CHAPTER VI
THE LAND OF GOSHEN
The Prince Seti and all his train, a very great company, came in safetyto the land of Goshen, I, Ana, travelling with him in his chariot. Itwas then as now a rich land, quite flat after the last line of deserthills through which we travelled by a narrow, tortuous path. Everywhereit was watered by canals, between which lay the grain fields wherein theseed had just been sown. Also there were other fields of green fodderwhereon were tethered beasts by the hundred, and beyond these, upon thedrier soil, grazed flocks of sheep. The town Goshen, if so it couldbe called, was but a poor place, numbers of mud huts, no more, in thecentre of which stood a building, also of mud, with two brick pillars infront of it, that we were told was the temple of this people, into theinner parts of which none might enter save their High-priest. I laughedat the sight of it, but the Prince reproved me, saying that I should notjudge the spirit by the body, or of the god by his house.
We camped outside this town and soon learned that the people who dweltin it or elsewhere in other towns must be numbered by the ten thousand,for more of them than I could count wandered round the camp to look atus. The men were fierce-eyed and hook-nosed; the young women well-shapedand pleasant to behold; the older women for the most part stout andsomewhat unwieldy, and the children very beautiful. All were roughlyclad in robes of loosely-woven, dark-coloured cloth, beneath which thewomen wore garments of white linen. Notwithstanding the wealth wesaw about us in corn and cattle, their ornaments seemed to be few, orperhaps these were hidden from our sight.
It was easy to see that they hated us Egyptians, and even dared todespise us. Hate shone in their glittering eyes, and I heard themcalling us the 'idol-worshippers' one to the other, and asking where wasour god, the Bull, for being ignorant they thought that we worshippedApis (as mayhap some of the common people do) instead of looking uponthe sacred beast as a symbol of the powers of Nature. Indeed they didmore, for on the first night after our coming they slaughtered a bullmarked much as Apis is, and in the morning we found it lying near thegate of the camp, and pinned to its hide with sharp thorns great numbersof the scarabaeus beetle still living. For again they did not know thatamong us Egyptians this beetle is no god but an emblem of the Creator,because it rolls a ball of mud between its feet and sets therein itseggs to hatch, as the Creator rolls the world that seems to be round,and causes it to produce life.
Now all were angry at these insults except the Prince, who laughedand said that he thought the jest coarse but clever. But worse was tohappen. It seems that a soldier with wine in him had done insult to aHebrew maiden who came alone to draw water at a canal. The news spreadamong the people and some thousands of them rushed to the camp, shoutingand demanding vengeance in so threatening a manner that it was necessaryto form up the regiments of guards.
The Prince being summoned commanded that the girl and her kin should beadmitted and state their case. She came, weeping and wailing and tearingher garments, throwing dust on her head also, though it appeared thatshe had taken no great harm from the soldier from whom she ran away. ThePrince bade her point out the man if she could see him, and she showedus one of the bodyguard of the Count Amenmeses, whose face was scratchedas though by a woman's nails. On being questioned he said he couldremember little of the matter, but confessed that he had seen the maidenby the canal at moonrise and jested with her.
The kin of this girl clamoured that he should be killed, because he hadoffered insult to a high-born lady of Israel. This Seti refused, sayingthat the offence was not one of death, but that he would order him tobe publicly beaten. Thereupon Amenmeses, who was fond of the soldier, agood man enough when not in his cups, sprang up in a rage, saying thatno servant of his should be touched because he had offered to caresssome light Israelitish woman who had no business to be wandering aboutalone at night. He added that if the man were flogged he and all thoseunder his command would leave the camp and march back to make report toPharaoh.
Now the Prince, having consulted with the councillors, told the womanand her kin that as Pharaoh had been appealed to, he must judge of thematter, and commanded them to appear at his court within a month andstate their case against the soldier. They went away very ill-satisfied,saying that Amenmeses had insulted their daughter even more than hisservant had done. The end of this matter was that on the following nightthis soldier was discovered dead, pierced through and through with knifethrusts. The girl, her parents and brethren could not be found, havingfled away into the desert, nor was there any evidence to show by whomthe soldier had been murdered. Therefore nothing could be done in thebusiness except bury the victim.
On the following morning the Inquiry began with due ceremony, the PrinceSeti and the Count Amenmeses taking their seats at the head of a largepavilion with the councillors behind them and the scribes, among whom Iwas, seated at their feet. Then we learned that the two prophets whom Ihad seen at Pharaoh's court were not in the land of Goshen, having leftbefore we arrived "to sacrifice to God in the wilderness," nor did anyknow when they would return. Other elders and priests, however, appearedand began to set out their case, which they did at great length and ina fierce and turbulent fashion, speaking often all of them at once, thusmaking it difficult for the interpreters to render their words, sincethey pretended that they did not know the Egyptian tongue.
Moreover they told their story from the very beginning, when they hadentered Egypt hundreds of years before and were succoured by the vizierof the Pharaoh of that day, one Yusuf, a powerful and clever man oftheir race who stored corn in a time of famine and low Niles. ThisPharaoh was of the Hyksos people, one of the Shepherd kings whom weEgyptians hated and after many wars drove out of Khem. Under theseShepherd kings, being joined by many of their own blood, the Israelitesgrew rich and powerful, so that the Pharaohs who came after and wholoved them not, began to fear them.
This was as far as the story was taken on the first day.
On the second day began the tale of their oppression, under which,however, they still multiplied like gnats upon the Nile, and grew sostrong and numerous that at length the great Rameses did a wicked thing,ordering that their male children should be put to death. This order wasnever carried out, because his daughter, she who found Moses among thereeds of the river, pleaded for them.
At this point the Prince, wearied with the noise and heat in thatcrowded place, broke off the sitting until the morrow. Commanding me toaccompany him, he ordered a chariot, not his own, to be made ready, and,although I prayed him not to do so, set out unguarded save for myselfand the charioteer, saying that he would see how these people labouredwith his own eyes.
Taking a Hebrew lad to run before the horses as our guide, we droveto the banks of a canal where the Israelites made bricks of mud which,after drying in the sun, were laden into boats that waited for them onthe canal and taken away to other parts of Egypt to be used on Pharaoh'sworks. Thousands of men were engaged upon this labour, toiling in gangsunder the command of Egyptian overseers who kept count of the bricks,cutting their number upon tally sticks, or sometimes writing them uponsherds. These overseers were brutal fellows, for the most part of thelow class, who used vile language to the slaves. Nor were they contentwith words. Noting a crowd gathered at one place and hearing cries, wewent to see what passed. Here we found a lad stretched upon the groundbeing cruelly beaten with hide whips, so that the blood ran down him.At a sign from the Prince I asked what he had done and was told roughly,for the overseers and their guards did not know who we were, that duringthe past six days he had only made half of his allotted tale of bricks.
"Loose him," said the Prince quietly.
"Who are you that give me orders?" asked the head overseer, who washelping to hold the lad while the guards flogged him. "Begone, lest Iserve you as I serve this idle fellow."
Seti looked at him, and as he looked his lips turned white.
"Tell him," he said to me.
"You dog!" I gasped. "Do you know who it is to whom you dare to speakthus?"
/>
"No, nor care. Lay on, guard."
The Prince, whose robes were hidden by a wide-sleeved cloak of commonstuff and make, threw the cloak open revealing beneath it the pectoralhe had worn in the Court, a beautiful thing of gold whereon wereinscribed his royal names and titles in black and red enamel. Also heheld up his right hand on which was a signet of Pharaoh's that he woreas his commissioner. The men stared, then one of them who was morelearned than the rest cried:
"By the gods! this is his Highness the Prince of Egypt!" at which wordsall of them fell upon their faces.
"Rise," said Seti to the lad who looked at him, forgetting his pain inhis wonderment, "and tell me why you have not delivered your tale ofbricks."
"Sir," sobbed the boy in bad Egyptian, "for two reasons. First, becauseI am a cripple, see," and he held up his left arm which was withered andthin as a mummy's, "and therefore cannot work quickly. Secondly, becausemy mother, whose only child I am, is a widow and lies sick in bed, sothat there are no women or children in our home who can go out to gatherstraw for me, as Pharaoh has commanded that we should do. ThereforeI must spend many hours in searching for straw, since I have no meanswherewith to pay others to do this for me."
"Ana," said the Prince, "write down this youth's name with the place ofhis abode, and if his tale prove true, see that his wants and those ofhis mother are relieved before we depart from Goshen. Write down alsothe names of this overseer and his fellows and command them to reportthemselves at my camp to-morrow at sunrise, when their case shall beconsidered. Say to the lad also that, being one afflicted by the gods,Pharaoh frees him from the making of bricks and all other labour of theState."
Now while I did these things the overseer and his companions beat theirheads upon the ground and prayed for mercy, being cowards as the cruelalways are. His Highness answered them never a word, but only lookedat them with cold eyes, and I noted that his face which was so kind hadgrown terrible. So those men thought also, for that night they ran awayto Syria, leaving their families and all their goods behind them, norwere they ever seen again in Egypt.
When I had finished writing the Prince turned and, walking to where thechariot waited, bade the driver cross the canal by a bridge therewas here. We drove on a while in silence, following a track which ranbetween the cultivated land and the desert. At length I pointed to thesinking sun and asked if it were not time to return.
"Why?" replied the Prince. "The sun dies, but there rises the full moonto give us light, and what have we to fear with swords at our sides andher Highness Userti's mail beneath our robes? Oh! Ana, I am weary ofmen with their cruelties and shouts and strugglings, and I find thiswilderness a place of rest, for in it I seem to draw nearer to my ownsoul and the Heaven whence it came, or so I hope."
"Your Highness is fortunate to have a soul to which he cares to drawnear; it is not so with all of us;" I answered laughing, for I sought tochange the current of his thoughts by provoking argument of a sort thathe loved.
Just then, however, the horses, which were not of the best, came to ahalt on a slope of heavy sand. Nor would Seti allow the driver to flogthem, but commanded him to let them rest a space. While they did so wedescended from the chariot and walked up the desert rise, he leaning onmy arm. As we reached its crest we heard sobs and a soft voice speakingon the further side. Who it was that spoke and sobbed we could not see,because of a line of tamarisk shrubs which once had been a fence.
"More cruelty, or at least more sorrow," whispered Seti. "Let us look."
So we crept to the tamarisks, and peeping through their feathery tops,saw a very sweet sight in the pure rays of that desert moon. There, notfive paces away, stood a woman clad in white, young and shapely in form.Her face we could not see because it was turned from us, also the longdark hair which streamed about her shoulders hid it. She was prayingaloud, speaking now in Hebrew, of which both of us knew something,and now in Egyptian, as does one who is accustomed to think in eithertongue, and stopping from time to time to sob.
"O God of my people," she said, "send me succour and bring me safe home,that Thy child may not be left alone in the wilderness to become theprey of wild beasts, or of men who are worse than beasts."
Then she sobbed, knelt down on a great bundle which I saw was stubblestraw, and again began to pray. This time it was in Egyptian, as thoughshe feared lest the Hebrew should be overheard and understood.
"O God," she said, "O God of my fathers, help my poor heart, help mypoor heart!"
We were about to withdraw, or rather to ask her what she ailed, whensuddenly she turned her head, so that the light fell full upon herface. So lovely was it that I caught my breath and the Prince at my sidestarted. Indeed it was more than lovely, for as a lamp shines through analabaster vase or a shell of pearl so did the spirit within this womanshine through her tear-stained face, making it mysterious as the night.Then I understood, perhaps for the first time, that it is the spiritwhich gives true beauty both to maid and man and not the flesh. Thewhite vase of alabaster, however shapely, is still a vase alone; itis the hidden lamp within that graces it with the glory of a star. Andthose eyes, those large, dreaming eyes aswim with tears and huedlike richest lapis-lazuli, oh! what man could look on them and not bestirred?
"Merapi!" I whispered.
"Moon of Israel!" murmured Seti, "filled with the moon, lovely as themoon, mystic as the moon and worshipping the moon, her mother."
"She is in trouble; let us help her," I said.
"Nay, wait a while, Ana, for never again shall you and I see such asight as this."
Low as we spoke beneath our breath, I think the lady heard us. At leasther face changed and grew frightened. Hastily she rose, lifted the greatbundle of straw upon which she had been kneeling and placed it on herhead. She ran a few steps, then stumbled and sank down with a littlemoan of pain. In an instant we were at her side. She stared at usaffrighted, for who we were she could not see because of the widehoods of our common cloaks that made us look like midnight thieves, orslave-dealing Bedouin.
"Oh! Sirs," she babbled, "harm me not. I have nothing of value on mesave this amulet."
"Who are you and what do you here?" asked the Prince disguising hisvoice.
"Sirs, I am Merapi, the daughter of Nathan the Levite, he whom theaccursed Egyptian captain, Khuaka, murdered at Tanis."
"How do you dare to call the Egyptians accursed?" asked Seti in tonesmade gruff to hide his laughter.
"Oh! Sirs, because they are--I mean because I thought you were Arabs whohate them, as we do. At least this Egyptian was accursed, for the highPrince Seti, Pharaoh's heir, caused him to be beheaded for that crime."
"And do you hate the high Prince Seti, Pharaoh's heir, and call himaccursed?"
She hesitated, then in a doubtful voice said:
"No, I do not hate him."
"Why not, seeing that you hate the Egyptians of whom he is one ofthe first and therefore twice worthy of hatred, being the son of youroppressor, Pharaoh?"
"Because, although I have tried my best, I cannot. Also," she added withthe joy of one who has found a good reason, "he avenged my father."
"This is no cause, girl, seeing that he only did what the law forced himto do. They say that this dog of a Pharaoh's son is here in Goshen uponsome mission. Is it true, and have you seen him? Answer, for we of thedesert folk desire to know."
"I believe it is true, Sir, but I have not seen him."
"Why not, if he is here?"
"Because I do not wish to, Sir. Why should a daughter of Israel desireto look upon the face of a prince of Egypt?"
"In truth I do not know," replied Seti forgetting his feigned voice.Then, seeing that she glanced at him sharply, he added in gruff tones:
"Brother, either this woman lies or she is none other than the maid theycall Moon of Israel who dwells with old Jabez the Levite, her uncle.What think you?"
"I think, Brother, that she lies, and for three reasons," I answered,falling into the jest. "First, she is too fair to be of the black
Hebrewblood."
"Oh! Sir," moaned Merapi, "my mother was a Syrian lady of the mountains,with a skin as white as milk, and eyes blue as the heavens."
"Secondly," I went on without heeding her, "if the great Prince Seti isreally in Goshen and she dwells there, it is unnatural that she shouldnot have gone to look upon him. Being a woman only two things would havekept her away, one--that she feared and hated him, which she denies, andthe other--that she liked him too well, and, being prudent, thought itwisest not to look upon him more."
When she heard the first of these words, Merapi glanced up with her lipsparted as though to answer. Instead, she dropped her eyes and suddenlyseemed to choke, while even in the moonlight I saw the red blood pour toher brow and along her white arms.
"Sir," she gasped, "why should you affront me? I swear that never tillthis moment did I think such a thing. Surely it would be treason."
"Without doubt," interrupted Seti, "yet one of a sort that kings mightpardon."
"Thirdly," I went on as though I had heard neither of them, "if thisgirl were what she declares, she would not be wandering alone in thedesert at night, seeing that I have heard among the Arabs that Merapi,daughter of Nathan the Levite, is a lady of no mean blood among theHebrews and that her family has wealth. Still, however much she lies, wecan see for ourselves that she is beautiful."
"Yes, Brother, in that we are fortunate, since without doubt she willsell for a high price among the slave traders beyond the desert."
"Oh! Sir," cried Merapi seizing the hem of his robe, "surely you whoI feel, I know not why, are no evil thief, you who have a mother and,perchance, sisters, would not doom a maiden to such a fate. Misjudge menot because I am alone. Pharaoh has commanded that we must find strawfor the making of bricks. This morning I came far to search for it onbehalf of a neighbour whose wife is ill in childbed. But towards sundownI slipped and cut myself upon the edge of a sharp stone. See," andholding up her foot she showed a wound beneath the instep from which theblood still dropped, a sight that moved both of us not a little, "andnow I cannot walk and carry this heavy straw which I have been at suchpains to gather."
"Perchance she speaks truth, Brother," said the Prince, "and if we tookher home we might earn no small reward from Jabez the Levite. But firsttell me, Maiden, what was that prayer which you made to the moon, thatHathor should help your heart?"
"Sir," she answered, "only the idolatrous Egyptians pray to Hathor, theLady of Love."
"I thought that all the world prayed to the Lady of Love, Maiden. Butwhat of the prayer? Is there some man whom you desire?"
"None," she answered angrily.
"Then why does your heart need so much help that you ask it of the air?Is there perchance someone whom you do _not_ desire?"
She hung her head and made no answer.
"Come, Brother," said the Prince, "this lady is weary of us, and Ithink that if she were a true woman she would answer our questions morereadily. Let us go and leave her. As she cannot walk we can take herlater if we wish."
"Sirs," she said, "I am glad that you are going, since the hyenas willbe safer company than two men who can threaten to sell a helplesswoman into slavery. Yet as we part to meet no more I will answer yourquestion. In the prayer to which you were not ashamed to listen I didnot pray for any lover, I prayed to be rid of one."
"Now, Ana," said the Prince bursting into laughter and throwing back hisdark cloak, "do you discover the name of that unhappy man of whom thelady Merapi wishes to be rid, for I dare not."
She gazed into his face and uttered a little cry.
"Ah!" she said, "I thought I knew the voice again when once you forgetyour part. Prince Seti, does your Highness think that this was a kindjest to practise upon one alone and in fear?"
"Lady Merapi," he answered smiling, "be not wroth, for at least it wasa good one and you have told us nothing that we did not know. You mayremember that at Tanis you said that you were affianced and there wasthat in your voice----. Suffer me now to tend this wound of yours."
Then he knelt down, tore a strip from his ceremonial robe of fine linen,and began to bind up her foot, not unskilfully, being a man full ofstrange and unexpected knowledge. As he worked at the task, watchingthem, I saw their eyes meet, saw too that rich flood of colour creeponce more to Merapi's brow. Then I began to think it unseemly that thePrince of Egypt should play the leech to a woman's hurts, and to wonderwhy he had not left that humble task to me.
Presently the bandaging was done and made fast with a royal scarabaeusmounted on a pin of gold, which the Prince wore in his garments. On itwas cut the uraeus crown and beneath it were the signs which read "Lordof the Lower and the Upper Land," being Pharaoh's style and title.
"See now, Lady," he said, "you have Egypt beneath your foot," and whenshe asked him what he meant, he read her the writing upon the jewel,whereat for the third time she coloured to the eyes. Then he liftedher up, instructing her to rest her weight upon his shoulder, saying hefeared lest the scarab, which he valued, should be broken.
Thus we started, I bearing the bundle of straw behind as he bade me,since, he said, having been gathered with such toil, it must not belost. On reaching the chariot, where we found the guide gone and thedriver asleep, he sat her in it upon his cloak, and wrapped her in minewhich he borrowed, saying I should not need it who must carry the straw.Then he mounted also and they drove away at a foot's pace. As I walkedafter the chariot with the straw that fell about my ears, I heardnothing of their further talk, if indeed they talked at all which, thedriver being present, perhaps they did not. Nor in truth did I listenwho was engaged in thought as to the hard lot of these poor Hebrews, whomust collect this dirty stuff and bear it so far, made heavy as it wasby the clay that clung about the roots.
Even now, as it chanced, we did not reach Goshen without furthertrouble. Just as we had crossed the bridge over the canal I, toilingbehind, saw in the clear moonlight a young man running towards us. Hewas a Hebrew, tall, well-made and very handsome in his fashion. His eyeswere dark and fierce, his nose was hooked, his teeth where regular andwhite, and his long, black hair hung down in a mass upon his shoulders.He held a wooden staff in his hand and a naked knife was girded abouthis middle. Seeing the chariot he halted and peered at it, then asked inHebrew if those who travelled had seen aught of a young Israelitish ladywho was lost.
"If you seek me, Laban, I am here," replied Merapi, speaking from theshadow of the cloak.
"What do you there alone with an Egyptian, Merapi?" he said fiercely.
What followed I do not know for they spoke so quickly in theirunfamiliar tongue that I could not understand them. At length Merapiturned to the Prince, saying:
"Lord, this is Laban my affianced, who commands me to descend from thechariot and accompany him as best I can."
"And I, Lady, command you to stay in it. Laban your affianced canaccompany us."
Now at this Laban grew angry, as I could see he was prone to do, andstretched out his hand as though to push Seti aside and seize Merapi.
"Have a care, man,' said the Prince, while I, throwing down the straw,drew my sword and sprang between them, crying:
"Slave, would you lay hands upon the Prince of Egypt?"
"Prince of Egypt!" he said, drawing back astonished, then addedsullenly, "Well what does the Prince of Egypt with my affianced?"
"He helps her who is hurt to her home, having found her helpless in thedesert with this accursed straw," I answered.
"Forward, driver," said the Prince, and Merapi added, "Peace, Laban, andbear the straw which his Highness's companion has carried such a wearyway."
He hesitated a moment, then snatched up the bundle and set it on hishead.
As we walked side by side, his evil temper seemed to get the betterof him. Without ceasing, he grumbled because Merapi was alone in thechariot with an Egyptian. At length I could bear it no longer.
"Be silent, fellow," I said. "Least of all men should you complain ofwhat his Highness does, seeing that already he h
as avenged the killingof this lady's father, and now has saved her from lying out all nightamong the wild beasts and men of the wilderness."
"Of the first I have heard more than enough," he answered, "and ofthe second doubtless I shall hear more than enough also. Ever since myaffianced met this prince, she has looked on me with different eyes andspoken to me with another voice. Yes, and when I press for marriage, shesays it cannot be for a long while yet, because she is mourning for herfather; her father forsooth, whom she never forgave because he betrothedher to me according to the custom of our people."
"Perhaps she loves some other man?" I queried, wishing to learn all Icould about this lady.
"She loves no man, or did not a while ago. She loves herself alone."
"One with so much beauty may look high in marriage."
"High!" he replied furiously. "How can she look higher than myselfwho am a lord of the line of Judah, and therefore greater far than anupstart prince or any other Egyptian, were he Pharaoh himself?"
"Surely you must be trumpeter to your tribe," I mocked, for my temperwas rising.
"Why?" he asked. "Are not the Hebrews greater than the Egyptians, asthose oppressors soon shall learn, and is not a lord of Israel more thanany idol-worshipper among your people?"
I looked at the man clad in mean garments and foul from his labour inthe brickfield, marvelling at his insolence. There was no doubt but thathe believed what he said; I could see it in his proud eye and bearing.He thought that his tribe was of more import in the world than our greatand ancient nation, and that he, an unknown youth, equalled or surpassedPharaoh himself. Then, being enraged by these insults, I answered:
"You say so, but let us put it to the proof. I am but a scribe, yetI have seen war. Linger a little that we may learn whether a lord ofIsrael is better than a scribe of Egypt."
"Gladly would I chastise you, Writer," he answered, "did I not see yourplot. You wish to delay me here, and perhaps to murder me by some foulmeans, while your master basks in the smiles of the Moon of Israel.Therefore I will not stay, but another time it shall be as you wish, andperhaps ere long."
Now I think that I should have struck him in the face, though I am notone of those who love brawling. But at this moment there appeared acompany of Egyptian horse led by none other than the Count Amenmeses.Seeing the Prince in the Chariot, they halted and gave the salute.Amenmeses leapt to the ground.
"We are come out to search for your Highness," he said, "fearing lestsome hurt had befallen you."
"I thank you, Cousin," answered the Prince, "but the hurt has befallenanother, not me."
"That is well, your Highness," said the Count, studying Merapi with asmile. "Where is the lady wounded? Not in the breast, I trust."
"No, Cousin, in the foot, which is why she travels with me in thischariot."
"Your Highness was ever kind to the unfortunate. I pray you let me takeyour place, or suffer me to set this girl upon a horse."
"Drive on," said Seti.
So, escorted by the soldiers, whom I heard making jests to each otherabout the Prince and the lady, as I think did the Hebrew Laban also, forhe glared about him and ground his teeth, we came at last to the town.Here, guided by Merapi, the chariot was halted at the house of Jabez heruncle, a white-bearded old Hebrew with a cunning eye, who rushed fromthe door of his mud-roofed dwelling crying he had done no harm thatsoldiers should come to take him.
"It is not you whom the Egyptians wish to capture, it is your niece andmy betrothed," shouted Laban, whereat the soldiers laughed, as did somewomen who had gathered round. Meanwhile the Prince was helping Merapi todescend out of the chariot, from which indeed he lifted her. The sightseemed to madden Laban, who rushed forward to tear her from his arms,and in the attempt jostled his Highness. The captain of the soldiers--hewas an officer of Pharaoh's bodyguard--lifted his sword in a fury andstruck Laban such a blow upon the head with the flat of the blade thathe fell upon his face and lay there groaning.
"Away with that Hebrew dog and scourge him!" cried the captain. "Is theroyal blood of Egypt to be handled by such as he?"
Soldiers sprang forward to do his bidding, but Seti said quietly:
"Let the fellow be, friends; he lacks manners, that is all. Is he hurt?"
As he spoke Laban leapt to his feet and, fearing worse things, fled awaywith a curse and a glare of hate at the Prince.
"Farewell, Lady," said Seti. "I wish you a quick recovery."
"I thank your Highness," she answered, looking about her confusedly. "Bepleased to wait a little while that I may return to you your jewel."
"Nay, keep it, Lady, and if ever you are in need or trouble of any sort,send it to me who know it well and you shall not lack succour."
She glanced at him and burst into tears.
"Why do you weep?" he asked.
"Oh! your Highness, because I fear that trouble is near at hand. Myaffianced, Laban, has a revengeful heart. Help me to the house, myuncle."
"Listen, Hebrew," said Seti, raising his voice; "if aught that is evilbefalls this niece of yours, or if she is forced to walk whither shewould not go, sorrow shall be your portion and that of all with whom youhave to do. Do you hear?"
"O my Lord, I hear, I hear. Fear nothing. She shall be guarded carefullyas--as she will doubtless guard that trinket on her foot."
Moon of Israel: A Tale of the Exodus Page 8