penalty for these offenses is
great--my plight is most serious.

"The pitying gods have left me one chance for escape. If I fail I
shall molder here, for my counsel is mine and the demons of Amenti
shall not rend it from me.

"The tale is short and miserable. But for the necessity I would not
repeat it, for it publishes the humiliation of sweet innocence.

"Suffice it to say that the offended is she of whom we talked one day
on the hill back of Masaarah; the offender is Har-hat who hath buried
me here in Tape.

"One morning he saw her at the quarries and, taken with her beauty,
asked her at the hands of the Pharaoh, for the hatefullest bondage pure
maidenhood ever knew.

"She fled from the minions he sent to take her, and came to me in that
spot on the hillside where thou and I did talk.

"There the minions found us, and by the evidence they looked upon, I am
further charged with sacrilege.

"Thou dost remember the all-powerful signet, which my father had from
the Incomparable Pharaoh. He lost it in the tomb of the king, three
years ago, abandoning the search for it before I was assured that it
was not to be found.

"So strong was my faith that the signet was in the tomb, that when this
disaster overtook her, I came to Tape at once to look again for the
treasure. I found it.

"But by some unknowable mischance mine enemy discovered my whereabouts
and a third minion, who escaped my wrath before the statue that
morning, appeared in the city and caused me to be delivered up to the
authorities on the charges already named.

"She is hidden, and I have provided for her protection, as well as I
may, against the wishes of the strongest man in the land. For her
immediate welfare I am not greatly troubled. But, alas! I would be
with her--thou knowest, O my Hotep, the hunger and heartache of such
separation.

"If the Pharaoh honor not the signet herein inclosed, tell my father of
my plight, let me know the decision of the king, and then I shall trust
to the Hathors for liberty.

"Of this contingency, I would not speak at length. It may be tempting
the caprice of the Seven Sisters to presuppose such misfortune.

"Let not my father intervene for me. He shall not endanger himself
further than I have already asked of him.

"But remember thou this injunction, most surely. That it shall be last
and therefore freshest in thy memory, I put this at the end of the
letter.

"Put the petition herein inclosed into