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Now she clapped her hands and cried: "Listen, listen to good counsel, Pharaoh." And now that the Apura were gone, his fear of them went also, and as he drank wine Pharaoh grew bold, till at last he sprang to his feet and swore by Amen, by Osiris, by Ptah, and by his father great Rameses that he would follow after the Apura and smite them.
Even as she stepped one came flying down the hall who was of the servants of Rei the Priest. "Stay thou," Rei cried to him, "and tell me what happens yonder." "Ill deeds, Lord," said the servant. "Eperitus the Wanderer, whom Pharaoh made Captain of his Guard when he went forth to slay the rebel Apura Eperitus hath laid hands on the Queen whom he was set to guard.
Others again, held that two wizards, leaders of certain slaves of a strange race, wanderers from the desert, settled in Tanis, whom they called the Apura, caused all these sorrows by art-magic. As if, forsooth, said the pilot, those barbarian slaves were more powerful than all the priests of Egypt.
Though, indeed, she is guiltless of this, with all the blood on her beautiful head. The Apura and their apostate sorcerer, whom we ourselves instructed, bring the plagues on us." "Does the Hathor manifest herself this day?" asked the Wanderer. "That we will ask of the priests, Eperitus. Follow thou me."
He hath brought forth frogs in their holy places, He hath sprinkled the dust upon crown and hem, He hath hated their kings and hath darkened their faces; Wonders He works in the land of Khem. "These are the accursed blaspheming conjurors and slaves, the Apura," said Rei, as the music and the tramping died away.
And he bowed before Pharaoh, and leaping from his chariot entered again into the chariot of Rei. Now, as he drove back through the host the soldiers called to him, saying: "Leave us not, Wanderer." For he looked so glorious in his golden armour that it seemed to them as though a god departed from their ranks. His heart was with them, for he loved war, and he did not love the Apura.
Heavy was the face of Pharaoh, and the few who sat with him were sad enough because of the death of so many whom they loved, and the shame and sorrow that had fallen upon Khem. But there were no tears for her one child in the eyes of Meriamun the Queen. Anger, not grief, tore her heart because Pharaoh had let the Apura go.
But the very guests sprang up crying, "It is not the Hathor whom we worship, it is not the Holy Hathor, it is the Gods of those dark Apura whom thou, O Queen, wilt not let go. On thy head and the head of Pharaoh be it," and even as they cried the murmur without grew to a shriek of woe, a shriek so wild and terrible that the Palace walls rang.
But the chariot wheels drew heavily in the sand, so that before all my host had entered between the waters, the Apura had passed the sea. Then of a sudden, as last of all I passed down into the path of the ocean bed, the great wind ceased, and as it ceased, lo! the walls of water that were on either side of the sea path fell together with noise like the noise of thunder.
The Kings of the Nations our Lord hath smitten, His shoe hath He cast o'er the Gods of them, But a lamp for our feet the Lord hath litten, Wonders hath he wrought in the Land of Khem. Thus they sang, and the singing was so wild that the Wanderer craved leave to go and stand at the Palace gate, lest the Apura should rush in and spoil the treasure-chamber.
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