Moon of Israel: A Tale of the ExodusHaggard, H. Rider (Henry Rider)
History
Moon of Israel: A Tale of the Exodus
Haggard, H. Rider (Henry Rider)
Exodus, The -- Fiction; Jews -- History -- To 70 A.D. -- Fiction
“She was one who bore a child to you, O Prince, which child is not,
and she said, ‘Oh! help me, my lord Seti. Help me, my lord
Seti!’”
His face grew ashen even beneath its veil of dust, and he groaned.
“Two who loved her have seen and two who loved her have heard,” he
said. “There is no room for doubt. Ana, she is dead!”
“I pray the gods——”
“Pray not, for the gods of Egypt are also dead, slain by the god of
Israel. Ana, who has murdered her?”
With my finger I who am a draughtsman drew in the thick dust that lay on
the board of the chariot the brows of a man and beneath them two deep
eyes. The gilt on the board where the sun caught it looked like light
in the eyes.
The Prince nodded and said:
“Now we shall learn whether great magicians such as Ki can die like
other men. Yes, if need be, to learn that I will put on Pharaoh’s
crown.”
We halted at the gates of Memphis. They were shut and barred, but from
within the vast city rose a sound of tumult.
“Open!” cried the Prince to the guard.
“Who bids me open?” answered the captain of the gate peering at us,
for the low sun lay behind.
“Pharaoh bids you open.”
“Pharaoh!” said the man. “We have sure tidings that Pharaoh
and his armies are slain by wizardry in the sea.”
“Fool!” thundered the Prince, “Pharaoh never dies. Pharaoh
Amenmeses is with Osiris but the good god Seti Meneptah who _is_ Pharaoh
bids you open.”
Then the bronze gates rolled back, and those who guarded them prostrated
themselves in the dust.
“Man,” I called to the captain, “what means yonder
shouting?”
“Sir,” he answered, “I do not know, but I am told that the
witch who has brought woe on Egypt and by magic caused the death of
Pharaoh Amenmeses and his armies, dies by fire in the place before the
temple.”
“By whose command?” I cried again as the charioteer flogged the
horses, but no answer reached our ears.
We rushed on up the wide street to the great place that was packed with
tens of thousands of the people. We drove the horses at them.
“Way for Pharaoh! Way for the Mighty One, the good god, Seti Meneptah,
King of the Upper and the Lower Land!” shouted the escort.
The people turned and saw the tall shape of the Prince still clad in the
robes of state which he had worn when he stood before Amenmeses in the
pavilion by the sea.
“Pharaoh! Pharaoh! Hail to Pharaoh!” they cried, prostrating
themselves, and the cry passed on through Memphis like a wind.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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