ccasion given to weave them in a crown of glory. And how can a man die
better than in a great endeavour to strike the gyves from his Country's
limbs so that she again may stand in the face of Heaven and raise the
shrill shout of Freedom, and, clad once more in a panoply of strength,
trample under foot the fetters of her servitude, defying the tyrant
nations of the earth to set their seal upon her brow?

"Khem calls thee, Harmachis. Come then, thou Deliverer; leap like Horus
from the firmament, break her chains, scatter her foes, and rule a
Pharaoh on Pharaoh's Throne----"

"Enough, enough!" I cried, while the long murmur of applause swept about
the columns and up the massy walls. "Enough; is there any need to adjure
me thus? Had I a hundred lives, would I not most gladly lay them down
for Egypt?"

"Well said, well said!" answered Sepa. "Now go forth with the woman
yonder, that she may make thy hands clean before they touch the sacred
emblems, and anoint thy brow before it is encircled of the diadem."

And so I went into a chamber apart with the old wife, Atoua. There,
muttering prayers, she poured pure water over my hands into a ewer of
gold, and having dipped a fine cloth into oil wiped my brow with it.

"O happy Egypt!" she said; "O happy Prince, that art come to rule in
Egypt! O Royal youth!--too Royal to be a priest--so shall many a fair
woman think; but, perchance, for thee they will relax the priestly rule,
else how shall the race of Pharaoh be carried on? O happy I, who dandled
thee and gave my flesh and blood to save thee! O royal and beautiful
Harmachis, born for splendour, happiness, and love!"

"Cease, cease," I said, for her talk jarred upon me; "call me not happy
till thou knowest my end, and speak not to me of love, for with love
comes sorrow, and mine is another and a higher way."

"Ay, ay, so thou sayest--and joy, too, that comes with love! Never talk
lightly of love, my King, for it brought thee here! _La! la!_ but it is
always the way--'The goose on the wing laughs at crocodiles,' so goes
their saying down at Alexandria; 'but when the goose is asleep on the
water, it is the crocodiles that laugh.' Not but what women are pretty
crocodiles. Men worship the crocodiles at Anthribis--Crocodilopolis they
call it now, don't they?--but they worship women all the world over!
_La!_ how my tongue runs on, and thou about to be crowned Pharaoh! Did I
not prophesy it to thee? Well, thou art clean, Lord of the