The long night passed wearily away. Arete and old Thopt divided the watches thereof between them, as they had done ever since Hatasa came to Baucalis, to see that she wanted no attention which kindness could supply; but neither of them knew how to utter soothing words unto a grief that seemed so hopeless; for the religion of Egypt contained no word of comfort for such grief, and the beautiful idolaters were ignorant of that of Jesus. All that mother and daughter knew of religious faith kept forcing back upon their broken hearts the dreadful conviction that the soul’s condition after death depended upon the building of a sarcophagus and the preparation of the mummy, in accordance with the rites prescribed in "The Book of the Dead"; and in such a case as this no mummy-rites could be paid unless the corpse could be recovered; and, although the sarcophagus might be builded, they did not know but that the father and husband whom they loved might be judged by the awful goddess Ma-t before this work could be completed; and none of the exceptions made by their religion in favor of those who fell in battle for the rulers of Egypt, or who perished by shipwreck, applied to the case of Amosis, for he had lost his life in a private quarrel after the shipwreck had happened. Their hopeless sorrow was pitiful, indeed; but the young girl fell back upon a final truth when she kept repeating to her mother, over and over again, her own convictions in such words as these: "Thou knowest that he was a good and upright man, doing only what he did believe to be right and just, and surely the greatest God of all, by whatever name he may be known, will be most merciful to him without a sarcophagus or the mummy-rites." And so the young idolater, not knowing the law, but doing by nature the things which are written in the law, became a law unto herself, and the unknown God, whom she did ignorantly worship to that extent which was commensurate with her faith, revealed himself unto her; and even from this unreasoning hope they both drew something of comfort. And during the night Theckla informed her mother of her visit to the old eremite Am-nem-hat, and of his having been priest at Thebes and high-priest at Ombos; and how ancient, wise, and good he seemed to be; and that he had promised to come to the cottage on the following day, and expressed the hope that out of his vast stores of wisdom he might be able to bring forth some truth that would yield them surer consolation; and this also somewhat comforted that bitterly smitten pair.