twards on the track
of Amenmeses and our company. All the afternoon we drove thus, preceded
by the two soldiers disguised as runners and followed, as a distant
cloud of dust told me, by the captain and his chariots, whom I had
secretly commanded to keep us in sight.

Towards evening we came to the pass in the story hills which bounded the
land of Goshen. Here Seti descended from the chariot, and we climbed,
accompanied by the two soldiers whom I signed to follow us, to the crest
of one of these hills that was strewn with huge boulders and lined with
ridges of sandstone, between which gullies had been cut by the winds of
thousands of years.

Leaning against one of these ridges we looked back upon a wondrous
sight. Far away across the fertile plain appeared the town that we had
left, and behind it the sun sank. It would seem as though some storm
had broken there, although the firmament above us was clear and blue.
At least in front of the town two huge pillars of cloud stretched from
earth to heaven like the columns of some mighty gateway. One of these
pillars was as though it were made of black marble, and the other like
to molten gold. Between them ran a road of light ending in a glory, and
in the midst of the glory the round ball of Ra, the Sun, burned like the
eye of God. The spectacle was as awesome as it was splendid.

"Have you ever seen such a sky in Egypt, Prince?" I asked.

"Never," he answered, and although he spoke low, in that great stillness
his voice sounded loud to me.

For a while longer we watched, till suddenly the sun sank, and only the
glory about it and above remained, which took shapes like to the palaces
and temples of a city in the heavens, a far city that no mortal could
reach except in dreams.

"I know not why, Ana," said Seti, "but for the first time since I was a
man I feel afraid. It seems to me that there are omens in the sky and I
cannot read them. Would that Ki were here to tell us what is signified
by the pillar of blackness to the right and the pillar of fire to the
left, and what god has his home in the city of glory behind, and how
man's feet may walk along the shining road which leads to its pylon
gates. I tell you that I am afraid; it is as though Death were very near
to me and all his wonders open to my mortal sight."

"I too am afraid," I whispered. "Look! The pillars move. That of fire
goes before; that of black cloud follows after, and between them I seem
to see a countle