“From that hour the people began to threaten me.  They crowded about the palace gates in thousands, crying day and night that they were going to kill me, the witch.  I prayed for help, but from me, a sinner, heaven has grown so far away that my prayers seem to fall back unheard upon my head.  Even the servants in the palace turned against me, and would not look upon my face.  I grew mad with fear and loneliness, since all fled before me.  At last one night towards the dawn I went on to the terrace, and since no god would hear me, I turned towards the north whither I knew that you had gone, and cried to you to help me in those same words which I cried again just now before you appeared.” (Here the Prince looked at me and I Ana looked at him.) “Then it was that from among the bushes of the garden appeared a man, hidden in a long, sheepskin cloak, so that I could not see his face, who said to me: 

“’Moon of Israel, I have been sent by his Highness, the Prince Seti, to tell you that you are in danger of your life, as he is in danger of his, wherefore he cannot come to you.  His command is that you come to him, that together you may flee away out of Egypt to a land where you will both be safe until all these troubles are finished.’

“‘How know I that you of the veiled face are a true messenger?’ I asked.  ‘Give me a sign.’

“Then he held out to me that scarabaeus of lapis-lazuli which your Highness gave to me far away in the land of Goshen, the same that you asked back from me as a love token when we plighted troth, and you gave me your royal ring, which scarabaeus I had seen in your robe when you drove away with Ana.”

“I lost it on our journey to the Sea of Reeds, but said nothing of it to you, Ana, because I thought the omen evil, having dreamed in the night that Ki appeared and stole it from me,” whispered the Prince to me.

“‘It is not enough,’ I answered.  ’This jewel may have been thieved away, or snatched from the dead body of the Prince, or taken from him by magic.’

“The cloaked man thought a while and said, ’This night, not an hour ago, Pharaoh and his chariots were overwhelmed in the Sea of Reeds.  Let that serve as a sign.’

“‘How can this be?’ I answered, ’since the Sea of Reeds is far away, and such tidings cannot travel thence in an hour.  Get you gone, false tempter.’

“‘Yet it is so,’ he answered.

“‘When you prove it to me, I will believe, and come.’

“‘Good,’ he said, and was gone.

“Next day a rumour began to run that this awful thing had happened.  It grew stronger and stronger, until all swore that it had happened.  Now the fury of the people rose against me, and they ravened round the palace like lions of the desert, roaring for my blood.  Yet it was as though they could not enter here, since whenever they rushed at the gates or walls, they fell back again, for some spirit seemed to protect the place.  The days went by; the night came again and at the dawn, this dawn that is past, once more I stood upon the terrace, and once more the cloaked man appeared from among the trees.