“If your Majesty will tell me how you made the lords of Egypt consent to the sending of an armed expedition to Napata under the command of a lad, a mere captain who had just killed its heir-apparent before their eyes, which decree, if I know anything of Rames, will mean a war between Kesh and Egypt, I will tell you how I made the monkey come out of the vase.”
“Then I shall never learn, Nurse, for I can’t because I don’t know. It came into my mind, as music comes into my throat, that is all. Rames should have been beheaded at once, shouldn’t he, for not letting that black boar tusk him? Do you think he poured the wine over Amathel’s head on purpose?” and again she laughed.
“Yes, I suppose that he should have been killed, as he would have been if your Majesty had not chanced to be so fond——”
“Talking of wine,” broke in Tua, “give me a cup of it. The divine Prince of Kesh who was to have been my husband—did you understand, Asti, that they really meant to make that black barbarian my husband?—I say that the divine Prince, who now sups with Osiris, drank so much that I could not touch a drop, and I am tired and thirsty, and have still some things to do to-night.”
Asti went to a table where stood a flagon of wine wreathed in vine leaves, and by it cups of glass, and filling one of them brought it to Tua.
“Here’s to the memory of the divine prince, and may he have left the table of Osiris before I come there. And here’s to the hand that sent him thither,” said Tua recklessly. Then she drained the wine, every drop of it, and threw the cup to the marble floor where it shattered into bits.
“What god has entered into your Majesty to-night?” asked Asti quietly.
“One that knows his own mind, I think,” replied Tua. “There, I feel strong again, I go to visit Pharaoh. Come with me, Asti.”
When Tua arrived at the bedside of Pharaoh she found that the worst of the danger was over. Fearing for his life the physicians had bled him, and now the fit had passed away and his eyes were open, although he was unable to speak and did not know her or anyone. She asked whether he would live or die, and was told that he would live, or so his doctors believed, but that for a long while he must lie quite quiet, seeing as few people as possible, and above all being troubled with no business, since, if he were wearied or excited, the fit would certainly return and kill him. So, rejoicing at this news which was better than she had expected, Tua kissed her father and left him.
“Now will your Majesty go to bed?” asked Asti when she had returned to her own apartments.