ly backwards
and forwards in her tent.

Soon after she had slipped out for the purpose of setting fire to
the palace, Scherau's cry had waked up Nefert, and Katuti found her
daughter's bed empty when, with blackened hands and limbs trembling with
agitation, she came back from her criminal task.

Now she waited in vain for Nemu and Paaker.

Her steward, whom she sent on repeated messages of enquiry whether the
Regent had returned, constantly brought back a negative answer, and
added the information that he had found the body of old Hekt lying on
the open ground. The widow's heart sank with fear; she was full of dark
forebodings while she listened to the shouts of the people engaged
in putting out the fire, the roll of drums, and the trumpets of the
soldiers calling each other to the help of the king.

To these sounds now was added the dull crash of falling timbers and
walls.

A faint smile played upon her thin lips, and she thought to herself:
"There--that perhaps fell on the king, and my precious son-in-law, who
does not deserve such a fate--if we had not fallen into disgrace, and
if since the occurrences before Kadesh he did not cling to his indulgent
lord as a calf follows a cow."

She gathered fresh courage, and fancied she could hear the voice of
Ethiopian troops hailing the Regent as king--could see Ani decorated
with the crown of Upper and Lower Egypt, seated on Rameses' throne, and
herself by his side in rich though unpretending splendor. She pictured
herself with her son and daughter as enjoying Mena's estate, freed from
debt and increased by Ani's generosity, and then a new, intoxicating
hope came into her mind. Perhaps already at this moment her daughter
was a widow, and why should she not be so fortunate as to induce Ani to
select her child, the prettiest woman in Thebes, for his wife? Then
she, the mother of the queen, would be indeed unimpeachable, and
all-powerful. She had long since come to regard the pioneer as a tool
to be cast aside, nay soon to be utterly destroyed; his wealth
might probably at some future time be bestowed upon her son, who had
distinguished himself at Kadesh, and whom Ani must before long promote
to be his charioteer or the commander of the chariot warriors.

Flattered by these fancies, she forgot every care as she walked faster
and faster to and fro in her tent. Suddenly the steward, whom she had
this time sent to the very scene of the fire, rushed into the tent, and
with e