The Pillar of Fire; or, Israel in Bondage

by J. H. Ingraham

"Are there not two more—a brother, a sister?" said Remeses, his fine face radiant with that ineffable beauty which shines from benevolence and the performance of a holy duty. I then led forward Miriam, whom he regarded with admiring surprise (for she looked like a queen in her own right), and then tenderly embraced, saying to me, "Though I have lost a kingdom, O Sesostris, I have gained a sister, which no crown could bestow upon me." Then, when he saw the noble and princely looking priest, he cried, as he folded him to his breast—

"This is, indeed, my brother!"

The whole scene was touching and interesting beyond the power of my pen to describe, my dear mother. The dying queen smiled with serene pleasure, and waving her hand, Remeses led first his mother, and then his father, and in succession his sister and brother, to her couch. Upon the heads of each she laid her hand, but longest upon the mother's, saying:

"Love him—be kind to him—he has no mother now but thee! Love him for my sake—you cannot but love him for his own! If I took thy babe, O mother, I return thee a man and a prince worthy to rule a nation, and in whom my eyes, closing upon the present, and seeing far into the future, behold a leader of thy people—a prince to thy nation. Born to a throne, he shall yet reign king of armies and leader of hosts, who I see follow him obedient to his will and submissive to the rod of his power. Remeses, I die! Kiss me!"

The noble Hebrew reverently bent over her lips, as if in an act of worship; and when he lifted his face, there remained a statue of clay. The Queen of Egypt was no more!

Sesostris

I closed, dear mother, my account of the death of the great and good Queen Amense (which I wrote the day following that sad event), in order to accompany Remeses to the chief embalmers. As I passed through the streets, I saw that the whole population was in mourning. Women went with dishevelled hair, men ceased to shave their heads and beards, and all the signs of woe for death, which I have before described, were visible. By the laws of Egypt, not even a king can be embalmed in his own palace. Remeses, on reaching the suburb of the embalmers, was received into the house of the chief, and here he gave directions as to the fashion of the case and sarcophagus, and the pattern of the funeral car, and of the baris in which it was to cross the Nile to the pyramid which, I have already said, she has been, since the first year of her reign, erecting for her burial-place—placing a casing of vast stones, brought down from the quarries near Elephantis, each year.

I will not delay to describe the ceremonies of preparation, nor the embalmment and burial of the august lady whose demise has cast a pall over Egypt. Your assurance that it would take you five months to get ready your war-fleet against Cyprus, and the desire of Remeses that I delay until the eighty days' mourning for the queen were over, induced me to remain. It is now four days since her burial in the centre of her stately pyramid, with the most imposing and gorgeous rites ever known at the entombment of a monarch. Prince Mœris was chief mourner! I have omitted to state that he readily acceded to the conditions proposed in the letter of Remeses, and when the courier followed, conveying to him the fact that he had been adopted and declared her heir by the queen, he addressed a frank and friendly letter to Remeses; for it is easy for him to assume any character his interest prompts. As soon as the intelligence of the death of the queen reached him, he hastened to Memphis. Here he had an interview with Remeses, whom he treated with courtesy, and offered the supervision of that part of Egypt where the Hebrew shepherds dwell; for I have learned that in a valley, which leads from Raamses to the Sea of Arabia, there are hundreds of Hebrews who, like their ancestors, keep vast flocks and herds belonging to the crown, but out of which they are allowed a tenth for their subsistence. Over this pastoral domain, embracing about twenty thousand shepherds, the prospective Pharaoh proposed to place Remeses. I felt that it was intended as an insult; but Remeses viewed it as an evidence of kindness on the part of one who knows not how to be noble or great.

The interment of the queen past, there is nothing to detain either Remeses or myself longer in Egypt. By her bounty he is rich, and has given to his parents a large treasure, which will enable them to be at ease; and besides, the queen gave to them and to Aaron (this is the name of the elder brother of Remeses), and his sister, the right of citizenship. Mœris, the day of the queen's burial, virtually ascended the throne. His coronation, however, will not take place until after he has passed through the forty days' novitiate.

And now, my dear mother, you will be surprised to learn that, the information of the Hebrew birth of Remeses (who has modestly dropped his first Egyptian name and adheres only to the second, which is Mosis, or Moses, as the Hebrews pronounce it), was wickedly conveyed, with large bribes, to the magicians by Prince Mœris himself; and that, upon this information and influence, they recalled from the past, which, like the future, is open to their magical art, the scenes of his life, and presented them before his vision.