s man gripped him round the middle and they
rolled together on the ground. Laban appeared and stabbed the Prince in
the back, but the curved knife he was using snapped on the Syrian mail.
I struck at Laban and wounded him on the head, dazing him so that he
staggered back and seemed to fall over the chariot. Then others rushed
at me, and but for Userti's armour three times at least I must have
died. Fighting madly, I staggered against the rock, and whilst waiting
for a new onset, saw that Seti, hurt by Laban's thrust, was now beneath
the great Hebrew who had him by the throat, and was choking the life out
of him.

I saw something else also--a woman holding a sword with both hands and
stabbing downward, after which the grip of the Hebrew loosened from
Seti's throat.

"Traitress!" cried one, and struck at her, so that she reeled back hurt.
Then when all seemed finished, and beneath the rain of blows my senses
were failing, I heard the thunder of horses' hoofs and the shout of
"_Egypt! Egypt!_" from the throats of soldiers. The flash of bronze
caught my dazed eyes, and with the roar of battle in my ears I seemed to
fall asleep just as the light of day departed.

CHAPTER VIII

SETI COUNSELS PHARAOH

Dream upon dream. Dreams of voices, dreams of faces, dreams of sunlight
and of moonlight and of myself being borne forward, always forward;
dreams of shouting crowds, and, above all, dreams of Merapi's eyes
looking down on me like two watching stars from heaven. Then at last the
awakening, and with it throbs of pain and qualms of sickness.

At first I thought that I was dead and lying in a tomb. Then by degrees
I saw that I was in no tomb but in a darkened room that was familiar
to me, my own room in Seti's palace at Tanis. It must be so, for
there, near to the bed on which I lay, was my own chest filled with the
manuscripts that I had brought from Memphis. I tried to lift my left
hand, but could not, and looking down saw that the arm was bandaged like
to that of a mummy, which made me think again that I must be dead, if
the dead could suffer so much pain. I closed my eyes and thought or
slept a while.

As I lay thus I heard voices. One of them seemed to be that of a
physician, who said, "Yes, he will live and ere long recover. The blow
upon the head which has made him senseless for so many days was the
worst of his wounds, but the bone was but bruised, not shattered or
driven in upon the brain. The flesh cuts on his