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I thought of that patriot priest, my uncle Sepa, waiting the long night through for the signal which never came. Ah, and another thought followed swift! How would it go with them? I was not the only traitor. I, too, had been betrayed. By whom? By yonder Paulus, perchance. If it were Paulus, he knew but little of those who conspired with me. But the secret lists had been in my robe.
"Oh, speak not thus!" I moaned; "is not my burden already more than I can bear? Am I not myself betrayed and utterly outcast? Be pitiful, my father!" "Be pitiful! be pitiful to thee who hast shown so great pity? It was thy pity which gave up noble Sepa to die beneath the hands of the tormentors!" "Oh, not that not that!" I cried.
"How know I," I said, "that it was not thou who, in thy jealous anger, didst betray our plans? Charmion, long ago Sepa warned me against thee, and of a truth now that I recall " "It is like a traitor," she broke in, reddening to her brow, "to think that all are of his family, and hold a common mind!
Also he produced a parcel, my new uniform, and a wee note whose breath smelt of lavender as it said, "Papa tells us you are being sent off on courier duty to-night. What a heart-breaking thing is war! How full of cruel sepa' " That piece of a word was scored out and "dangers" written in its place.
He ceased. There was a pale and awful silence. Not a limb stirred. Not a nostril betrayed the passage of breath. "Is that all?" I asked, in a voice of the most perfect calmness. "All, fair sir, save that certain matters of light moment are placed together under a head hight sundries. If it would like you, I will sepa "
"Thou speakest earnestly, my uncle Sepa," I said; "one might almost think that thou hadst not come unscathed through this fierce fire of temptation. Well, for myself, I fear not woman and her wiles; I know naught of them, and naught do I wish to know; and I still hold that this Cæsar was a fool.
Thou art free to face thine own infamy, and see it thrown back from every eye which trusted thee, as shadows are from water. I come to tell thee that the great plot the plot of twenty years and more is at its utter end. None have been slain, indeed, unless it is Sepa, who has vanished.
He paused, and my uncle Sepa, rising from his chair, spoke: "We have made examination of the records and there is none, O Amenemhat. He is of the Royal blood, his descent is true."
I swear by my throne and by all the Gods of Egypt that not one hair of thy aged father's head shall be harmed by me; and, if it be not too late, I will also spare thy uncle Sepa, ay, and the others.
From that evil moment when, in the presence of thy uncle Sepa, for the second time I set eyes upon thy face, I loved thee how much, thou canst little guess. Think upon thine own love for Cleopatra, and double it, and double it again, and perchance thou mayst come near to my love's mighty sum. I loved thee, day by day I loved thee more, till in thee and for thee alone I seemed to live.
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