Renny had seen a company of Royal Guardsmen drawn up before the colonnaded portico of the royal landing-stage. He had nothing to fear from the soldiers. These, he well knew, waited to escort the victorious General Ramses into Pharaoh’s presence. Yet, at their head, idly swinging a jeweled scarab which hung upon a long gold chain, stood Bar, a spy in the service of Menna, the King’s Overseer, Renny’s powerful patron. Renny had his reasons for seeking to avoid the Prince’s servant at this juncture. He could not shake off the feeling that Bar, the spy, was concerned, in some way, with the attack that had so nearly cost him his life. CHAPTER VIII NŌFERT-ĀRI DANCES BEFORE PHARAOH In chariots or carrying-chairs members of the Court were hurrying to the Palace, to assist at the feast planned to honor, at one and the same time, Belur, the newly arrived Hittite Ambassador, and the victorious Egyptian general, Ramses, but now returned from Nubia. According to precedent Ramses would present himself before Pharaoh and the Court in order to receive the customary favors bestowed upon a victorious Egyptian leader, those “favors which the King bestows” and “the gold order of valor.” Throughout the long day the excitable Theban populace had yelled itself hoarse, as one after another the war-barges swung around the great bend of the river, south of Thebes. Each boat was marked by its standard-of-cognizance, and no sooner was its mooring-stake driven into the bank than a yelling, gesticulating and joyfully-weeping hoard of relatives and friends of the crew burst upon its decks. From that moment, all signs of discipline utterly vanished. Men, women and children entered upon one of those inevitable carouses which, in Egypt, ever followed such a home-coming. Everyone was coming up to Thebes in order to witness the great celebration in honor of victory. It being festival time even the indigent passengers at the western bank were to-day allowed to work their way across the river by bailing the leaky ferryboats. Thi, the Queen-Mother, in company with the weak but pretty young queen, left the Women’s Apartments early, on her way to the Banquet-hall. As she passed the various courts and columned porticos the watchful eunuchs, guards and servants, hurled themselves prostrate at sight of her. On knees and elbows they groveled, prayers for “health” and “long life” upon their trembling lips. To the dreaded Thi, as to Pharaoh himself, honors were rendered as to the gods. And she whom Egypt feared, and Enana the Magician dared; she who had been called by her friends Thi the Beautiful, by her enemies Thi the Foreigner, Thi the Commoner, how shall we best describe her?