when their king came up,
saw me, and subjected me to a fresh examination. I told him the facts at
full length--how I had fallen into the hands of his people while
following up my game, and not as an enemy, and he heard me favorably, and
granted me not only life but freedom. He knew me for a noble, and treated
me as one, inviting me to feed at his own table, and I swore in my heart,
when he let me go, that I would make him some return for his generous
conduct.

"About a month after, we succeeded in surprising the Cheta position, and
the Libyan soldiers, among other spoil, brought away the Danaid king's
only daughter. I had behaved valiantly, and when we came to the division
of the spoils Rameses allowed me to choose first. I laid my hand on the
maid, the daughter of my deliverer and host, I led her to my tent, and
left her there with her waiting-women till peace is concluded, and I can
restore her to her father."

"Forgive my doubts!" cried Rameri holding out his hand. "Now I understand
why the king so particularly enquired whether Nefert believed in your
constancy to her."

"And what was your answer?" asked Mena.

"That she thinks of you day and night, and never for an instant doubted
you. My father seemed delighted too, and he said to Chamus: 'He has won
there!"

"He will grant me some great favor," said Mena in explanation, "if, when
she hears I have taken a strange maiden to my tent her confidence in me
is not shaken, Rameses considers it simply impossible, but I know that I
shall win. Why! she must trust me."

CHAPTER XXXIX.

Before the battle,

[The battle about to be described is taken entirely from the epos of
Pentaur.]

prayers were offered and victims sacrificed for each division of the
army. Images of the Gods were borne through the ranks in their festal
barks, and miraculous relics were exhibited to the soldiers; heralds
announced that the high-priest had found favorable omens in the victims
offered by the king, and that the haruspices foretold a glorious victory.
Each Egyptian legion turned with particular faith to the standard which
bore the image of the sacred animal or symbol of the province where it
had been levied, but each soldier was also provided with charms and
amulets of various kinds; one had tied to his neck or arm a magical text
in a little bag, another the mystic preservative eye, and most of them
wore a scarabaeus in a finger ring. Many believed themselves protected by