impeachments. His inclination
pressed hard upon him and the tokens of his knowledge wrote themselves
upon his open face. When a man is dodging death and expecting
treachery, his perceptions become acute. The king, with his eyes upon
the young man's countenance, caught the change of expression.

He sprang at Kenkenes and seized his arms.

"Speak!" he cried violently. "Thou knowest; thou knowest!"

A sudden ebullition of rage and vengeance sent a tingling current
through the young man's veins. The moment had come. In the eye of a
cautious man, he had been called upon for a dangerous declaration. He
had a mighty man to accuse, no proof and little evidence at his
command, and a weakling was to decide between them. But his cause
equipped him with strength and a reckless courage. He faced the king
fairly and made no search after ceremonious words. He spoke as he
felt--intensely.

"Nay; it is thou who shalt tell me, O my King. I know thee, even as
all Egypt knows thee. There is no power in thee for great evil, but
behold to what depths of misery is Egypt sunk! Through thee? Aye, if
we charge the mouth for the word the mind willed it to say. Have the
gods afflicted thee with madness, or have they given thee into the
compelling hands of a knave? Say, who is it, thou or another, who
playeth a perilous game with Israel, this day, when its God hath
already rent Egypt and consumed her in wrath? Like a wise man thou
admittest thine error and biddest thy scourge depart, and lo! ere thy
words are cold thou dost arise and recall them and invite the descent
of new and hideous affliction upon thine empire! Behold the winnings
of thy play, thus far! From Pelusium to Syene, a waste, full of
famine, mourners and dead men, and among these last--thy Rameses!--"

Meneptah did not permit him to finish. Purple with an engorgement of
grief and fury, the monarch broke in, flailing the air with his arms.

"Har-hat!" he cried. "Not I! Har-hat, who cozened me!"

The voice rang through the royal inclosure, and the ministers came
running.

Foremost was Har-hat.

At sight of his enemy, the king put Kenkenes between him and the
fan-bearer. At sight of Kenkenes, Har-hat stopped in his tracks.

Behind followed Kephren and Seneferu, the two generals, who, with the
exception of Har-hat, the commander-in-chief, were the only
arms-bearing men away from their places among the soldiers; after
these, Hotep and Nechutes, Menes of