“The god hath suffered it to happen.  Ay, he permitted the horror to enter beneath his own roof.  Not his will, but the curse of the stranger rules us and our lives.  Look, this was our first-born son, and the plague has also stricken two of the temple-servants.  One already lies dead in our room, and there lies Kamus, grandson of the astrologer Rameri.  We heard the old man call, and saw what was happening; but who can prop another’s house when his own is falling?  Take heed while there is time; for the gods have opened their own sanctuaries to the horror.  If the whole world crumbles into ruin, I shall neither marvel nor grieve.  My lord priests, I am only a poor lowly woman, but am I not right when I ask:  Do our gods sleep, or has some one paralyzed them, or what are they doing that they leave us and our children in the power of the base Hebrew brood?”

“Overthrow them!  Down with the foreigners!  Death to the sorcerer Mesu, —­[Mesu is the Egyptian name of Moses]—­hurl him into the sea.”  Such were the imprecations that followed the woman’s curse, as an echo follows a shout, and the aged astrologer’s brother-in-law Hornecht, captain of the archers, whose hot blood seethed in his veins at the sight of the dying form of his beloved nephew, waved his short sword, crying frantically:  “Let all men who have hearts follow me.  Upon them!  A life for a life!  Ten Hebrews for each Egyptian whom the sorcerer has slain!”

As a flock rushes into a fire when the ram leads the way, the warrior’s summons fired the throng.  Women forced themselves in front of the men, pressing after him into the gateway, and when the servants of the temple lingered to await the verdict of the prophet of Amon, the latter drew his stately figure to its full height, and said calmly:  “Let all who wear priestly garments remain and pray with me.  The populace is heaven’s instrument to mete out vengeance.  We will remain here to pray for their success.”

CHAPTER II.

Bai, the second prophet of Amon, who acted as the representative of the aged and feeble chief-prophet and high-priest Rui, went into the holy of holies, the throng of inferior servants of the divinity pursued their various duties, and the frenzied mob rushed through the streets of the city towards the distant Hebrew quarter.

As the flood, pouring into the valley, sweeps everything before it, the people, rushing to seek vengeance, forced every one they met to join them.  No Egyptian from whom death had snatched a loved one failed to follow the swelling torrent, which increased till hundreds became thousands.  Men, women, and children, freedmen and slaves, winged by the ardent longing to bring death and destruction on the hated Hebrews, darted to the remote quarter where they dwelt.

How the workman had grasped a hatchet, the housewife an axe, they themselves scarcely knew.  They were dashing forward to deal death and ruin and had had no occasion to search for weapons—­they had been close at hand.