band? Now
you who for the most part have the Hyksos blood running in your veins,
as he has, desire that he should rule, and you have slain the good god,
my father, and would make Abi king over you, and see me his handmaid,
one to give him children of my royal race, no more. See, you are a
multitude and my legions are far away, and I--I am alone, one lamb among
the jackals, thousands and thousands of jackals who for a long while
have been hungry. How, then, shall I match myself against you?"

"You cannot," shouted a wild-eyed spokesman. "Come down, lamb, and kneel
before the lion, Abi, or we, the jackals, will rend you. We will not
acknowledge you, we who are of the fierce Hyksos blood. While the
obelisks stand that were set up by the great Hyksos Pharaoh whose
descendant was Abi's mother, while the obelisks stand that are set there
for all eternity, we will not acknowledge you. Come down and take your
place in our lord's harem, O Pharaoh's bastard daughter."

"Ah!" Tua repeated after him, "while the obelisks stand that the Hyksos
thief set up you will not acknowledge me, Pharaoh's bastard daughter!"

Then she paused and seemed to grow disturbed; she sighed, wrung her
hands a little, and said in a choking voice:

"I am but one woman alone among you. My father, Pharaoh, is dead, and
you bid me lay down my rank and henceforth rule only through him who
trapped Pharaoh and brought him to his end. What, then, can I do?"

"Be a good maid and obey your husband, Bastard," mocked a voice, and
during the roar of laughter that followed Tua looked at the speaker, an
officer of Abi's, who had taken a great part in the slaughter of their
escort.

Very strangely she looked at him, and those who stood by the man noted
that his lips became white, and that he turned so faint that had it not
been for the press about him he would have fallen. Presently he seemed
to recover, and asked the priests who were near to let him join their
circle, as among the outer throng the heat was too great for him to
bear. Thereon one of them nodded and made room for him, and he passed
in, which Tua noted also.

Now she was speaking again.

"Ill names to throw at Egypt's anointed queen, crowned and accepted by
the god himself in the sanctuary of his most holy temple," she said, her
eyes still resting on the brutal soldier. "Yet it is your hour, and she
must bear them who has no friends in Memphis. Oh! what shall I do?" and
again she wrung her hands. "