think of the approaching victory, of
our return home, and remember that you have less to forgive Paaker than
he to forgive you. Now, pray go and see to the horses, and to-morrow
morning let me see you on my chariot full of cheerful courage--as I love
to see you."

Mena left the tent, and went to the stables; there he met Rameri, who was
waiting to speak to him. The eager boy said that he had always looked up
to him and loved him as a brilliant example, but that lately he had been
perplexed as to his virtuous fidelity, for he had been informed that Mena
had taken a strange woman into his tent--he who was married to the
fairest and sweetest woman in Thebes.

"I have known her," he concluded, "as well as if I were her brother; and
I know that she would die if she heard that you had insulted and
disgraced her. Yes, insulted her; for such a public breach of faith is an
insult to the wife of an Egyptian. Forgive my freedom of speech, but who
knows what to-morrow may bring forth--and I would not for worlds go out
to battle, thinking evil of you."

Mena let Rameri speak without interruption, and then answered:

"You are as frank as your father, and have learned from him to hear the
defendant before you condemn him. A strange maiden, the daughter of the
king of the Danaids,

[A people of the Greeks at the time of the Trojan war. They are
mentioned among the nations of the Mediterranean allied against
Rameses III. The Dardaneans were inhabitants of the Trojan
provinces of Dardanin, and whose name was used for the Trojans
generally.]

lives in my tent, but I for months have slept at the door of your
father's, and I have not once entered my own since she has been there.
Now sit down by me, and let me tell you how it all happened. We had
pitched the camp before Kadesh, and there was very little for me to do,
as Rameses was still laid up with his wound, so I often passed my time in
hunting on the shores of the lake. One day I went as usual, armed only
with my bow and arrow, and, accompanied by my grey-hounds, heedlessly
followed a hare; a troop of Danaids fell upon me, bound me with cords,
and led me into their camp.

[Grey-hounds, trained to hunt hares, are represented in the most
ancient tombs, for instance, the Mastaba at Meydum, belonging to the
time of Snefru (four centuries B. C.).]

There I was led before the judges as a spy, and they had actually
condemned me, and the rope was round my neck,