“Your magic is good, Israelite,” he muttered, “so good that it has overcome mine here in the temple where I serve.” “I have no magic,” she answered very low. “I obeyed a command, no more.” He laughed bitterly, and asked: “Should two of a trade waste time on foolishness? Listen now. Teach me your secrets, and I will teach you mine, and together we will drive Egypt like a chariot.” “I have no secrets, I have only faith,” said Merapi again. “Woman,” he went on, “woman or devil, will you take me for friend or foe? Here I have been shamed, since it was to me and not to their gods that the priests trusted to destroy you. Yet I can still forgive. Choose now, knowing that as my friendship will lead you to rule, to life and splendour, so my hate will drive you to shame and death.” “You are beside yourself, and know not what you say. I tell you that I have no magic to give or to withhold,” she answered, as one who did not understand or was indifferent, and turned away from him. Thereon he muttered some curse which I could not catch, bowed to the heap of dust that had been the statue of the god, and vanished away among the pillars of the sanctuary. “Oho-ho!” laughed Bakenkhonsu. “Not in vain have I lived to be so very old, for now it seems we have a new god in Egypt, and there stands his prophetess.” Merapi came to the prince. “O high-priest of Amon,” she said, “does it please you to let me go, for I am very weary?” CHAPTER X. THE DEATH OF PHARAOH It was the appointed day and hour. By command of the Prince I drove with him to the palace of Pharaoh, whither her Highness the Princess refused to be his companion, and for the first time we talked together of that which had passed in the temple. “Have you seen the lady Merapi?” he asked of me. I answered No, as I was told that she was sick within her house and lay abed suffering from weariness, or I knew not what. “She does well to keep there,” said Seti, “I think that if she came out those priests would murder her if they could. Also there are others,” and he glanced back at the chariot that bore Userti in state. “Say, Ana, can you interpret all this matter?” “Not I, Prince. I thought that perhaps your Highness, the high-priest of Amon, could give me light.” “The high-priest of Amon wanders in thick darkness. Ki and the rest swear that this Israelite is a sorceress who has outmatched their magic, but to me it seems more simple to believe that what she says is true; that her god is greater than Amon.” “And if this be true, Prince, what are we to do who are sworn to the gods of Egypt?” “Bow our heads and fall with them, I suppose, Ana, since honour will not suffer us to desert them.” “Even if they be false, Prince?”