; but she would have moved from one part
of the house to another a dozen times, and allowed herself to be tossed
hither and thither like a ball, if it could have enabled her to save her
dear "great Sesostris" from such hideous peril. And at the bottom of all
this was, no doubt, this wild, senseless business of the nuns.

And these Arabs! They simply helped themselves to whatever they fancied,
and were, of course, in a position to strip the son of the great
Mukaukas of all he possessed and reduce him to beggary. A pretty
business this!

Heliodora, to be sure, had enough for both, and she and her husband
would not forget them in their will; but there was more than this in the
balance now: it was a matter of life and death.

A cold shudder ran through her at the thought; and her fears were only
too well founded: the black Arab who had come to parley with her, and
had finally allowed her to remain under this roof till next day, had
told her as much through the interpreter. A fearful, horrible, nameless
catastrophe! And that she should be in the midst of it and have to see
it all!

Then her husband, her poor Justinus! How hard this would fall on him!
She could not cease weeping; and before she fell asleep she prayed
fervently indeed, to the saints and the dear Mother of God, that they
would bring all to a happy issue. She closed her eyes on the thought:
"What a misfortune!" and she woke to it again early in the morning.

She, however, had known nothing of the worst horrors of that fatal
night.

A troop of Arab soldiers had crossed the Nile at nightfall, some on
foot or on horseback and some in boats, led by Obada the Vekeel, and
had invested the governor's residence. When they had fully assured
themselves that Orion was indeed absent they took Nilus prisoner. It
was then Obada's business to inform the Mukaukas' widow of what had
happened, and to tell her that she must quit the house next day. This
must be done, because he had views of his own as to what was to become
of the venerable house of the oldest family in the country.

Neforis was still up, and when the interpreter was announced as Obada's
forerunner, she was in the fountain-room. He found her a good deal
excited; for, although she was incapable of any consecutive train of
thought and, when her mind was required to exert itself, her ideas only
came like lightning-flashes through her brain, she had observed that
something unusual was going on. Sebek and her ma