the salvation of his soul, and
then requested Pentaur to follow him without delay to his tent. On the
way he prepared the poet, with the polite delicacy which was peculiar to
him, for a meeting which might be more painful than joyful to him, and
must in any case bring him many hours of anxiety and agitation.

The judges in Thebes, who had been compelled to sentence the lady
Setchem, as the mother of a traitor, to banishment to the mines had,
without any demand on her part, granted leave to the noble and most
respectable matron to go under an escort of guards to meet the king on
his return into Egypt, in order to petition for mercy for herself, but
not, as it was expressly added--for Paaker; and she had set out, but
with the secret resolution to obtain the king's grace not for herself
but for her son.

[Agatharchides, in Diodorus III. 12, says that in many cases not
only the criminal but his relations also were condemned to labor in
the mines. In the convention signed between Rameses and the Cheta
king it is expressly provided that the deserter restored to Egypt
shall go unpunished, that no injury shall be done "to his house, his
wife or his children, nor shall his mother be put to death."]

Ameni had already left Thebes for the north when this sentence was
pronounced, or he would have reversed it by declaring the true origin
of Paaker; for after he had given up his participation in the Regent's
conspiracy, he no longer had any motive for keeping old Hekt's secret.

Setchem's journey was lengthened by a storm which wrecked the ship in
which she was descending the Nile, and she did not reach Pelusium till
after the king. The canal which formed the mouth of the Nile close
to this fortress and joined the river to the Mediterranean, was so
over-crowded with the boats of the Regent and his followers, of the
ambassadors, nobles, citizens, and troops which had met from all parts
of the country, that the lady's boat could find anchorage only at a
great distance from the city, and accompanied by her faithful
steward she had succeeded only a few hours before in speaking to the
high-priest.

Setchem was terribly changed; her eyes, which only a few months since
had kept an efficient watch over the wealthy Theban household, were now
dim and weary, and although her figure had not grown thin it had lost
its dignity and energy, and seemed inert and feeble. Her lips, so ready
for a wise or sprightly saying, were c