"She fled from him and I hid her away, for I could not bear to deliver her up to the despoiler.
"I love her—she loveth me. Wilt thou not give her to me to wife?
"Thine illustrious sire bespeaketh thy favor, out of Amenti. Behold his signet and its injunction.
"Furthermore, I confess to sacrilege against Athor, in carving a statue which ignored the sculptor's ritual. For this, and for hiding the Israelite, am I imprisoned in the city stronghold of Tape.
"I would be free to return to my love and comfort her, but if it shall overtax thy generosity to release me, I pray thee announce my sentence and let me begin to count the hours till I shall come forth again.
"The Israelite hath a nurse, a feeble and sick old woman, Deborah by name, whom the minions of Har-hat abused. She can be of no further use in servitude, and I would have thee set her free to bear company to her love, the white-souled Rachel.
"But if these last prayers imperil the first by strain upon thy indulgence, O Beloved of Ptah, do thou set them aside, and grant only the safety of the oppressed maiden.
"These to thy hand, by the hand of the scribe, Hotep.
"KENKENES."
The letter complete, he summoned the messenger.