The armed men rushed to the priest and raised him, but he had slipped through their fingers already.
"Let him stay here, like others," said the overseer of the labyrinth.
The whole retinue left the hall and closed the open doors carefully.
Soon they issued forth from the edifice.
When the worthy Mefres found himself in the court he commanded the priests to make ready the mounted litters, and rode away with the sleeping Lykon to Memphis.
The overseers of the labyrinth, dazed by the uncommon events, looked now at one another, and now at the escort of Mefres, which was disappearing in a yellow dust cloud.
"I cannot believe," said the chief overseer, "that in our days there was a man who could break into the labyrinth."
"Your worthiness forgets that this day there were three such," interrupted one of the younger priests looking askance at him.
"A a true!" answered the high priest. "Have the gods disturbed my reason?" said he, rubbing his forehead and pressing the amulet on his breast.
"And two have fled," added the younger priest.
"Why didst Thou not turn my attention to that in the labyrinth?" burst out the superior.