rince. There is yet time."

"Not so, Ana. If one loves, one loves at once. Soon I shall be old and
she will be fat and ugly, and how can one love then? Get well quickly,
Ana, for I wish you to help me with my report to Pharaoh. I shall tell
him that I think these Israelites are much oppressed and that he should
make them amends and let them go."

"What will Pharaoh say to that after they have just tried to kill his
heir?"

"I think Pharaoh will be angry, and so will the people of Egypt, who do
not reason well. He will not see that, believing what they do, Laban
and his band were right to try to kill me who, however unwittingly,
desecrated the sanctuary of their god. Had they done otherwise they
would have been no good Hebrews, and for my part I cannot bear them
malice. Yet all Egypt is afire about this business and cries out that
the Israelites should be destroyed."

"It seems to me, Prince, that whatever may be the case with Ki's second
prophecy, his third is in the way of fulfilment--namely that this
journey to Goshen may cause you to risk your throne."

He shrugged his shoulders and answered:

"Not even for that, Ana, will I say to Pharaoh what is not in my mind.
But let that matter be till you are stronger."

"What chanced at the end of the fight, Prince, and how came I here?"

"The guard killed most of the Hebrews who remained alive. Some few fled
and escaped in the darkness, among them Laban their leader, although you
had wounded him, and six were taken alive. They await their trial. I was
but little hurt and you, whom we thought dead, were but senseless, and
senseless or wandering you have remained till this hour. We carried you
in a litter, and here you have been these three days."

"And the lady Merapi?"

"We set her in a chariot and brought her to the city, since had we left
her she would certainly have been murdered by her people. When Pharaoh
heard what she had done, as I did not think it well that she should
dwell here, he gave her the small house in this garden that she might
be guarded, and with it slave women to attend upon her. So there she
dwells, having the freedom of the palace, and all the while has filled
the office of your nurse."

At this moment I grew faint and shut my eyes. When I opened them again,
the Prince had gone. Six more days went by before I was allowed to leave
my bed, and during this time I saw much of Merapi. She was very sad and
lived in fear of being killed by the Heb