CHAPTER V.
“‘That night the white slave slept upon the King of Egypt’s breast and the boy (her brother) the king in his pleasure, made such provision for that he was safe and happy evermore.’”
As Miriam repeated these last words, Alric bent close, and his eyes seemed to be striving, to find in her expression some thing that her words did not reveal to him. “It was a spring song, this last love of Tothmes the first,” went on Miriam, “for the blossom he had gathered, could not bear the transplanting, even though the garden was the home of a king, and so it came to pass that when her child was born, Grunheld, in a delirium of fever, that followed the hours of pain, talked in the language of a strange people, and one, who stood near—the great physician of the realm, a man versed in many tongues told the King,—that she spoke of an island home, over a great waste of waters, of breeze swept, rain washed hills, and then laying upon the altar, of some unknown God, chaplets of prayer,—the King’s love, passed out of Mizram, and was not.—That she should not, in her journey of three thousand years, be forced to abide in the bodies of bird, beast, or reptile, the King, had her fair form, made ready, for sacred embalmment, and while the work progressed, there was no pause for breath, so thick and fast came the prayers, that the long sleep might not be broken.
“And when the body was wrapped, and the priestly office for the dead accomplished, they laid the young stranger, in a rock chamber, and for her comfort, filled the room with all things needful, for a soul’s journey should she by chance (in spite of prayer and charm) awake.
“Then all that human love could do, being accomplished, the King turned him to his motherless child, Hatsu.
“Now from her earliest childhood, the Princess Hatsu was beloved by the people, for in her outward form, she bore no trace of her alien mother’s race; her skin was Egypt’s clear transparent olive, her eyes dark, and langourous, her hair long, smooth, and easily dyed to the royal color.
“But the soul of Hatsu, was the soul of her mother, not proud, and distant, was she, like Egypt’s royal women, but gentle, and kind to all men, reverent to the Gods, and obedient to those in authority.
“So it was not strange that she was beloved save by one, and that one the mother of her half brother the Idiot prince, now, King Tothmes the Second of Egypt.
“The Idiot prince was her devoted slave, following her about like a faithful dog, and only showing glimmerings of intelligence, when his sister addressed him.