"A very good time you have chosen for it! The Pharaoh slew but a short
time ago three messengers with a blow of his sceptre. He sits on his
terrace, motionless and sinister like Typhon, the god of evil," said a
soldier who condescended to give this explanation.
Ra'hel's maid endeavoured to force her way through; the javelins rattled
on her head like hammers on an anvil. She began to yell like a bird
plucked alive.
An officer came out on hearing the tumult; the soldiers stopped beating
Thamar.
"What does this woman want?" said the officer, "and why are you beating
her in this way?"
"I want to see the Pharaoh," cried Thamar, dragging herself to the knees
of the officer.
"Out of the question," replied the latter; "it is out of the
question,--even if, instead of being a low wretch, you were one of the
greatest personages in the kingdom."
"I know where is Tahoser," whispered the old woman in his ear, laying
stress on each syllable.
On hearing this, the officer took Thamar by the hand, led her through
the first pylon and through the avenue of pillars and the hypostyle hall
into a second court, where rose the granite sanctuary, with its two
outer columns with lotus capitals. There, calling Timopht, he handed
Thamar over to him.
Timopht led the servant to the terrace where sat the Pharaoh, gloomy and
silent.
"Keep well out of the reach of his sceptre," was the advice Timopht gave
to the Israelite.
As soon as she perceived the King through the darkness, Thamar threw
herself with her face to the stone flags, by the side of the bodies
which had not yet been removed, and then sitting up, she said in a firm
voice, "O Pharaoh, do not slay me, I bring you good news."
"Speak without fear," replied the King, whose fury had passed away.
"Tahoser, whom your messengers have sought in the four corners of the
world,--I know where she is."
At the name of Tahoser, Pharaoh rose as if moved by a spring and stepped
towards Thamar, who was still kneeling.
"If you speak the truth, you may take from my granite halls as much as
you can lift of gold and precious stones."
"I will put her in your hands, you may be sure," said the old woman,
with a strident laugh.
What was the motive which had led Thamar to inform the Pharaoh of the
retreat where the priest's daughter was in hiding?
She wished to prevent a union which she disliked. She entertained
towards the race of Egypt, a blind, fierce, unreasoning, almost bestial
hatred, and the thought of breaking Tahoser's heart delighted her. Once
in the hands of the Pharaoh, Ra'hel's rival would be unable to escape;
the granite walls of the palace would keep their prey.
"Where is she?" said Pharaoh; "tell me the spot. I want to see her at
once."
"Your Majesty, I alone can guide you. I know the windings of those
loathsome quarters, where the humblest of your servants would disdain to
set foot. Tahoser is there, in a clay and straw hut which nothing marks
from the huts which surround it, amid the heaps of bricks which the
Hebrews make for you outside the regular dwellings of the city."
"Very well, I will trust you. Timopht, have a chariot brought around."
Timopht disappeared. Soon the wheels were heard rolling over the stones
of the court, and the horses stamping and pawing as the equerries
fastened them to the yoke.
The Pharaoh came down, followed by Thamar. He sprang up on the chariot,
took the reins, and seeing that Thamar hesitated,--
"Come, get up," he said.
He clucked his tongue, and the horses started. The awakened echoes gave
back the sound of the wheels, which sounded like low thunder through the
vast halls, in the midst of the night silence. The hideous old woman,
clinging with her bony fingers to the rim of the chariot by the side of
the godlike Pharaoh, presented a strange sight, which fortunately was
seen by none but the stars twinkling in the deep blue heavens. She
resembled one of the evil genii of mysterious face which accompany the
guilty souls to Hades.
"Is this the way?" said the Pharaoh to the woman at the forks of a
street.
"Yes," replied Thamar, stretching her withered hand in the right
direction.
The horses, urged on by the whip, sprang forward, and the chariot leaped
upon the stones with a noise of brass.
Meanwhile Tahoser slept by the side of Ra'hel. A strange dream filled
her sleep. She seemed to be in a temple of immense size. Huge columns of
prodigious height upbore the blue ceiling studded with stars like the
heavens; innumerable lines of hieroglyphs ascended and descended along
the walls between the panels of symbolic frescoes painted in bright
colours. All the gods of Egypt had met in this universal sanctuary, not
as brass, basalt, or porphyry effigies, but as living shapes. In the
first rank were seated the gods Knef, Buto, Phtah, Pan-Mendes, Hathor,
Phre, Isis; then came the twelve celestial gods,--six male gods:
Rempha, Pi-Zeous, Ertosi, Pi-Hermes, Imuthi; and six female deities:
the Moon, Ether, Fire, Air, Water, Earth. Behind these swarmed vaguely
and indistinctly three hundred and sixty-five Decans, the familiar
daemons of each day. Next appeared the terrestrial deities: the second
Osiris, Haroeri, Typhon, the second Isis, Nephthys, the dog-headed
Anubis, Thoth, Busiris, Bubastis, the great Serapis. Beyond, in the
shade, were faintly seen idols in form of animals,--oxen, crocodiles,
ibises, hippopotami. In the centre of the temple, in his open
mummy-case, lay the high-priest Petamounoph, who, the bandages having
been unwound from his face, gazed with an ironical air at that strange
and mysterious assembly. He was dead, not living, and spoke, as it often
happens in dreams; and he said to his daughter, "Question them and ask
them if they are gods."
And Tahoser proceeded to put to each one that question, and each and all
replied: "We are only numbers, laws, forces, attributes, effluvia, and
thoughts of God, but not one of us is the true God."
Then Poeri appeared on the threshold of the temple, and took Tahoser by
the hand and led her to a light so brilliant that in comparison with it
the sun would have seemed black, and in the centre of which blazed in a
triangle words unknown to her.
Meanwhile Pharaoh's chariot flew over all obstacles, and the axles of
the wheels rayed the walls in the narrow lanes.
"Pull in your horses," said Thamar to the Pharaoh; "the noise of the
wheels in this solitude and silence might startle the fugitive, and she
would again escape you."
The Pharaoh thought this advice sound, and in spite of his impatience
made his horses slacken their impetuous pace.
"There is the place," said Thamar; "I left the door open. Go in. I shall
look after the horses."
The king descended from the chariot, and bowing his head, entered the
hut. The lamp was still burning, and shed its dying beams on the two
sleeping girls. The Pharaoh caught up Tahoser in his strong arms and
walked towards the door of the hut.
When the priest's daughter awoke, and saw flaming near her face the
shining face of the Pharaoh, she thought at first that it was one of the
fancies of her dream transformed; but the air of night which struck her
face soon restored her to the sense of reality. Mad with terror, she
tried to scream, to call for help; the cry remained in her throat,--and
then, who would have helped her against the Pharaoh?
With one bound the King sprang on to his chariot, threw the reins around
his back, and pressing to his breast the half-dead Tahoser, sent his
coursers at their top speed towards the Northern Palace.
Thamar glided like a serpent into the hut, crouched down in her
accustomed place, and gazed with a look almost as tender as a mother's
on her dear Ra'hel, who was still sound asleep.