Now we were come to the centre of the place, and there in front of the great gates of the temple burned a vast pyre of wood.  Before the pyre moved figures, in one of whom I knew Ki dressed in his magician’s robe.  Outside of these there was a double circle of soldiers who kept the people back, which these needed, for they raved like madmen and shook their fists.  A group of priests near the fire separated, and I saw that among them stood a man and a woman, the latter with dishevelled hair and torn robes as though she had been roughly handled.  At this moment her strength seemed to fail her and she sank to the ground, lifting her face as she did so.  It was the face of Merapi, Moon of Israel.

So she was not dead.  The man at her side stooped as though to lift her up, but a stone thrown out of the shadow struck him in the back and caused him to straighten himself, which he did with a curse at the thrower.  I knew the voice at once, although the speaker was disguised.

It was that of Laban the Israelite, he who had been betrothed to Merapi, and had striven to murder us in the land of Goshen.  What did he here?  I wondered dimly.

Ki was speaking.  “Hark how the Hebrew cat spits,” he said.  “Well, the cause has been tried and the verdict given, and I think that the familiar should feed the flames before the witch.  Watch him now, and perhaps he will change into something else.”

All this he said, smiling in his usual pleasant fashion, even when he made a sign to certain black temple slaves who stood near.  They leapt forward, and I saw the firelight shone upon their copper armlets as they gripped Laban.  He fought furiously, shouting: 

“Where are your armies, Egyptians, and where is your dog of a Pharaoh?  Go dig them from the Sea of Reeds.  Farewell, Moon of Israel.  Look how your royal lover crowns you at the last, O faithless——­”

He said no more, for at this moment the slaves hurled him headlong into the heart of the great fire, which blackened for a little and burned bright again.

Then it was that Merapi struggled to her feet and cried in a ringing voice those very words which the Prince and I had seemed to hear her speak far away by the Sea of Reeds—­“Oh! help me my lord Seti!  Help me, my lord Seti!” Yes, the same words which had echoed in our ears days before they passed her lips, or so we believed.

Now all this while our chariots had been forcing their way foot by foot through the wall of the watching crowd, perhaps while a man might count a hundred, no more.  As the echoes of her cry died away at length we were through and leaping to the ground.

“The witch calls on one who sups to-night at the board of Osiris with Pharaoh and his host,” sneered Ki.  “Well, let her go to seek him there if the guardian gods will suffer it,” and again he made a sign to the black slaves.

But Merapi had seen or felt Seti advancing from the shadows and seeing flung herself upon his breast.  He kissed her on the brow before them all, then bade me hold her up and turned to face the people.