Merapi came to the prince.
“O high-priest of Amon,” she said, “does it please you to let me go, for I am very weary?”
CHAPTER X.
THE DEATH OF PHARAOH
It was the appointed day and hour. By command of the Prince I drove with him to the palace of Pharaoh, whither her Highness the Princess refused to be his companion, and for the first time we talked together of that which had passed in the temple.
“Have you seen the lady Merapi?” he asked of me.
I answered No, as I was told that she was sick within her house and lay abed suffering from weariness, or I knew not what.
“She does well to keep there,” said Seti, “I think that if she came out those priests would murder her if they could. Also there are others,” and he glanced back at the chariot that bore Userti in state. “Say, Ana, can you interpret all this matter?”
“Not I, Prince. I thought that perhaps your Highness, the high-priest of Amon, could give me light.”
“The high-priest of Amon wanders in thick darkness. Ki and the rest swear that this Israelite is a sorceress who has outmatched their magic, but to me it seems more simple to believe that what she says is true; that her god is greater than Amon.”
“And if this be true, Prince, what are we to do who are sworn to the gods of Egypt?”