administration of the young adviser Egypt
recovered something of her former glory, lost in the dreadful
plague-ridden days preceding the Exodus. The army was reorganized
first, for Ta-user's party began to make demonstrations the hour that
the news of the Red Sea disaster reached the Hak-heb. All public
building and national extravagance were halted, and the surplus
treasure was expended in restocking the fields and granaries and
restoring commerce. Within five years after the Exodus the great check
Egypt had met in her nineteenth dynasty was not greatly apparent.

So the land recovered from the plagues, but its ruler never. The death
of Rameses lay like a heavy sin and torturing remorse on his
conscience. He wept till the feeble eyes lost their sight, but not
their susceptibility to tears. At last, succumbing to melancholia, he
became a child, for whom Hotep reigned and for whom the queen cared
with touching devotion.

The story of Seti is history. It is needless to say that his rough
usage at the hands of Ta-user awakened him, but it was long before he
found courage to return to Io, the sweetheart of his childhood. Yet,
when he did, after the manner of her kind, she wept over him and took
him back without a word of reproach. So the fair-faced sister of Hotep
came to be queen over Egypt and took another title with Nefer-ari as
prefix, and the quaint Danaid name, Io, was lost to all lips but Seti's
and Hotep's.

After Seti came to the throne he continued Hotep in the advisership and
prepared to reign happily. But in a little time the Thebaid, long
disaffected, seceded from the federation of Egypt and crowned
Amon-meses king of Thebes. Seti gathered his army, marched against the
rebellious district, put Amon-meses to the sword and reduced the
Thebaid to submission. Then he returned to Memphis for another space
of prosperity.

At the end of a year Ta-user and Siptah, after much browbeating of the
Hak-heb, raised funds sufficient to purchase mercenaries. Then, with
Ta-user at the head in barbaric splendor, they descended on Memphis.

The course Seti pursued has puzzled historians. He gathered up his
family, his court, his treasure, and without so much as lifting a
spear, fled into Ethiopia. After some time Ta-user sent to him and
conferred upon him the title of the Prince of Cush.

To the friends of the young Pharaoh it was patent that he feared to
meet Ta-user. Having succumbed once to her influenc