Uarda : a Romance of Ancient Egypt — Volume 10Ebers, Georg
History
Uarda : a Romance of Ancient Egypt — Volume 10
Ebers, Georg
Egypt -- History -- To 332 B.C. -- Fiction; German fiction -- Translations into English
He told her, and she smilingly repeated his words. "Now 'Uarda will love
you with all her heart?'" and she said it after him in broken accents
that sounded so sweet and so heart-felt, that the old man clasped her to
his breast.
Tears of emotion stood in Nefert's eyes, and when Uarda flung herself
into her arms she said:
"The forlorn swan has found its kindred, the floating leaf has reached
the shore, and must be happy now!" Thus passed an hour of the purest
happiness; at last the Greek king prepared to leave, and the wished to
take Uarda with him; but Mena begged his permission to communicate all
that had occurred to the Pharaoh and Bent-Anat, for Uarda was attached to
the princess's train, and had been left in his charge, and he dared not
trust her in any other hands without Bent-Anat's permission. Without
waiting for the king's reply he left the tent, hastened to the banqueting
tent, and, as we know, Rameses and the princess had at once attended to
his summons.
On the way Mena gave them a vivid description of the exciting events that
had taken place, and Rameses, with a side glance at Bent-Anat, asked
Rameri:
"Would you be prepared to repair your errors, and to win the friendship
of the Greek king by being betrothed to his granddaughter?"
The prince could not answer a word, but he clasped his father's hand, and
kissed it so warmly that Rameses, as he drew it away, said:
"I really believe that you have stolen a march on me, and have been
studying diplomacy behind my back!"
Rameses met his noble opponent outside Mena's tent, and was about to
offer him his hand, but the Danaid chief had sunk on his knees before him
as the other princes had done.
"Regard me not as a king and a warrior," he exclaimed, "only as a
suppliant father; let us conclude a peace, and permit me to take this
maiden, my grandchild, home with me to my own country."
Rameses raised the old man from the ground, gave him his hand, and said
kindly:
"I can only grant the half of what you ask. I, as king of Egypt, am most
willing to grant you a faithful compact for a sound and lasting peace; as
regards this maiden, you must treat with my children, first with my
daughter Bent-Anat, one of whose ladies she is, and then with your
released prisoner there, who wishes to make Uarda his wife."
"I will resign my share in the matter to my brother," said Bent-Anat,
"and I only ask you, maiden, whether you are inclined to acknowledge him
as your lord and master?"
Uarda bowed assent, and looked at her grandfather with an expression
which he understood without any interpreter.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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