“Tut, tut,” said the General, smiling kindly upon the young soldier, “the Lady Miriam is an individual Israelite, and we speak of the people, so I pray you go on.” “To me,” said another, “it is exasperating to see how humbly, how uncomplainingly these foreigners take every new infliction; if they even murmured, there might be something interesting in it, but by the gods! they say no word and bow lower and lower in quiet humility under each burden.”
“And,” added another, “go on increasing more rapidly than ever.”
“But,” said one who had not yet spoken, “none can call them coward or weakling who ever knew an Israelite to forsake his faith, he may be bound and forced into a bodily submission, but his soul, he keeps loyal and steadfast to the service of his one God, Jehovah.”
“Yes,” said the cynical man, “had they been less obstinate in their religious beliefs doubtless through their women, Israel could long since have gained freedom and have been allowed to depart, for where can one find such beautiful women or such prudes? Isis should by rights turn them into cats! It would be an easy matter as their claws are already made.”
A general laugh followed, and many were the mirthful questions put to the rather confused officer.
“What you say respecting the loyalty of the Israelites for their religion is true,” said the General. “The Lady Miriam was a slave to the Princess Hatsu, and by her presented to me as free wife upon the royal wedding day. She hath been in all things loyal and obedient, faithful and true, but she has reared no altar in my home save to the one God, and that altar is within her heart.”
“Was the Queen’s mother an Israelite?” asks one. “I have heard it so said, because of the young Prince’s likeness to that race.”
“Nay, nay,” answered Alric. “The Queen’s mother came from far to the northward, where she told her husband (the King) there fell through many moons of the year a rain, that was white, and lay like a carpet of purity over the brown earth.”
“There were those,” says the cynical man, “when the Queen Hatsu appeared upon her balcony, an hour after the birth of her son, with the child in her arms, that did question the truth of her having given Egypt an heir, but they were foreign born and from afar, and did not know that Egyptian women resent with scorn the plaint of child-bed weakness and such dalliance, and so rise at once the pang is spent, to fulfill their housewifely ministrations.”
“And, by the way,” quoth another, “what ever did become of the boy, the child that the King Tothmes the first bought at the same time as he did Queen Hatsu’s mother?”