Part 6 (1/2)
Now Khaeed his shoulders and ss and queens thundered an answer, and it was:--
”_No!_”
Ma-Mee looked to Menes to give judgment Before he could speak the dark-browed Pharaoh who had named her wife strode forward and addressed theypt, Royal Wife, Lady of the Two Lands, has spoken,” he cried ”Now let me speak as the husband of her Majesty
Whether this man was once Horu the sculptor I know not If so he was also an evil-doer who, by my decree, died in banishment in the land of Kush Whatever be the truth as to that matter, he admits that he violated the tomb of her Majesty and stole what the old thieves had left Her Majesty says also--and he does not deny it--that he dared to kiss her hand, and for a ypt the punishment is death I claim that this man should die to the World before his tiain he e, O Menes”
Menes lifted his head and spoke, saying:--
”Repeat toof a dead hand In my day and in that of those ent beforehand of a wedded Queen of Egypt, save in cereht be called upon to die
Perchance for such a reason a certain Horu once was called upon to die
But in the grave there is no e, and therefore even if he had found her alive within the tomb and kissed her hand, or even her lips, why should he die for the criment in the matter Let the soul of that priest who first violated the toiven to the jaws of the Destroyer, that he may know the last depths of Death, if so the Gods declare But let thisus unharnorance and because Hathor, Goddess of Love, guided hiht, with all the worlds whence we have gathered or whither we still o Who can defy its power? Who can refuse its rites? Now hence to Thebes!”
There was a rushi+ng sound as of a thousand wings, and all were gone
No, not all, since Smith yet stood before the draped colossi and the eleamed the vision of Ma-Mee
”I, too, o a ith you who once were a sculptor in Egypt You loved me then, and that love cost you your life, you who once dared to kiss this hand of ain you kissed in yonder tomb For I was Pharaoh's wife in name only; understand me well, in naave raven lie Horu, I never was a wife, and when you died, swiftly I followed you to the grave Oh, you forget, but I res You think that the priestly thief broke this figure of me which you found in the sand outside reatly, you had written thereon, 'Beloved,'
not 'of _Horus_ the God,' as you should have done, but 'of _Horu_ the Man' So when I cae fros and hurled it away I reold chain I had given you into the crucible with the bronze, saying that gold alone was fit to fashi+on net that I bear--it was you who cut it Take it, take it, Horu, and in its place givethat I also wore Take it and wear it ever till you die again, and let it go to the grave with you as once it went to the grave with ain and you awake you will think that you have dreamed a dream You will think that in this dreaypt who died o, but whose beauty, carved in stone and bronze, has charmed your heart to-day So let it be, yet know, O man, who once was named Horu, that such dreams are oft-times a shadow of the truth Know that this Glory which shi+nes before you is mine indeed in the land that is both far and near, the land wherein I dwell eternally, and that what is mine has been, is, and shall be yours for ever Gods doain once more to die; eotten dust Yet true love endures immortal as the souls in which it was conceived, and froht of woe and separation done, at the daybreak which draws on, there shall be born the splendour and the peace of union Till that hour foredooh I be ever near you, as I have ever been Till that most blessed hour, Horu, farewell”
She bent towards him; her sweet lips touched his brow; the perfuht of her wondrous eyes searched out his very soul, reading the answer that ritten there
He stretched out his arone
It was a very cold and a very stiff S, to find himself exactly where he had lain down--namely, on a cement floor beneath the keel of a funeral boat in the central hall of the Cairo Museu, and looked at this hall, to find it quite as en or a token was there of Pharaoh Menes and all those kings and queens of whoe phantasies that weariness and excited nerves can sureat doors and waited in the shadow, praying earnestly that, although it was the Mohaht visit the Museum to see that all ell
As a matter of fact, sooing about his business He unlocked the place carelessly, looking over his shoulder at a kite fighting with two nesting crows In an instant Smith, as not minded to stop and answer questions, had slipped past hi down the portico, from monu in the shadow as he headed for the gates
The attendant caught sight of hiood to look upon an _afreet_, appearing from whence no mortal ain Sled with the crowd in the street beyond