, as the priest was about to bar the wicket, the
Wanderer strode forward, and his golden armour clashed beneath the
portal.

"Wouldst thou indeed enter to thy doom, thou mighty lord?" asked the
priest, for he knew him well again.

"Ay, I enter; but perchance not to my doom," answered the Wanderer. Then
he passed in and the brazen gate was shut behind him.

Now the two priests came forward to bind his eyes, but this he would not
endure.

"Not so," he said; "I am come here to see what may be seen."

"Go to, thou madman, go to! and die the death," they answered, and led
all the men to the centre of the courtyard whence they might see
the pylon top. Then the priests also covered up their eyes and cast
themselves at length upon the ground; so for a while they lay, and all
was silence within and without the court, for they waited the coming
of the Hathor. The Wanderer glanced through the bars of bronze at the
multitude gathered there. Silent they stood with upturned eyes, even the
women had ceased from weeping and stood in silence. He looked at those
beside him. Their bandaged faces were lifted and they stared towards the
pylon top as though their vision pierced the cloths. The blind man, too,
stared upward, and his pale lips moved, but no sound came from them. Now
at the foot of the pylon lay a little rim of shadow. Thinner and thinner
it grew as the moments crept on towards the perfect noon. Now there was
but a line, and now the line was gone, for the sun's red disc burned
high in the blue heaven straight above the pylon brow. Then suddenly and
from afar there came a faint sweet sound of singing, and at the first
note of the sound a great sigh went up through the quiet air, from all
the multitude without. Those who were near the Wanderer sighed also, and
their lips and fingers twitched, and he himself sighed, though he knew
not why.

Nearer came the sweet sound of singing, and stronger it swelled, till
presently those without the temple gate who were on higher ground caught
sight of her who sang. Then a hoarse roar went up from every throat, and
madness took them. On they rushed, dashing themselves against the gates
of bronze and the steep walls on either side, and beat upon them madly
with their fists and brows, and climbed on each other's shoulders,
gnawing at the bars with their teeth, crying to be let in. But the women
threw their arms about them and screamed curses on her whose beauty
brought all men to madness.