“Truly you were ever a bearer of ill-tidings, Ki, but if so, what of it?”

“This your Highness:  Were it not that the spirits of Truth and Right compel me for their own reasons, should I, who have blood that can be shed or bones that can be broken, dare to hurl hard words at him who will be Pharaoh?  Should I dare to cross the will of the sweet dove who nestles on his heart, the wise, white dove that murmurs the mysteries of heaven, whence she came, and is stronger than the vulture of Isis and swifter than the hawk of Ra; the dove that, were she angry, could rend me into more fragments than did Set Osiris?”

Now I saw Bakenkhonsu begin to swell with inward laughter like a frog about to croak, but Seti answered in a weary voice: 

“By all the birds of Egypt with the sacred crocodiles thrown in, I do not know, since that mind of yours, Ki, is not an open writing which can be read by the passer-by.  Still, if you would tell me what is the reason with which the goddesses of Truth and Justice have inspired you——­”

“The reason is, O Prince, that the fate of all Egypt’s army may be hidden in your hand.  The time is short and I will be plain.  Deny it as she will this lady here, who seems to be but a thing of love and beauty, is the greatest sorceress in Egypt, as I whom she has mastered know well.  She matched herself against the high god of Egypt and smote him to the dust, and has paid back upon him, his prophets, and his worshippers the ills that he would have worked to her, as in the like case any of our fellowship would do.  Now she has dreamed a dream, or her spirit has told her that the army of Egypt is in danger of destruction, and I know that this dream is true.  Hasten then, O Prince, to save the hosts of Egypt, which you will surely need when you come to sit upon its throne.”

“I am no sorceress,” cried Merapi, “and yet—­alas! that I must say it—­this smiling-featured, cold-eyed wizard’s words are true. The sword of death hangs over the hosts of Egypt!”

“Command that the chariots be made ready,” said Seti again.

Eight days had gone by.  It was sunset and we drew rein over against the Sea of Reeds.  Day and night we had followed the army of Pharaoh across the wilderness on a road beaten down by his chariot wheels and soldiers, and by the tens of thousands of the Israelites who had passed that way before them.  Now from the ridge where we had halted we saw it encamped beneath us, a very great army.  Moreover, stragglers told us that beyond, also encamped, was the countless horde of the Israelites, and beyond these the vast Sea of Reeds which barred their path.  But we could not see them for a very strange reason.  Between these and the army of Pharaoh rose a black wall of cloud, built as it were from earth to heaven.  One of those stragglers of whom I have spoken, told us that this cloud travelled before the Israelites by day, but at night was turned into a pillar of fire.  Only on this day, when the army of Pharaoh approached, it had moved round and come between the people of Israel and the army.