The men had put their heavy burden on the floor: they did not speak, hardly did I hear them breathing. My fear was lest they should detect me before I had reached the gate, but they seemed not to have noticed me, and now, one by one, they turned and filed out. I was close to the opening, leaning against the wall, ready to crawl out in the last man’s wake.… From the inside of my prison the same unknown scent of some highly aromatic herb was wafted in great clouds towards my nostrils… the fumes were overpowering, and I was tired and sleepy from my long, anxious wait.… The men had all slipped noiselessly through the opening… the cloak of the last one had caught in a projecting bit of carving… he stooped quietly to disentangle it… I could see his outline very clearly against the lighted corridor beyond.… My lids fell heavily over my eyes… I tried to shake off my torpor, for the last effort for freedom… but I was too sleepy.… I could not move. A great whiff of that enervating, burning herb made me long for rest and sleep!… I was too tired… I would slip out by-and-by.… Now I must have sleep.
The man with the cloak had slipped out… I think the gate swung to, and I crouched once more with my chin between my knees.… I wondered what the herb was.… I must find out… it would do instead of ether in cases of minor operations… it was sweet and pleasant, but overpowering.
From the sanctuary a sudden brilliant ray of light struck for an instant through the aperture… some one must have gone past carrying a lamp or torch. It lit up the centre of my prison, and forced me to open my eyes for a second.… During that second I saw that, on the floor, sharing my captivity with me, was the body of the murdered Pharaoh.…
Then I remember nothing more.…
CHAPTER XXVI.
THE MARRIAGE
“And thou, oh, stranger, who dost hail from the foot of the throne of Osiris, who art the son of Ra, the emissary of Horus, the beloved of all the gods, tell Isis, the mysterious goddess, why thou art here.”
“I am here to crave of Isis the pure, Isis the beloved, Isis the most holy, that she deign to pour the fruits of her blessing upon me, for I would take this woman to be my wife.”
It was Hugh’s voice which spoke slowly and solemnly, and which was the first sound that penetrated to my brain, still wandering in the realms of cloud-land.
Through the window of my prison an intense flood of light filtered brilliantly, illuminating the granite floor and walls. A strong scent of incense and myrrh had driven away the stupefying fumes of that burning herb which had lulled me to sleep. I tried to collect my scattered senses, but a terrible pain in my head and eyes still kept me half-stupefied. And yet I heard Hugh’s voice speaking strange and momentous words, and a dull instinct whispered to me that I must get to him, somehow, for a reason, of which I was not as yet fully conscious. A raging thirst had made my tongue swell and parched my throat: the events of the last few hours danced before my clouded brain like some weird phantasmagoria.
The Pharaoh… dead! murdered! his body lying close to me, when last I had opened my eyes, but now, carried away, while I had been asleep… Maat-kha!… the murderess!… Hugh’s promised bride! Ur-tasen, the evil plotter!… who had done… I knew not what… something that would wreck Hugh’s life as well as his honour.… Neit-akrit!… who might be a friend, and yet was a foe!… and I… a helpless prisoner, stupid, senseless, half-drowsy still, after a drugged and heavy sleep!