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The sun had not yet risen but the sky was already rosy and the morning star shone like a tiny sun, when Merira and Issachar climbed by the outer staircase of Aton's temple on to the flat roof where the great altar of the Sun stood intact; only the disc of Aton had been torn away and the bas-relief of King Akhnaton on the wall broken to bits. Aton had once been glorified here and now a service to Amon was to be performed at the altar and the Criminal was to be solemnly anathematized.

Horus, with the other priests, met Merira. All were surprised to see Issachar, the Jew, by his side.

"Leave us," Merira said to the priests, and taking Horus by the hand led him aside, looked into his face and asked: "Do you love me, my son?"

"Why do you ask, father? You know I love you."

"Do then what I ask you."

"Speak, I listen."

"Don't lay a finger on Iserker, let him go; whatever happens, remember that he is innocent. Release also all those whom you have arrested. Will you do it?"

"I will."

"Swear it."

"May I not see the sun in eternity if I don't do it!"

"May God reward you, my son," Merira said, embracing and kissing him. "And now go!"

Horus glanced at Issachar and was about to ask a question, but Merira frowned and repeated:

"Go!"

Horus was frightened, as at Maru-Aton the day before, and obeyed as he had done then; he turned to go without a word. But as he descended the outer staircase of the temple he stopped half-way so that he could not be seen from the roof and yet see what was happening there. The priests stood on the first landing below him and the soldiers still lower down.

"Can you sing the service to Aton?" Merira asked Issachar when they were left alone.

"Yes."

They went up to the small altar at the foot of the great one. White alabaster dust of the broken bas-relief of King Akhnaton crunched like snow under their feet.

All was ready for the service: the altar was decked with flowers and incense was burning upon it.

Merira stood before the altar with his face to the cast, where the red ember of the sun was already ablaze in the misty gorge of the Arabian hills. Issachar stood facing him.

"God Aton is the only God and there is none other God but He!" Merira intoned.

"I come to glorify thy rays, living Aton, one eternal God!" Issachar replied.

"I declare the way of life unto you all, generations that have been and are to be: render praise to God Aton, the living God and ye shall live," Merira intoned again and Issachar replied:

"Praise be to thee, living Aton, who has created the heavens and the secrets thereof! Thou art in heaven and thy son, Akhnaton Uaenra, is on earth."

"Thy essence, Uaenra, is the essence of the sun," they both sang together, "thy flesh is the sunlight, thy limbs the beautiful rays. In truth thou didst proceed from the Sun as a child from its mother's womb. The Sun rises in the sky and rejoices at its son on the earth!"

The rising sun lighted the altar. Merira raised the libation cup and slowly, drop by drop, poured on the burning embers the thick, blood-red wine.

"Lord!" he exclaimed in such a heart-rending voice that Issachar began to tremble as in the night when looking at the empty chair he saw the Invisible, "Lord! Before the foundations of the earth were laid Thou didst reveal Thy will to Thy Son who is forever. Thou, Father, art in His heart and no one knows Thee except Him, Thy Son!"

Then, turning his back to Issachar, he put some fresh wine into the cup, put it on the altar table, took the tablets from his bosom and placed them on the table, too; taking the ring off his finger, he lifted the carbuncle and put the poison in the cup. He took the cup in his hands, again turned with his face to the sun and cried three times in a low, as it were distant, voice:

"Glory be to the Sun, the Son Who is to come!"

Issachar fell on his knees and covered his face with his hands: it suddenly seemed to him that Merira saw the One Who was to come.

Merira raised the cup to his lips, drained it, and dropping it, stretched his hands to the sun with a low cry:

"He! He!"

Then he fell to the ground like a man struck by lightning.

Horus rushed to him and bending over him cried:

"Father!"

But glancing into his face he knew he was dead. People rushed to the roof in answer to Horus's cries and seized Issachar, thinking he was the murderer. But someone gave Horus the tablets. He read:

"I, Merira, son of Nehtaneb, high priest of Aton, the only living God, kill myself for having wanted to kill a righteous man. Akhnaton Uaenra, Sun's Joy, Sun's only Son, lives for ever!"

Horus carried out the dead man's behest and released Issachar. All made way for him when he moved to go—so strange and terrible was his face.

He went to the very edge of the roof and stretching his arms to the rising sun cried, as though he knew that his voice would be heard at the furthest ends of the earth:

"Thus says the Lord God of Hosts, the God of Israel: out of Egypt shall I call my Son. Behold I will send my Messenger and the Lord whom you seek and the Messenger of the covenant you delight in shall suddenly come to His temple. Behold, He cometh!"

THE END