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"Tu abbia veduto il leone ammansarsi alla sola tua voce." 'Ultime lettere di Jacopo Ortis. I tore myself from you; I hurried through the wood; I stood by the lake, on whose banks I had so often wandered with you: I bared my breast to the winds; I bathed my temples with the waters. Fool that I was! the fever, the fever was within!
It was all he could do to straddle the blamed thing, and then it was only with the help of a wounded Samoan who took his hand. The Kanaka, dizzily seen through a kind of mist, was no other than Tua; together, like men in a dream, they searched for Fetuao's body; and dragging it out of the shambles where it lay, they tried to clean away the blood with wisps of grass.
See that you guard her as you should, and when the journey is done, return and make report to me. Farewell." Then, lifting his staff, without speaking another word to Tua or to Asti, Kepher strode away from amongst them, walking through the ranks of the Desert men who forced their camels to kneel and saluted him as he passed.
So she gave him the gem, or rather let him take it from the silk, which he re-fastened very neatly for one who seemed to be almost blind, and strode off swiftly towards the town. "Man or spirit, I wonder if we shall see him again?" said Asti. Tua made no answer she was too tired, but resting herself against the bole of a tree, fell into a doze.
Call me Tua, O my mother, for so you have ever been to me, from whose breast I drew the milk of life." "What ails you, my child?" asked Asti. "Was the crown too heavy for this young head of yours?" she added, stretching out her delicate hand and stroking the black and curling hair. "Aye, Mother, the weight of it seemed to crush me with its gems and gold. I am weary and yet I cannot sleep.
For a while Asti was silent, then again she broke out into remonstrance. "Peace, Nurse," replied Tua, "I have said that he is our guest, and the law of hospitality may not be broken." "Then the law of hospitality will bring us to our deaths," muttered Asti. "If so, so let it be, Nurse; at least this poor man will be filled, and for the rest, as always, we must trust to Amen our father."
If I do not marry her the whisperings of men may grow to a wind that will blow the crown from off her head." Now a grasp of fear and wonder rose from all who heard this bold and treasonable speech, and Tua, reddening to the eyes, bent forward as though to answer. But before ever a word had passed her lips Pharaoh sprang from his seat transformed with rage.
"Your Majesty has done strange things to-night," said Asti in her quiet voice. Tua turned her head and looked at her, then answered: "Very strange, Nurse. You see, the gods and that troublesome son of yours and Pharaoh's sudden sickness threw the strings of Fate into my hand, and I pulled them. I always had a fancy for the pulling of strings, but the chance never came my way before."
There upon that lofty pinnacle, clad in shining mail, and wearing a helm shaped like the crown of Lower Egypt, Tua stood in its glorious rays that turned her to a figure of fire set above a world of shadow. The thousands of the people watching from the streets below, and from boats upon the Nile, saw her, and raised a shout of wonder and of adoration. "The Daughter of Amen-Ra!" they cried.
"That is true, Hamish. And it was a day like this there was when the Solan was sunk at her moorings in Loch Hourn. Do you remember, Hamish? And it would be better for us now if we were in Loch Tua, or Loch-na-Keal, or in the dock that was built for the steamer at Tiree. I do not like the look of this day."
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