YAOUMA [_crossly_] Oh! I do not love you now!--Yes, yes, yes, I love you! [_A pause_] So it pleased you then, when you were going away in the galley, to see me run barefoot on the bank--? SATNI. Yes. YAOUMA [_angry_] But speak! speak! [_Checking herself, then more coaxing still_] You wanted to weep? No? You said you did. For my part I know not, then, I could see nothing. But the day of your return, when you learned I was chosen for the sacrifice, then, then I saw your eyes--You love me--You said to me you would prevent me going to the Nile. I believed you not--you remember--Why! even yesterday, yes, yesterday again, in spite of all your words, I was resolved to escape and go to the temple. It needed this proof of your power!--tell me, it was you who shook the heavens and the earth for me. SATNI. No. YAOUMA. Again!--You must think but little of me, to believe I should reveal what you bade me keep secret. [_She lays her hands on Satni's cheeks_] It _was_ you, was it not? SATNI. No, no, no! a thousand times no! YAOUMA. It was your gods then, your gods whom I know not. SATNI. No. YAOUMA. Who was it then? SATNI. No one. YAOUMA [_out of countenance_] No one! [_A pause_] You possess no power that other men have not? SATNI. No. YAOUMA [_the same_] You seem as one speaking truth. SATNI. I speak the truth. YAOUMA. 'Tis a pity! SATNI. Why? YAOUMA. It would have been more beautiful. [_A long grave pause_] To go in the barge, on the Nile, that too had been more beautiful. _Rheou and the Steward enter_ RHEOU [_agitated_] Go in, Yaouma. [_To the Steward_] Conduct her to her mistress--and make known to her what has passed. [_Yaouma and the Steward go out_] Satni, terrible news has come to me: the Pharaoh, finding the people's enmity increase against him, has taken fright, and striking first, the blow has fallen on me. My goods are confiscated. I am sent to exile. The palace Chamberlain, but now, brought me the order to quit my house to-day, and deliver myself to the army leaving for Ethiopia. SATNI. Can you do nothing against this order? RHEOU. Yes. I can kill those who gave it. SATNI. Kill! RHEOU. Listen. I bring you the means to win the triumph of your ideas, and at the same time serve my cause. I can arm all the dwellers on my lands. We two must lead them. They will follow you, knowing you all powerful. Nay, hear me--wait. The soldiers, who fear you, will not dare resist us, we shall kill the high priest, the Pharaoh if need be--we shall be masters of Egypt. SATNI. I would not kill. RHEOU. So be it. Enough that you declare yourself ready to repeat the miracle of yesterday. SATNI. I would not lie. RHEOU. If you would neither kill nor lie, you will never succeed in governing men. SATNI. I would fight the priests of Ammon, not imitate them.