"That child, O Sesostris, was myself!" suddenly exclaimed Remeses. "Of this you have already been convinced. I saw the scene before me, rapidly change from day to night, and months and years fly by like a cloud, or like a fleet of ships leaving no trace of their track on the closing waters. Through all I saw myself, from the infant of three years old, taken into the palace from my Hebrew mother, to the boy of twelve--to the youth of twenty! Like the cycle of fate, that scene rolled by before my eyes, until I saw myself, that is, the Hebrew boy, in every scene of my life up to the very moment then present. Then, with a sound of mournful music, the Nile and its scenes slowly faded from before my vision, and I was alone! The whole fearful history had terminated in me, and left me standing there in solitude, to reflect upon what I had seen. "Housing myself from my stupor of amazement, I staggered back, and sunk in horror upon the stone bench. I know not how long I lay there, but I was at length aroused by a hand upon my shoulder; I looked up and beheld the magician with the emblem of life, and the emerald-tipped wand. He said-- "'My son, thou hast read the past of thy life! Wilt thou still be King of Egypt?' "'By what power hast thou opened the gates of the past? How hast thou known all this?' I cried, with a heart of despair. "'Dost thou believe?' "'As if the open Book of Thoth lay before me! I doubt not,' I answered. "'Wilt thou be King of Egypt?' again asked another voice. A third, in another direction, took it up, and every subterranean echo of the vaulted pyramid seemed to take up the cry. I rushed from the hall, not knowing whither I went. Doors seemed to open before me, as if by magic, and I at length found myself emerging, guided by the magician, into the open night. The granite valves of the gate closed behind me, and I was alone, in the quadrangle of the great temple of Thoth. The stars shone down upon me like mocking eyes, watching me. I fled onward, as if I would fly from myself--I feared to reflect. I passed the sphinx, the pylones, the obelisks; and ran along the avenue of the Lake of the Dead, until I reached the Nile. I crossed it in a boat that I found upon the shore, and without having formed any clear idea of what I ought to do, sought the palace, and gained my mother's ante-room. Did I say 'my mother,' Sesostris? I meant the good queen. I sent in a page to say I wished to see her. In surprise at my return, before the forty days were fulfilled, she came to the door hurriedly, in her night-robe, and opened it. I entered as calmly as I could, and did not refuse her kiss, though I knew I was but a Hebrew! One night's scenes, dreadful as they were, O Sesostris, could not wholly break the ties of a lifetime of filial love and reverence. I closed the door, secured it in silence, and then sat down, weary with what I had undergone; and, as she came near and knelt by me, and laid her hand