dful weariness.

The dignitaries left the prison and returned to the upper hall. The
nomarch, seeing that the high priest Mefres kept his eyes cast down and
his lips fixed, asked him,

"Art Thou not rejoiced, holy man, at these wonderful discoveries made
by our chief?"

"I have no reason to rejoice," answered Mefres, dryly. "The case,
instead of being simplified, has grown difficult. Sarah asserts that
she killed the child, while the Phoenician woman answers as if some one
had taught her."

"Then dost Thou not believe, worthiness?" interrupted the chief.

"No, for I have never seen two men so much alike that one could be
mistaken for the other. Still more, I have never heard that there
exists in Pi-Bast a man who could counterfeit our viceroy, may he live
through eternity!"

"That man," said the chief, "was in Pi-Bast, at the temple of Astaroth.
The Tyrian Prince Hiram knew him, and our viceroy has seen him with his
own eyes. More than that, not long ago, he commanded me to seize him,
and even offered a large reward."

"Ho! ho!" cried Mefres, "I see, worthy chief, I see that the highest
secrets of the state are concentrating about thee. But permit me not to
believe in that Lykon till I see him."

And he left the hall in anger, and after him Sem, shrugging his
shoulders. But when their steps had ceased to sound in the corridor,
the nomarch, looking quickly at the chief, asked,

"What dost Thou think?"

"Indeed," said the chief, "the holy prophets are beginning to interfere
in things which have never been under their jurisdiction."

"And we must endure this!" whispered the nomarch.

"For a time only," sighed the chief. "In so far as I know men's hearts,
all the military, all the officials of his holiness, in fine, all the
aristocracy, are indignant at this priestly tyranny. Everything must
have its limit."

"Thou hast uttered great words," said the nomarch, pressing the chief's
hand, "and some internal voice tells me that I shall see thee as
supreme chief of police at the side of his holiness."

A couple of days passed. During this time the dissectors had secured
from corruption the remains of the viceroy's son; but Sarah continued
in prison, awaiting her trial, certain that she would be condemned.

Kama was sitting, also, confined in her cage; people feared her, for
she was infected with leprosy. It is true that a miracle-working
physician visited her, repeated prayers before her, gave her everything