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"Let him enter," said Meneptah, and presently he appeared. He was a wild-eyed man of middle age, with long hair that fell over his sheepskin robe. To me he looked like a soothsayer. He stood before Pharaoh, making no salutation. "Deliver your message and be gone," said Nehesi the Vizier.

So it came about that Amenmeses succeeded with none to say him nay, since without her husband Userti could not or would not act. After the days of embalmment were accomplished the body of Pharaoh Meneptah was carried up the Nile to be laid in his eternal house, the splendid tomb that he had made ready for himself in the Valley of Dead Kings at Thebes.

And, indeed, Pharaoh Meneptah, passing through the patch of sunlight at the head of the hall, wearing the double crown upon his head and arrayed in royal robes and ornaments, looked like a god, no less, as the multitude of the people of Egypt held him to be. He was an old man with the face of one worn by years and care, but from his person majesty seemed to flow.

But the king was beyond help, and the queen, angry and hurt, bade him keep Har-hat out of her sight, and returned to her women. Thereafter even Meneptah saw her rarely. The rise of the fan-bearer was achieved in an incredibly short time.

For my life's sake let it not come into the possession of any other. "I shall write no more. My scant eloquence must be saved for the king. "Gods! but it is good to have faith in a friend. I salute thee. The letter to Hotep complete, Kenkenes took up another roll and wrote thus to Meneptah: "To Meneptah, Beloved of Ptah, Ambassador of Amen, Vicar of Ra, Lord over Upper and Lower Egypt, greeting:"

Now the feast was done. They sat in the ante-chamber, for all were gone save Meneptah and Meriamun. Then he came to her and took her hand, looking into her eyes, nor did she say him nay. There was a lute lying on a golden table, and there too, as it chanced, was a board for the Game of Pieces, with the dice, and the pieces themselves wrought in gold.

Egyptian testimony confirms the statement of Scripture that this policy was actually carried out. A hymn of victory addressed to Meneptah alludes to "the Israelites" to whom "no seed" had been left. But the policy was ineffectual. The opportunity came at last when the serfs could fly from their enforced labour and escape into the wilderness. Egypt was threatened by formidable enemies.

"It is an old custom, and a sacred," said Rei, "but women, the custom-makers, are often custom-breakers. And of all women, Meriamun least loves to be obedient, even to the dead. And yet she has obeyed, and it came about thus. Her brother Meneptah who now is Pharaoh the Prince of Kush while her divine father lived, had many half-sisters, but Meriamun was the fairest of them all.

With the word she snatched a dagger from her girdle that same dagger with which she had once struck at Meneptah her brother, when he would have kissed her and high it flashed above Rei the Priest. "Nay," she went on, letting the knife fall; "after another fashion shalt thou die more slowly, Rei, yes, more slowly. Thou knowest the torment of the palm-tree? By that thou shalt die!"

Loud as were the panegyrics of the devout, the devout recognized the limitations of their divinities. None had ever dreamed of a deity that was actually omnipotent, actually infinite. Meneptah measured the God of Israel by his own gods. Furthermore, the miracles did not amaze him as they appalled Egypt.