"Known what?"
"That he is alive. He may die any number of times, but the Fool will always live for the fools! Foolishness is the sun of the world, and he, Uaenra, is the son of the Sun."
Tuta laughed and was reassured. But then he sighed and added sadly:
"Yes, my friend, foolishness is immortal. It is hard to combat it—harder than we had thought."
They spoke of other things. But in the middle of the conversation Merira asked as though recalling something:
"Do you know for certain, sire, that Akhnaton is dead?"
Tuta thought at first he was still joking, but, looking attentively into his face, was again surprised, almost frightened.
"How can you ask, my friend? Why, how could I not be certain when I saw with my own eyes...."
"Yes, you must have excellent eyes: it is not easy to see from the battlefield and recognise a man's face at the top of a house in the night, through thickets of trees, smoke and flame!"
"But not I alone, everyone says he was there and Dio with him, and I certainly did see her."