t you had gone, and cried to you to help me in those same words
which I cried again just now before you appeared." (Here the Prince
looked at me and I Ana looked at him.) "Then it was that from among the
bushes of the garden appeared a man, hidden in a long, sheepskin cloak,
so that I could not see his face, who said to me:

"'Moon of Israel, I have been sent by his Highness, the Prince Seti, to
tell you that you are in danger of your life, as he is in danger of his,
wherefore he cannot come to you. His command is that you come to him,
that together you may flee away out of Egypt to a land where you will
both be safe until all these troubles are finished.'

"'How know I that you of the veiled face are a true messenger?' I asked.
'Give me a sign.'

"Then he held out to me that scarabaeus of lapis-lazuli which your
Highness gave to me far away in the land of Goshen, the same that you
asked back from me as a love token when we plighted troth, and you gave
me your royal ring, which scarabaeus I had seen in your robe when you
drove away with Ana."

"I lost it on our journey to the Sea of Reeds, but said nothing of it to
you, Ana, because I thought the omen evil, having dreamed in the night
that Ki appeared and stole it from me," whispered the Prince to me.

"'It is not enough,' I answered. 'This jewel may have been thieved
away, or snatched from the dead body of the Prince, or taken from him by
magic.'

"The cloaked man thought a while and said, 'This night, not an hour ago,
Pharaoh and his chariots were overwhelmed in the Sea of Reeds. Let that
serve as a sign.'

"'How can this be?' I answered, 'since the Sea of Reeds is far away,
and such tidings cannot travel thence in an hour. Get you gone, false
tempter.'

"'Yet it is so,' he answered.

"'When you prove it to me, I will believe, and come.'

"'Good,' he said, and was gone.

"Next day a rumour began to run that this awful thing had happened. It
grew stronger and stronger, until all swore that it had happened. Now
the fury of the people rose against me, and they ravened round the
palace like lions of the desert, roaring for my blood. Yet it was as
though they could not enter here, since whenever they rushed at the
gates or walls, they fell back again, for some spirit seemed to protect
the place. The days went by; the night came again and at the dawn, this
dawn that is past, once more I stood upon the terrace, and once more the
cloaked man appeared from among