“How could you forgive him?  Only you must not curse him; for my father became your foe through love for me.  You know his hot blood, which so easily carries him to extremes, despite his years.  He concealed from me what he regarded as an insult; for he saw many woo me, and I am his greatest treasure.  Pharaoh can pardon rebels more easily than my father can forgive the man who disdained his jewel.  He behaved like one possessed when he returned.  Every word he uttered was an invective.  He could not endure to stay at home and raged just as furiously elsewhere.  But no doubt he would have calmed himself at last, as he so often did before, had not some one who desired to pour oil on the flames met him in the fore-court of the palace.  I learned all this from Bai’s wife; for she, too, repents what she did to injure you; her husband used every effort to save you.  She, who is as brave as any man, was ready to aid him and open the door of your prison; for she has not forgotten that you saved her husband’s life in Libya.  Ephraim’s chains were to fall with yours, and everything was ready to aid your flight.”

“I know it,” Hosea interrupted gloomily, “and I will thank the God of my fathers if those were wrong from whom I heard that you are to blame, Kasana, for having our dungeon door locked more firmly.”

“Should I be here, if that were so!” cried the beautiful, grieving woman with impassioned eagerness.  True, resentment did stir within me as it does in every woman whose lover scorns her; but the misfortune that befell you speedily transformed resentment into compassion, and fanned the old flames anew.  So surely as I hope for a mild judgment before the tribunal of the dead, I am innocent and have not ceased to hope for your liberation.  Not until yesterday evening, when all was too late, did I learn that Bai’s proposal had been futile.  The chief priest can do much, but he will not oppose the man who made himself my father’s ally.”

“You mean Prince Siptah, Pharaoh’s nephew!” cried Joshua in excited tones.  “They intimated to me the scheme they were weaving in his interest; they wished to put me in the place of the Syrian Aarsu, the commander of the mercenaries, if I would consent to let them have their way with my people and desert those of my own blood.  But I would rather die twenty deaths than sully myself with such treachery.  Aarsu is better suited to carry out their dark plans, but he will finally betray them all.  So far as I am concerned, the prince has good reason to hate me.”

Kasana laid her hand upon his lips, pointed anxiously to Ephraim and the guide, and said gently: 

“Spare my father!   The prince--what roused his enmity......”

“The profligate seeks to lure you into his snare and has learned that you favor me,” the warrior broke in.  She bent her head with a gesture of assent, and added blushing: 

“That is why Aarsu, whom he has won over to his cause, watches you so strictly.”