“Death be it then,” said Hugh, determinedly. “She has killed, and dreams yet to kill. Sinful and dangerous, let her be removed from Kamt, but by a quick and sudden act of justice, not by the slow tortures of inhuman revenge.”
“Let no man shed the blood of man,” once again repeated the high priest with obvious triumph, “in quarrel, revenge, or any other cause.”
These last words he emphasised with cutting directness, then he added:
“Thou sayest, oh, well-beloved of the gods, that thou dost honour the laws of thy sire; remember that he who sheddeth the blood of man, his blood, too, shall be shed.”
And placing the document once again before the Pharaoh, he said commandingly, though with outward humility:
“Wilt deign to place thy seal, oh, holy Pharaoh, on this decree which shall expel from out the gates of Kamt the murdering vermin that even now crawls at thy feet?”
But with characteristic impulsiveness, and before I could restrain him, Hugh had snatched the paper from out the high priest’s hand, and tearing it across he threw it on the ground and placed his foot upon it.
“Not while I stand on the black soil of Kamt,” he said quietly.
Breathless all had watched the stirring scene before them. Superstition, reverence, terror, all were depicted on the faces of the spectators. No one had dared to raise a voice or a finger, even when Hugh committed this daring act. The Pharaoh had turned, if possible, even more livid than before, and I could see a slight froth appearing at the corners of his mouth; he made no movement, however, and after a while took up his apes and began teasing them, laughing loudly and drily to himself. I fancied that he a little bit enjoyed Ur-tasen’s subtle position. The high priest still stood impassive, with folded arms, and repeated for the fourth time:
“The laws of Ra given unto Mena commandeth that he who sheds the blood of man, his blood, too, shall be shed. By no hand of man can the criminal’s blood be shed. The vultures of the wilderness, the hyenas and the jackals that dwell in the valley of death must shed the blood of the murderess, that the decrees of Ra and Osiris and Horus be implicity fulfilled.”