ll back, and the peace of death descended on his
tortured brow.

Tua kissed his dead brow, and knelt at his side in prayer. After a
little while she rose and said:

"It has pleased Pharaoh, the just and perfect, to depart to his
everlasting habitation in Osiris. Make it known that this god is dead,
and that I rule alone in Egypt. Send hither the priest of Osiris, that
he may repeat the Ritual of Departing, and you, physicians, do your
office."

So the priest came, but at the door Asti caught him by the hand and
asked:

"How did you destroy the image of wax?"

"I burned it upon the altar in the old sanctuary of this temple," he
answered.

"O, Fool!" said Asti, "you should have buried it. Know that with the
enchanted thing you have burned away the life of Pharaoh also."

Then that priest fell swooning to the ground, and another had to be
summoned to utter the Ritual of Departing.

CHAPTER X

THE COMING OF THE KA

Now it was morning, and while the physicians embalmed the body of
Pharaoh as best they could, Tua consulted with her officers. Long and
earnest was that council, for all of them felt that their danger was
very great. Abi had escaped, and if he were re-taken, none knew better
than he that his death and that of all his House would be the reward of
his crimes and sorceries which could only be covered up in one way--by
marriage with the Queen of Egypt. Moreover, he had thousands of soldiers
in the city and around it, all of them sworn to his service, whereas the
royal guard was but five companies, each of a hundred men, trapped in a
snare of streets and stone.

One of them suggested that they should break a way through the wall of
the temple, and escape to the royal barges that lay moored on the Nile
beneath them, and this plan was approved. But when they went to set
about the work it was seen that these barges had been seized and were
already sailing away up the river. So but two alternatives remained--to
bide within the fortifications of the old temple, and send out
messengers for help, or to march through the city boldly, break down the
gates if these were shut against them, seize boats, and sail up the Nile
for some loyal town, or if that could not be done, to take their chance
in the open lands.

Now some favoured one scheme, and some the other, so that at last the
decision was left with her Majesty. She thought awhile, then said:

"Here I will not stay, to be starved out as we must ere eve