ess, it will hurt you."

"Oh let me speak, Nebenchari! I must ask you to do something for me
before I die."

"I am your servant."

"No, Nebenchari, you must be my friend and priest. You are not angry with
me for having prayed to the Persian gods? Our own Hathor was always my
best friend still. Yes, I see by your face that you forgiven me. Then you
must promise not to allow my corpse to be torn in pieces by dogs and
vultures. The thought is so very dreadful. You will promise to embalm my
body and ornament it with amulets?"

"If the king allows."

"Of course he will. How could Cambyses possibly refuse my last request?"

"Then my skill is at your service."

"Thank you; but I have still something else to ask."

"You must be brief. My Persian colleagues are already making signs to me,
to enjoin silence on you."

"Can't you send them away for a moment?"

"I will try to do so."

Nebenchari then went up and spoke to the Magi for a few minutes, and they
left the room. An important incantation, at which no one but the two
concerned might be present, and the application of a new and secret
antidotal poison were the pretexts which he had used in order to get rid
of them.

When they were alone, Nitetis drew a breath of relief and said: "Give me
your priestly blessing on my long journey into the nether world, and
prepare me for my pilgrimage to Osiris."

Nebenchari knelt down by her bed and in a low voice repeated hymns,
Nitetis making devotional responses.

The physician represented Osiris, the lord of the nether world--Nitetis
the soul, justifying itself before him.

When these ceremonies were ended the sick girl breathed more freely.
Nebenchari could not but feel moved in looking at this young suicide. He
felt confident that he had saved a soul for the gods of his native land,
had cheered the last sad and painful hours of one of God's good
creatures. During these last moments, compassion and benevolence had
excluded every bitter feeling; but when he remembered that this lovely
creature owed all her misery to Amasis too, the old black cloud of
thought darkened his mind again.--Nitetis, after lying silent for some
time, turned to her new friend with a pleasant smile, and said: "I shall
find mercy with the judges of the dead now, shall not I?"

"I hope and believe so."

"Perhaps I may find Tachot before the throne of Osiris, and my
father. . . ."

"Your father and mother are waiting for you there. Now in your