a glimpse of the truth the heavy fist of +death comes down upon me and shuts my eyes. What good will it do me to +see with the eye of the Divinity or to share in his omniscience? It is +not seeing, it is seeking that is delightful--so delightful that I would +willingly set my life there against another life here for the sake of +it." He was silent, for his strength failed, and Pentaur begged him to +keep quiet, and to occupy his mind in recalling all the hours of joy +which life had given him. + +"They have been few," said the leech. "When my mother kissed me and gave +me dates, when I could work and observe in peace, when you opened my eyes +to the beautiful world of poetry--that was good!" + +And you have soothed the sufferings of many men, added Pentaur, "and +never caused pain to any one." + +Nebsecht shook his head. + +"I drove the old paraschites," he muttered, "to madness and to death." + +He was silent for a long time, then he looked up eagerly and said: "But +not intentionally--and not in vain! In Syria, at Megiddo I could work +undisturbed; now I know what the organ is that thinks. The heart! What +is the heart? A ram's heart or a man's heart, they serve the same end; +they turn the wheel of animal life, they both beat quicker in terror or +in joy, for we feel fear or pleasure just as animals do. But Thought, +the divine power that flies to the infinite, and enables us to form and +prove our opinions, has its seat here--Here in the brain, behind the +brow." + +He paused exhausted and overcome with pain. Pentaur thought he was +wandering in his fever, and offered him a cooling drink while two +physicians walked round his bed singing litanies; then, as Nebsecht +raised himself in bed with renewed energy, the poet said to him: + +"The fairest memory of your life must surely be that of the sweet child +whose face, as you once confessed to me, first opened your soul to the +sense of beauty, and whom with your own hands you snatched from death at +the cost of your own life. You know Uarda has found her own relatives +and is happy, and she is very grateful to her preserver, and would like +to see him once more before she goes far away with her grandfather." + +The sick man hesitated before he answered softly: + +"Let her come--but I will look at her from a distance." + +Pentaur went out and soon returned with Uarda, who remained standing with +glowing cheeks and tears in her eyes at the door of the tent. The leech +looked at her a long time with an imploring and tender expression, then +he said: + +"Accept my thanks--and be happy." + +The girl would have gone up to him to take his hand, but he waved her off +with his right hand enveloped in wrappings. + +"Come no nearer," he said, "but stay a moment longer. You have tears in +your eyes; are they for me or only for my pain?" + +"For you, good noble man! my friend and my preserver!" said Uarda. "For +you dear, poor Nebsecht!" The leech closed his eyes as she spoke these +words with earnest feeling, but he looked up once more as she ceased +speaking, and gazed at her with tender admiration; then he said softly: + +"It is enough--now I can die." + +Uarda left the tent, Pentaur remained with him listening to his hoarse +and difficult breathing; suddenly: + +Nebsecht raised himself, and said: "Farewell, my friend,--my journey is +beginning, who knows whither?" + +"Only not into vacancy, not to end in nothingness!" cried Pentaur warmly. + +The leech shook his head. "I have been something," he said, "and being +something I cannot become nothing. Nature is a good economist, and +utilizes the smallest trifle; she will use me too according to her need. +She brings everything to its end and purpose in obedience to some rule +and measure, and will so deal with me after I am dead; there is no waste. +Each thing results in being that which it is its function to become; our +wish or will is not asked--my head! when the pain is in my head I cannot +think--if only I could prove--could prove----" + +The last words were less and less audible, his breath was choked, and in +a few seconds Pentaur with deep regret closed his eyes. + + +Pentaur, as he quitted the tent where the dead man lay, met the high- +priest Ameni, who had gone to seek him by his friend's bed-side, and they +returned together to gaze on the dead. Ameni, with much emotion, put up +a few earnest prayers for the salvation of his soul, and then requested +Pentaur to follow him without delay to his tent. On the way he prepared +the poet, with the polite delicacy which was peculiar to him, for a +meeting which might be more painful than joyful to him, and must in any +case bring him many hours of anxiety and agitation. + +The judges in Thebes, who had been compelled to sentence the lady +Setchem, as the mother of a traitor, to banishment to the mines had, +without any demand on her part, granted leave to the noble and most +respectable matron to go under an escort of guards to meet the king on +his return into Egypt, in order to petition for mercy for herself, but +not, as it was expressly added--for Paaker; and she had set out, but with +the secret resolution to obtain the king's grace not for herself but for +her son. + + [Agatharchides, in Diodorus III. 12, says that in many cases not + only the criminal but his relations also were condemned to labor in + the mines. In the convention signed between Rameses and the Cheta + king it is expressly provided that the deserter restored to Egypt + shall go unpunished, that no injury shall be done "to his house, his + wife or his children, nor shall his mother be put to death."] + +Ameni had already left Thebes for the north when this sentence was +pronounced, or he would have reversed it by declaring the true origin of +Paaker; for after he had given up his participation in the Regent's +conspiracy, he no longer had any motive for keeping old Hekt's secret. + +Setchem's journey was lengthened by a storm which wrecked the ship in +which she was descending the Nile, and she did not reach Pelusium till +after the king. The canal which formed the mouth of the Nile close to +this fortress and joined the river to the Mediterranean, was so over- +crowded with the boats of the Regent and his followers, of the +ambassadors, nobles, citizens, and troops which had met from all parts of +the country, that the lady's boat could find anchorage only at a great +distance from the city, and accompanied by her faithful steward she had +succeeded only a few hours before in speaking to the high-priest. + +Setchem was terribly changed; her eyes, which only a few months since had +kept an efficient watch over the wealthy Theban household, were now dim +and weary, and although her figure had not grown thin it had lost its +dignity and energy, and seemed inert and feeble. Her lips, so ready for +a wise or sprightly saying, were closely shut, and moved only in silent +prayer or when some friend spoke to her of her unhappy son. His deed she +well knew was that of a reprobate, and she sought no excuse or defence; +her mother's heart forgave it without any. Whenever she thought of him-- +and she thought of him incessantly all through the day and through her +sleepless nights-her eyes overflowed with tears. + +Her boat had reached Pelusium just as the flames were breaking out in the +palace; the broad flare of light and the cries from the various vessels +in the harbor brought her on deck. She heard that the burning house was +the pavilion erected by Ani for the king's residence; Rameses she was +told was in the utmost danger, and the fire had beyond a doubt been laid +by traitors. + +As day broke and further news reached her, the names of her son and of +her sister came to her ear; she asked no questions--she would not hear +the truth--but she knew it all the same; as often as the word "traitor" +caught her ear in her cabin, to which she had retreated, she felt as if +some keen pain shot through her bewildered brain, and shuddered as if +from a cold chill. + +All through that day she could neither eat nor drink, but lay with closed +eyes on her couch, while her steward--who had soon learnt what a terrible +share his former master had taken in the incendiarism, and who now gave +up his lady's cause for lost--sought every where for the high-priest +Ameni; but as he was among the persons nearest to the king it was +impossible to see him that day, and it was not till the next morning that +he was able to speak with him. Ameni inspired the anxious and sorrowful +old retainer with, fresh courage, returned with him in his own chariot to +the harbor, and accompanied him to Setchem's boat to prepare her for the +happiness which awaited her after her terrible troubles. But he came too +late, the spirit of the poor lady was quite clouded, and she listened to +him without any interest while he strove to restore her to courage and to +recall her wandering mind. She only interrupted him over and over again +with the questions: "Did he do it?" or "Is he alive?" + +At last Ameni succeeded in persuading her to accompany him in her litter +to his tent, where she would find her son. Pentaur was wonderfully like +her lost husband, and the priest, experienced in humanity, thought that +the sight of him would rouse the dormant powers of her mind. When she +had arrived at his tent, he told her with kind precaution the whole +history of the exchange of Paaker for Pentaur, and she followed the story +with attention but with indifference, as if she were hearing of the +adventures of others who did not concern her. When Ameni enlarged on the +genius of the poet and on his perfect resemblance to his dead father she +muttered: + +"I know--I know. You mean the speaker at the Feast of the Valley," and +then although she had been told several times that Paaker had been +killed, she asked again if her son was alive. + +Ameni decided at last to fetch Pentaur himself, + +When he came back with him, fully prepared to meet his heavily-stricken +mother, the tent was empty. The high-priest's servants told him that +Setchem had persuaded the easily-moved old prophet Gagabu to conduct her +to the place where the body of Paaker lay. Ameni was very much vexed, +for he feared that Setchem was now lost indeed, and he desired the poet +to follow him at once. + +The mortal remains of the pioneer had been laid in a tent not far from +the scene of the fire; his body was covered with a cloth, but his pale +face, which had not been injured in his fall, remained uncovered; by his +side knelt the unhappy mother. + +She paid no heed to Ameni when he spoke to her, and he laid his hand on +her shoulder and said as he pointed to the body: + +"This was the son of a gardener. You brought him up faithfully as if he +were your own; but your noble husband's true heir, the son you bore him, +is Pentaur, to whom the Gods have given not only the form and features +but the noble qualities of his father. The dead man may be forgiven--for +the sake of your virtues; but your love is due to this nobler soul--the +real son of your husband, the poet of Egypt, the preserver of the king's +life." + +Setchem rose and went up to Pentaur, she smiled at him and stroked his +face and breast. + +"It is he," she said. "May the Immortals bless him!" + +Pentaur would have clasped her in his arms, but she pushed him away as if +she feared to commit some breach of faith, and turning hastily to the +bier she said softly: + +Poor Paaker--poor, poor Paaker!" + +"Mother, mother, do you not know your son?" cried Pentaur deeply moved. + +She turned to him again: "It is his voice," she said. "It is he." + +She went up to Pentaur, clung to him, clasped her arm around his neck as +he bent over her, then kissing him fondly: + +"The Gods will bless you!" she said once more. She tore herself from him +and threw herself down by the body of Paaker, as if she had done him some +injustice and robbed him of his rights. + +Thus she remained, speechless and motionless, till they carried her back +to her boat, there she lay down, and refused to take any nourishment; +from time to time she whispered "Poor Paaker!" She no longer repelled +Pentaur, for she did not again recognize him, and before he left her she +had followed the rough-natured son of her adoption to the other world. + + + + +CHAPTER XLVII. + +The king had left the camp, and had settled in the neighboring city of +Rameses' Tanis, with the greater part of his army. The Hebrews, who were +settled in immense numbers in the province of Goshen, and whom Ani had +attached to his cause by remitting their task-work, were now driven to +labor at the palaces and fortifications which Rameses had begun to build. + +At Tanis, too, the treaty of peace was signed and was presented to +Rameses inscribed on a silver tablet by Tarthisebu, the representative of +the Cheta king, in the name of his lord and master. + +Pentaur followed the king as soon as he had closed his mother's eyes, +and accompanied her body to Heliopolis, there to have it embalmed; from +thence the mummy was to be sent to Thebes, and solemnly placed in the +grave of her ancestors. This duty of children towards their parents, and +indeed all care for the dead, was regarded as so sacred by the Egyptians, +that neither Pentaur nor Bent-Anat would have thought of being united +before it was accomplished. + +On the 21st day of the month Tybi, of the 21st year of the reign of +Rameses, the day on which the peace was signed, the poet returned to +Tanis, sad at heart, for the old gardener, whom he had regarded and loved +as his father, had died before his return home; the good old man had not +long survived the false intelligence of the death of the poet, whom he +had not only loved but reverenced as a superior being bestowed upon his +house as a special grace from the Gods. + +It was not till seven months after the fire at Pelusium that Pentaur's +marriage with Bent-Anat was solemnized in the palace of the Pharaohs at +Thebes; but time and the sorrows he had suffered had only united their +hearts more closely. She felt that though he was the stronger she was +the giver and the helper, and realized with delight that like the sun, +which when it rises invites a thousand flowers to open and unfold, the +glow of her presence raised the poet's oppressed soul to fresh life and +beauty. They had given each other up for lost through strife and +suffering, and now had found each other again; each knew how precious +the other was. To make each other happy, and prove their affection, +was now the aim of their lives, and as they each had proved that they +prized honor and right-doing above happiness their union was a true +marriage, ennobling and purifying their souls. She could share his +deepest thoughts and his most difficult undertakings, and if their house +were filled with children she would know how to give him the fullest +enjoyment of those small blessings which at the same time are the +greatest joys of life. + +Pentaur finding himself endowed by the king with superabundant wealth, +gave up the inheritance of his fathers to his brother Horus, who was +raised to the rank of chief pioneer as a reward for his interposition at +the battle of Kadesh; Horus replaced the fallen cedar-trees which had +stood at the door of his house by masts of more moderate dimensions. + +The hapless Huni, under whose name Pentaur had been transferred to the +mines of Sinai, was released from the quarries of Chennu, and restored to +his children enriched by gifts from the poet. + +The Pharaoh fully recognized the splendid talents of his daughter's +husband; she to his latest days remained his favorite child, even after +he had consolidated the peace by marrying the daughter of the Cheta king, +and Pentaur became his most trusted adviser, and responsible for the +weightiest affairs in the state. + +Rameses learned from the papers found in Ani's tent, and from other +evidence which was only too abundant, that the superior of the House of +Seti, and with him the greater part of the priesthood, had for a long +time been making common cause with the traitor; in the first instance he +determined on the severest, nay bloodiest punishment, but he was +persuaded by Pentaur and by his son Chamus to assert and support the +principles of his government by milder and yet thorough measures. +Rameses desired to be a defender of religion--of the religion which could +carry consolation into the life of the lowly and over-burdened, and give +their existence a higher and fuller meaning--the religion which to him, +as king, appeared the indispensable means of keeping the grand +significance of human life ever present to his mind--sacred as the +inheritance of his fathers, and useful as the school where the people, +who needed leading, might learn to follow and obey. + +But nevertheless no one, not even the priests, the guardians of souls, +could be permitted to resist the laws of which he was the bulwark, +to which he himself was subject, and which enjoined obedience to his +authority; and before be left Tanis he had given Ameni and his followers +to understand that he alone was master in Egypt. + +The God Seth, who had been honored by the Semite races since the time of +the Hyksos, and whom they called upon under the name of Baal, had from +the earliest times never been allowed a temple on the Nile, as being the +God of the stranger; but Rameses--in spite of the bold remonstrances of +the priestly party who called themselves the 'true believers'--raised a +magnificent temple to this God in the city of Tanis to supply the +religious needs of the immigrant foreigners. In the same spirit of +toleration he would not allow the worship of strange Gods to be +interfered with, though on the other hand he was jealous in honoring +the Egyptian Gods with unexampled liberality. He caused temples to be +erected in most of the great cities of the kingdom, he added to the +temple of Ptah at Memphis, and erected immense colossi in front of its +pylons in memory of his deliverance from the fire. + + [One of these is still in existence. It lies on the ground among + the ruins of ancient Memphis.] + +In the Necropolis of Thebes he had a splendid edifice constructed-which +to this day delights the beholder by the symmetry of its proportions in +memory of the hour when he escaped death as by a miracle; on its pylon he +caused the battle of Kadesh to be represented in beautiful pictures in +relief, and there, as well as on the architrave of the great banqueting-- +hall, he had the history inscribed of the danger he had run when he stood +"alone and no man with him!" + +By his order Pentaur rewrote the song he had sung at Pelusium; it is +preserved in three temples, and, in fragments, on several papyrus-rolls +which can be made to complete each other. It was destined to become the +national epic--the Iliad of Egypt. + +Pentaur was commissioned to transfer the school of the House of Seti to +the new votive temple, which was called the House of Rameses, and arrange +it on a different plan, for the Pharaoh felt that it was requisite to +form a new order of priests, and to accustom the ministers of the Gods to +subordinate their own designs to the laws of the country, and to the +decrees of their guardian and ruler, the king. Pentaur was made the +superior of the new college, and its library, which was called "the +hospital for the soul," was without an equal; in this academy, which was +the prototype of the later-formed museum and library of Alexandria, sages +and poets grew up whose works endured for thousands of years--and +fragments of their writings have even come down to us. The most famous +are the hymns of Anana, Pentaur's favorite disciple, and the tale of the +two Brothers, composed by Gagabu, the grandson of the old Prophet. + +Ameni did not remain in Thebes. Rameses had been informed of the way in +which he had turned the death of the ram to account, and the use he had +made of the heart, as he had supposed it, of the sacred animal, and he +translated him without depriving him of his dignity or revenues to +Mendes, the city of the holy rams in the Delta, where, as he observed not +without satirical meaning, he would be particularly intimate with these +sacred beasts; in Mendes Ameni exerted great influence, and in spite of +many differences of opinion which threatened to sever them, he and +Pentaur remained fast friends to the day of his death. + +In the first court of the House of Rameses there stands--now broken +across the middle--the wonder of the traveller, the grandest colossus in +Egypt, made of the hardest granite, and exceeding even the well-known +statue of Memnon in the extent of its base. It represents Rameses the +Great. Little Scherau, whom Pentaur had educated to be a sculptor, +executed it, as well as many other statues of the great sovereign of +Egypt. + +A year after the burning of the pavilion at Pelusium Rameri sailed to the +land of the Danaids, was married to Uarda, and then remained in his +wife's native country, where, after the death of her grandfather, he +ruled over many islands of the Mediterranean and became the founder of a +great and famous race. Uarda's name was long held in tender remembrance +by their subjects, for having grown up in misery she understood the +secret of alleviating sorrow and relieving want, and of doing good and +giving happiness without humiliating those she benefitted. + + + + +ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + +Drink of the joys of life thankfully, and in moderation +It is not seeing, it is seeking that is delightful +The man within him, and not on the circumstances without + + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK UARDA BY GEORG EBERS, V10 *** + +*******This file should be named 5448.txt or 5448.zip ******** + +This eBook was produced by David Widger + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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