st thou murdered this Holy One, the only Holy One in Egypt? Surely the
curse will fall on thee, for though the Gods do seem to have forsaken us
now in our hour of trial, yet is their arm long, and certainly they will
be avenged on him who hath slain their anointed!"

"Look on me, Atoua," I cried.

"Look! ay, I look--thou wicked wanderer who hast dared this cruel deed!
Harmachis is a traitor and lost far away, and Amenemhat his holy father
is murdered, and now I'm all alone without kith or kin. I gave them for
him. I gave them for Harmachis, the traitor! Come, slay me also, thou
wicked one!"

I took a step toward her, and she, thinking that I was about to smite
her, cried out in fear:

"Nay, good Sir, spare me! Eighty and six, by the Holy Ones, eighty and
six, come next flood of Nile, and yet I would not die, though Osiris is
merciful to the old who served him! Come no nearer--help! help!"

"Thou fool, be silent," I said; "knowest thou me not?"

"Know thee? Can I know every wandering boatman to whom Sebek grants
to earn a livelihood till Typhon claims his own? And yet--why, 'tis
strange--that changed countenance!--that scar!--that stumbling gait! It
is thou, Harmachis!--'tis thou, O my boy! Art come back to glad mine old
eyes? I hoped thee dead! Let me kiss thee?--nay, I forget. Harmachis is
a traitor, ay, and a murderer! Here lies the holy Amenemhat, murdered by
the traitor, Harmachis! Get thee gone! I'll have none of traitors and of
parricides! Get thee to thy wanton!--it is not thou whom I did nurse."

"Peace! woman; peace! I slew not my father--he died, alas!--he died even
in my arms."

"Ay, surely, and cursing thee, Harmachis! Thou hast given death to him
who gave thee life! _La! la!_ I am old, and I've seen many a trouble;
but this is the heaviest of them all! I never liked the looks of
mummies; but I would I were one this hour! Get thee gone, I pray thee!"

"Old nurse, reproach me not! Have I not enough to bear?"

"Ah! yes, yes!--I did forget! Well; and what is thy sin? A woman was
thy bane, as women have been to those before thee, and shall be to those
after thee. And what a woman! _La! la!_ I saw her, a beauty such as
never was--an arrow pointed by the evil Gods for destruction! And thou,
a young man bred as a priest--an ill training--a very ill training!
'Twas no fair match. Who can wonder that she mastered thee? Come,
Harmachis; let me kiss thee! It is not for a woman to be hard on a man
because he