CHAPTER II.

The seventy-two days of mourning for the dead had been accomplished, the oblations and purifications of the living had been performed.

Again it was night in the Palace of Tears.

The ladies-in-waiting upon the Princess Hatsu were weary of the funeral pomp and circumstance by which they had been for so many weeks environed, and one and all hailed with delight the prospect of beginning on the morrow, the journey back to Thebes, where their royal mistress was to wed the now reigning King of Egypt.

So they had happy thoughts, as they silently regarded Her Highness, who, with her favorite serving maid, standing behind her chair, sat by one of the narrow windows, her arm upon the sill, her hand forming a rest for her face, as she looked out on the river and the palace garden, bathed in the splendor of a full moon's light.

The maid behind the Princess' chair was a girl whose appearance was in marked contrast, through its race characteristics, to the other women present. Her skin, unlike the Egyptian ladies', was devoid of yellow tinting, and its whiteness was the more marked because of the faint rose bloom on cheek and lip. Her hair, rippling on either side of her broad brow, was brown in color, and its two heavy braids fell to the hem of her gown.

Her large blue eyes were shaded by long golden brown lashes; her eyebrows, strongly arched, were black.

When she smiled, a little dimple played at hide-and-seek in one of the rounded cheeks and there was a shimmer of pearls between the rosy lips.

The ladies-in-waiting upon the Princess Hatsu were all daughters of high priests, for the priesthood of Egypt represented, with the military officials, the gentry of Mizram. The function of priesthood was not confined exclusively to ecclesiastic thought; it embraced beside theology the professions of law, medicine, science, philosophy, poetry, and history, so it is easily seen that an intellectual, rather than a so-called spiritual condition was the priestly requirement.

There was no such thing in Egypt as succession from father to son. Outside the office of kingship itself, _knowledge_ was the power, through which one and all must mount to distinction; education was a free gift to the people, irrespective of caste, and the child of the humblest pilot or artisan of to-day, might, through the force of his mentality, be the priestly or military influence behind a to-morrow's throne.

Each _Nome_--or _State_--in Egypt had its High Priest or Governor; to him was entrusted the control of the industries of his province--the granaries, the garden produce, and all manufactured articles and to him came the rentals of public lands and houses that had been dedicated by the kingdom or given by private individuals for the service of some particular god or goddess.

Celebacy in the priesthood was discouraged in Egypt. The number of children gathered about the hearthstone was a matter for pride and thanksgiving, the lack of such treasures always a cause for sorrow and shame.

Now these ladies-in-waiting (or if you will, maids-of-honor) to the Princess Hatsu, came from the forty-nine states of the kingdom, their homes were scattered from one end of Egypt to the other and their fathers were devoted to one of the various intellectual callings that have been mentioned. These girls represented many distinctive mental types, and as for religious belief, what one thought spiritually in Egypt was a matter of individual choice, and it is not at all improbable that the forty-nine high priests (represented in the Princess' household by their daughters) served forty-nine distinctive ideals of Deity and were in their theological views as diametrically opposed as are the various sects and schisms of our day.

Then as regarded the manner and speech of these girls one could tell by their pronunciation whether they came from Mazor--lower Egypt--or Pathos--upper Egypt; but there was a sameness about their appearance; they all had round voluptuous figures, small, well-shaped noses, long gray eyes, full red lips, and smooth hair, which--to meet a prevailing fashion--was dyed a dark blue.

It had been the pleasure of Tothmes the First to give to his daughter only that which should charm her eye, and please her senses, so the maidens that the king had selected to bear the Princess company were endowed with beauty, wit, and all womanly graces and accomplishments; yet for them one and all Hatsu felt but a kindly friendship; her heart's love she gave to Miriam, her maid--Miriam, daughter of Abram, the Israelite, Abram the skilled architect, into whose hands the late King had given the planning and construction of the third pyramid.

Had Miriam been a free woman, this fondness of the Princess for her might have caused a feeling of envy in the breasts of the ladies-in-waiting; but what did it signify--how Hatsu treated the girl who plaited her hair? Miriam was a slave! * * * It was a long and a silent service, that the ladies-in-waiting had kept this night, but at last the Princess lifted her face from her hands and turned toward her attendants.

"I fear," she said, "that I am but a poor companion, and I will not weary you with longer waiting. The night is young, the gardens below are beautiful in the moonlight, go and enjoy them for the last time."

Then the girls arose, and stepping backwards, curtseyed themselves out of the apartment, the last one closing the door softly behind her. When the sound of their footsteps had died away the Princess spoke.

"Come, my Miriam," she said, "and take this seat beside me, wind your arm about my waist, and I will lay my head against your breast, and we will talk to one another. I have been looking at the Sphinx down yonder. For untold generations she has been asking her unsolvable riddle, 'Whence are we? whither do we go?' Night after night I have sat here and made inarticulate cry to the beautiful raised head, gazing with expectant eyes toward the west, until at last she seemed to say to my soul, 'Sister woman, there is no _god_, but fate, and _time_--the present _time_--is ALWAYS his prophet.'

"If this be so, what need of losing breath in prayer? what need of so-called conscience, tell me, Miriam, may I not without fear of the wrath of an avenging God, break the vow I made to my father the King? and with your aid (and another's) escape from out the city to-night and so save myself from the living death that awaits me in Thebes?"

"Hatsu, beloved," said Miriam gently (for so it was the will of the Princess that she should be addressed by Miriam when alone) "the great stone image on the plain is naught but the work of man! It has no life, save in the superstitious fancy of a priest-ridden nation! Hatsu, there is above, about, and around us, an eternal force, and it created that which we call humanity. We of Israel call this force '_God_'--the '_All Father_'--and '_Jehovah_,' and though our bondage under Egypt's yoke seems to human understanding intolerable, we feel spiritually that we are the children of this King of Kings and Lord of Lords. We understand that when His wise purpose is fulfilled, we shall bless this providence, of chains, and scourgings, and burdens, as a lesson of love, and mercy, making us the more worthy of our inheritance in the promised land."

The Princess raised her head and listened in silence until Miriam had ceased to speak. "Your words are pretty," she said with a sigh, "they soothe one like the crooning of a lullabye, and believing it, as you do, must be to you a great consolation, but to me, dear Miriam, it is all delusion, and emptiness! I have read much of theology, and have longed to cultivate faith, but to me all forms of religion seem phantom things, elusive, and delusive; they are assertions of Deity, founded upon legends, and then reared, by unreasoning superstition, through countless generations of men! do not shake your pretty head, Miriam, for I know whereof I speak, and I this day have cast my praying beads aside as worthless toys! while all my thoughts, hopes, and fears, are gathered about the awful fact of that near-at-hand wedding day. The time has come when, if I am to keep the pledge made to my dying father, I must lay aside these garments of sorrow, and don the bridal robe and crown. To-morrow we leave the blessed quiet of this place to journey back to Thebes, and there I shall wed that grewsome creature that reigns in my father's place! Small comfort do I take in the knowledge that my witless brother has been new calendared among Egypt's saints! So do they make gods of many noxious beasts and vipers! Tell me, Miriam, could any merciful force, anything with even finest human intelligence doom a maiden to link herself with yonder living, breathing mass of nothingness? My husband, that is to be, clings to the toys of his earliest childhood, merrily jingles his rattle and bells, and is soothed to sleep by the crooning of nursery rhyme! Tothmes the Second a saint! Tothmes the Second a King! There is no God! There is no unseen power! We are creatures of the dust, ruled by _creed_ and _greed_! See, Miriam, no fire from the Heaven you prate of consumes me for this uttered sacrilege! My heart beats on! My breath comes and goes, as I look up to the star-spangled sky and speak my mind! But, O Miriam, Miriam, is there nothing that can save me?" The Princess had arisen, in her agony, and she now flung herself upon the ground, burying her face in Miriam's lap.

For a moment there was silence, and then Miriam spoke.

"Hatsu, beloved," she said, "the path marked out for you to tread seems a dark and thorny one. I would that I could scatter rose leaves upon it or lift its gloom, but I can only read from one life guide, and in all its pages I see the word "obedience." Our God hath said, 'Honor thy father and thy mother that thy days may be long in the land,' therefore, dear and honored mistress, cease to struggle against that which you have vowed beside your father's dying bed to perform, and, in the midst of your present despair let this thought comfort you, our sojourn on this planet, that men call the Earth, is but for a moment of time; this will lead you to believe that in some better sphere, you will look back to see that _yesterday's sorrows_ were but mists and nothing more. Think not of yourself, dear lady, but of your land, of Egypt. _She_ has need of you upon her throne. Your people love and trust you. Can you then subject them to a rule so terrible as would surely befall should the mother of Tothmes the Second have power to guide the State? Live for your people, Hatsu, and leave your present and your future in the hands of the One God; call Him if you will Osirus, for any name we call (if we call with reverent spirit) the Supreme Ruler will answer to."

The Princess raised her head and looked into Miriam's eyes.

"Dear Miriam," she said, "I have no faith to offer to Deity; have I not prayed and fasted through these days of mourning? and has help come? No, but rather with each new hour I have felt the meshes of the net more tightly drawn about me! And always night and day I see this picture. A girl stands before me. She wears upon her head a heavy golden crown. Its frontlet is an Eagle--the emblem of power, strength, and freedom; the Eagle's wings are wide spread; the bird glitters with gems--oh, how they shine!--but they are above eyes that fain would weep, yet dare not; they are above a heart that _must_ not break! The girl's garment is of cloth of gold, and her long braids are entwined with pearls; her sandalled feet glimmer like frost in the sunshine; on her arms, about her throat, and in her ears, diamonds glisten, and as she stands upon a carpet of freshly gathered flowers, she is a _priceless gift_ to the _King_, _her husband_ that is to be; but under this mask of silk, and gold, and gem, I see a degraded womanhood! the girl is spiritually bound by something stronger than captive chains; oh, Miriam," she cried, springing to her feet, "there are no _Gods_! there is no _one_ God! Nay! do not speak, but listen! I have from babyhood served the Gods of my people! I have with my own hands fed the sacred beasts and birds in the Temple. I have dedicated every heliotrope in all the palace gardens to Osirus, and what is my reward? I am to be mated to deformity of mind and body! A deformity that so disgraces the name of man that his coming shadow makes the bravest shudder! His touch is like leprosy! His caresses will be Hell. Oh, that the God you worship would hear my cry for escape! Pray to Him, Miriam, and may-hap, through your faith, in this eleventh hour, there _will_ be found a city of refuge for me."

Even as the Princess spoke these words, there came a strong tap upon the door, and in an instant she had resumed her seat, and Miriam her place, behind her mistress' chair.

Then, at the bidding of Hatsu, the door swung back, and two by two, there entered a company of youths, each bearing golden lamps.

Following the youths came a man, holding a golden salver, on which lay a small parchment scroll. Bowing low (not kneeling), he presented it to the Princess, who received it and read aloud the contents, in a clear, quiet voice.

"Hatsu, Daughter of our Departed Lord, and King. All Hail! It is the will of the Sovereign Ruler of the Universe, Osirus, King of Kings and Lord of Lords, that thou (accompanied by thine Israelitish handmaiden, Miriam) follow Alric, the bearer of this scroll, without question, through the Palace of Tears, even down into the subterranean grotto, known to the faithful of Mizram as the labyrinth of Death. At a certain place by the way, at Alric's bidding, leave the handmaiden, and the captain of the King's guards, and take thy way alone, even unto the doorway that opens into the Temple of Osirus in the city of Abydos. Come thither, oh daughter of a great King, wife to be of our sainted Monarch, and on thy lonely way give thy soul into Osirus' care and keeping. This, O Princess, is the will of Zelas the High Priest."

When the last word had been read the Princess raised the scroll to her lips, then tying it with the red silken cord, she put it into the bosom of her gown. Raising her gray eyes and looking for the first time at the captain of the King's guard, she said, slowly and distinctly:

"Lead the way, and Miriam and Hatsu will follow thee."