illed thy son, a Greek, named Lykon, the lover
of the Phoenician Kama."

"What dost Thou say?" whispered she, seizing the nomarch's hands. "Oh,
that Phoenician woman! I knew that she would ruin us. But the Greek? I
know no Greek. How could my son offend any man?"

"I know not," continued the nomarch. "That Greek is no longer alive.
But that man was so like Prince Ramses that when he entered thy chamber
Thou didst think him our lord. And Thou hast preferred to accuse thy
own self rather than our lord, and thine."

"Then that was not Ramses?" cried she, seizing her head. "And I,
wretched woman, let a strange man take my son from his cradle. Ha! ha!
ha!"

Then she laughed more and more. On a sudden, as if her legs had been
cut from under her, she fell to the floor, her hands hopped a couple of
times, and she died in hysteric laughter.

But on her face remained an expression of sorrow which even death could
not drive from it.

CHAPTER XLII

THE western boundary of Egypt for a distance of more than a hundred
geographic miles is composed of a wall of naked limestone hills about
two hundred meters high, intersected by ravines. They run parallel to
the Nile, from which they are sometimes five miles distant, sometimes
one kilometer. Whoso should clamber up one of these hills and turn his
face northward would see one of the strangest sights possible. He would
have on his right hand the narrow but green plain cut lengthwise by the
Nile; on his left he would see an endless yellow open region, varied by
spots, white or brick colored.

Monotony, the irritating yellow color of the sand plain, the heat, and,
above all, boundless immensity are the most peculiar traits of the
Libyan desert, which extends westward from Egypt.

But viewed more nearly the desert is in fact less monotonous. Its sand
is not level, but forms a series of swellings which recall immense
waves of water. It is like a roused sea solidified on a sudden. But
whoso should have the courage to go across that sea for an hour, two
hours, a day, directly westward would see a new sight. On the horizon
would appear eminences, sometimes cliffs and rocks of the strangest
outlines. Under foot the sand would grow thinner, and from beneath it
limestone rocks would emerge just like land out of water.

In fact that was a land, or even a country in the midst of a sand
ocean. Around the limestone hills were valleys, in them the beds of
streams and rivers, farther on a