hained
together, and one of them--do not be startled--one of them is the poet
Pentaur. Stop, for God's sake, stop, and hear me. Twice before I have
seen my father when he has been here with convicts. To-day we must rescue
Pentaur; but the princess must know nothing of it, for if my plan
fails--"

"Child! girl!" interrupted Nefert eagerly. "How can I help you?"

"Order the steward to give the drivers of the gang a skin of wine in the
name of the princess, and out of Bent-Anat's case of medicines take the
phial which contains the sleeping draught, which, in spite of your wish,
she will not take. I will wait here, and I know how to use it."

Nefert immediately found the steward, and ordered him to follow Uarda
with a skin of wine. Then she went back to the princess's tent, and
opened the medicine case.

[A medicine case, belonging to a more ancient period than the reign
of Rameses, is preserved in the Berlin Museum.]

"What do you want?" asked Bent-Anat.

"A remedy for palpitation," replied Nefert; she quietly took the flask
she needed, and in a few minutes put it into Uarda's hand.

The girl asked the steward to open the wine-skin, and let her taste the
liquor. While she pretended to drink it, she poured the whole contents of
the phial into the wine, and then let Bent-Anat's bountiful present be
carried to the thirsty drivers.

She herself went towards the kitchen tent, and found a young Amalekite
sitting on the ground with the princess's servants. He sprang up as soon
as he saw the damsel.

"I have brought four fine partridges,"

[A brook springs on the peak called by the Sinaitic monks Mr. St.
Katherine, which is called the partridge's spring, and of which many
legends are told. For instance, God created it for the partridges
which accompanied the angels who carried St. Katharine of Alexandria
to her tomb on Sinai.]

he said, "which I snared myself, and I have brought this turquoise for
you--my brother found it in a rock. This stone brings good luck, and is
good for the eyes; it gives victory over our enemies, and keeps away bad
dreams."

"Thank you!" said Uarda, and taking the boy's hand, as he gave her the
sky-blue stone, she led him forward into the dusk.

"Listen, Salich" she said softly, as soon as she thought they were far
enough from the others. "You are a good boy, and the maids told me that
you said I was a star that had come down from the sky to become a woman.
No one says