Miriam lifted her great blue eyes to the speaker’s face as she said:
“Whatever else you may be, my lord, you are not a worshipper of Osirus, for all his faithful ones know that nothing is so sacred in his sight as are these embalmed birds, beasts and reptiles.”
The man smiled and shrugged his shoulders; he did not seem to consider that any explanation of his recent sacrilege was necessary to an Israelitish slave. This captain of the King’s guard was probably well past his thirtieth year, and unlike the majority of Egyptian manhood, he was of athletic proportions; he wore upon his feet and legs, sandals and leggins of scarlet leather. The leggins were cut into numberless thongs or strips, and each one was fastened in place by a gold and jeweled buckle. His tunic, or loosely flowing frock, was of white linen exquisitely embroidered with colored flosses, to represent leaves and blossoms: at his shoulders the tunic was gathered up with broad clasps of diamonds. About his throat was a collar of diamonds, with pendant strings, that fell, like threads of shimmering light, to his broad breast. His arms were bare, save for the jeweled bracelets or coils that serpent-like twined from wrist to armpit and looked like part of a coat of mail. His hair was worn in short curly waves about his forehead and the sides of his fair smoothly shaven face, then, its curly brown profusion, fell from the back, far below his waist. Full well Miriam knew this handsome gallant captain of the King’s guards, and heretofore (for reasons best known to herself) she had held him in honor as one who was her mistress’ trusted and loyal servant; but to-day, in her loving anxiety for the Princess, the thought came to her that it would be best to guard her speech, for how (she reasoned) could she tell but that the Queen Regent, the mother of King Tothmes the Second, might not have sent the Captain to spy upon her mistress? Miriam was a wise maiden, she had been taught life’s lessons in the school of adversity and she had come to know, through bitter experience, that he who listens has less to fear than he who talks. So she said gently:
“My lord, it is not courteous to be mirthful or scornful over that which the King you serve holds so sacred,” and she pointed to the niched wall where, in gaudily painted wooden cases, the faces of cats, birds, and other creatures of the animal kingdom, grinning of jaw and glassy of eye, looked down upon them.
“Perhaps,” replied the captain, “if you, my pretty Miriam, had been selected to go from one end of the kingdom to the other to act as escort to dead cats, and dogs, oxen, and birds, and so bring them to this their final resting place, perhaps, I say, if you had been selected and then detailed to instruct the natives as to the salting and other disgusting mortuary preparations, you would have come in time to regard these things as I do, as only powerful through their offensiveness to one’s nostrils! as only capable of working harm, when as decaying animal matter they are allowed to pollute the otherwise pure atmosphere.”
“I do not understand how you dare to say all this to me, my lord,” said Miriam, “for unbelievers though we be, you, a Syrian, I an Israelite, we are now in the most sacred sepulchre of Osirus. We both know what the speaking ill of a living sacred animal may cost. We know what the wilful killing of any of these forms of life means for him who does the deed. How often have you and I, suddenly coming by the way upon some dead thing, fallen upon our knees and plucked from out our heads a few hairs to propitiate the anger of Deity?”
“My charming Israelite,” said the captain drawing a trifle nearer, “as you know full well, I have been reared from youth up in the household of Zelas the High Priest of Osirus. Let me confide to you that I, Alric, look into this great man’s face as fearlessly as does the babe upon its mother! Aye, oftentimes I sit smiling in my content, while close at hand the awful voice of Zelas is heard, hurling anathemas upon the unfaithful as generously as a rose tree sheds its leaves when a breeze woos too roughly. This being so, do you fancy that these dried, glassy-eyed puppets mean anything to me but what they are? Then, as to my speaking openly to you, pray, who is there to hear my words? The folk in yonder palace would far rather accept an invitation to Troth’s kingdom than set so much as one foot upon this subterranean path. As for the priests, they hold the place in such superstitious horror that when they are forced to come thither they appear in great companies, singing at the top of their voices (which, of course, would give one an intimation of their proximity long before they themselves could appear). And now let me tell you a bit of pleasant news. The Princess Hatsu, through, and by this pilgrimage of hers, is going to inspire in her people an awesome reverence that shall exalt her to a goddesship far beyond that bestowed upon the idiot, her husband (that is to be), aye, even as I speak, by the command of Zelas, the news of this journey of the Princess (our future Queen) is being shouted through the land by mounted heralds, and everywhere prayers are offered for the preservation of the body and soul of this brave girl, that she may come through the awful, supernatural test, unconsumed; for you must know that it is usually believed that this cool and sequestered labyrinth is torrid in its temperature and holds many, if not all, the terrors and tortures, that meet and greet the human soul when a life on earth is past.”
“But, my lord, what will all this avail? The mother of our new King holds the controlling power in the councils of state, and well you know, she has for our late King’s daughter a bitter and relentless hate.”
My lord Alric studied the smoothly worn stone path under foot, pushing with the toe of his sandal some imaginary straw aside, ere he made answer.
“Our Sainted King’s most noble and gracious mother hath become (so saith the all-wise High Priest Zelas) too sacred a thing to be put in daily and hourly contact with the naughty world. Be it known to you, O Miriam, that the mother of Tothmes the Second will hereafter be powerless to do aught but pray, since she has this day been received into the cloistered nunnery of the Sisterhood of Perpetual Silence.”