him from sleep,
With the song and the sound of thy breath."

The Bow heard the song of the Snake. The Death heard the song
of the
Sin, and again its thin music thrilled upon the air. For thus
it sang:

"Be thou silent, my Mother of Sin, for this watch it is given me
to keep
O'er the sleep of the dealer of Death!"

Then the Snake sang:

"Hush, hush, thou art young, and thou camest to birth when the
making was done
Of the world: I am older therein!"

And the Bow answered:

"But without me thy strength were as weakness, the prize of thy
strength were unwon.
I am _Death_, and thy Daughter, O Sin!"

Now the song of the Snake and the song of the Bow sunk through the
depths of sleep till they reached the Wanderer's ears. He sighed, he
stretched out his mighty arms, he opened his eyes, and lo! they looked
upon the eyes that bent above him, eyes of flame that lit the face of
a woman--the face of Meriamun that wavered on a serpent's neck and
suddenly was gone. He cried aloud with fear, and sprang from the couch.
The faint light of the dawning crept through the casements and fell
upon the bed. The faint light of the dawning fell upon the golden bed of
Pharaoh's Queen, it gleamed upon the golden armour that was piled by the
bed, and on the polished surface of the great black bow. It shone upon
the face of her who lay in the bed.

Then he remembered. Surely he had slept with the Golden Helen, who was
his bride, and surely he had dreamed an evil dream, a dream of a snake
that wore the face of Pharaoh's Queen. Yea, there lay the Golden Helen,
won at last--the Golden Helen now made a wife to him. Now he mocked his
own fears, and now he bent to wake her with a kiss. Faintly the new-born
light crept and gathered on her face; ah! how beautiful she was in
sleep. Nay, what was this? Whose face was this beneath his own? Not so
had Helen looked in the shrine of her temple, when he tore the web. Not
so had Helen seemed yonder in the pillared hall when she stood in the
moonlit space--not so had she seemed when he sware the great oath to
love her, and her alone. Whose beauty was it then that now he saw? By
the Immortal Gods, it was the beauty of Meriamun; it was the glory of
the Pharaoh's Queen!

He stared upon her lovely sleeping face, while terror shook his soul.
How could this be? What then had he done?

Th