wn through close
to the ground. The matmaker no doubt did it, whose collar-bone was
broken. He has escaped in this fearful night."

"Let out the dogs," cried the Mohar. "All who have legs run after the
blackguard! Freedom, and five handfuls of gold for the man who brings him
back."

The guests at the House of Seti had already gone to rest, when Ameni was
informed of the arrival of the sorceress, and he at once went into the
hall, where Ani was waiting to see her; the Regent roused himself from a
deep reverie when he heard the high-priest's steps.

"Is she come?" he asked hastily; when Ameni answered in the affirmative
Ani went on meanwhile carefully disentangling the disordered curls of his
wig, and arranging his broad, collar-shaped necklace:

"The witch may exercise some influence over me; will you not give me your
blessing to preserve me from her spells? It is true, I have on me this
Houss'-eye, and this Isis-charm, but one never knows."

"My presence will be your safe-guard," said Ameni. "But-no, of course you
wish to speak with her alone. You shall be conducted to a room, which is
protected against all witchcraft by sacred texts. My brother," he
continued to one of the serving-priests, "let the witch be taken into one
of the consecrated rooms, and then, when you have sprinkled the
threshold, lead my lord Ani thither."

The high-priest went away, and into a small room which adjoined the hall
where the interview between the Regent and the old woman was about to
take place, and where the softest whisper spoken in the larger room could
be heard by means of an ingeniously contrived and invisible tube.

When Ani saw the old woman, he started back is horror; her appearance at
this moment was, in fact, frightful. The storm had tossed and torn her
garment and tumbled all her thick, white hair, so that locks of it fell
over her face. She leaned on a staff, and bending far forward looked
steadily at the Regent; and her eyes, red and smarting from the sand
which the wind had flung in her face, seemed to glow as she fixed them on
his. She looked as a hyaena might when creeping to seize its prey, and
Ani felt a cold shiver and he heard her hoarse voice addressing him to
greet him and to represent that he had chosen a strange hour for
requiring her to speak with him.

When she had thanked him for his promise of renewing her letter of
freedom, and had confirmed the statement that Paaker had had a
love-philter from her, sh