thee!--that thou wouldst have stilled? Yes, _thou_ shalt unite me to my
people and we will reign together, thus linking in one the new kingdom
and the old and the new thought and the old. So do all things work for
good--ay, for the very best: and thus, by another and a gentler road,
thou shalt climb to Pharaoh's throne.

"See thou this, Harmachis: thy treachery shall be cloaked about as
much as may be. Was it, then, thy fault that a Roman knave betrayed thy
plans? that, thereon, thou wast drugged, thy secret papers stolen and
their key guessed? Will it, then, be a blame to thee, the great plot
being broken and those who built it scattered, that thou, still faithful
to thy trust, didst serve thee of such means as Nature gave thee, and
win the heart of Egypt's Queen, that, through her gentle love, thou
mightest yet attain thy ends and spread thy wings of power across the
land of Nile? Am I an ill-counsellor, thinkest thou, Harmachis?"

I lifted my head, and a ray of hope crept into the darkness of my heart;
for when men fall they grasp at feathers. Then, I spoke for the first
time:

"And those with me--those who trusted me--what of them?"

"Ay," she answered, "Amenemhat, thy father, the aged Priest of Abouthis;
and Sepa, thy uncle, that fiery patriot, whose great heart is hid
beneath so common a shell of form; and----"

I thought she would have said Charmion, but she named her not.

"And many others--oh, I know them all!"

"Ay!" I said, "what of them?"

"Hear now, Harmachis," she answered, rising and placing her hand upon
my arm, "for thy sake I will show mercy to them. I will do no more than
must be done. I swear by my throne and by all the Gods of Egypt that not
one hair of thy aged father's head shall be harmed by me; and, if it be
not too late, I will also spare thy uncle Sepa, ay, and the others. I
will not do as did my forefather, Epiphanes, who, when the Egyptians
rose against him, dragged Athinis, Pausiras, Chesuphus, and Irobasthus,
bound to his chariot--not as Achilles dragged Hector, but yet
living--round the city walls. I will spare them all, save the Hebrews,
if there be any Hebrews; for the Jews I hate."

"There are no Hebrews," I said.

"It is well," she said, "for no Hebrew will I ever spare. Am I then,
indeed, so cruel a woman as they say? In thy list, Harmachis, were
many doomed to die; and I have but taken the life of one Roman knave,
a double traitor, for he betrayed both me and thee. Art th