The Pharaoh And The Priest Part 16

"Once I went out in the daytime. People of some sort stared at me, and said to one another, 'Look! that is the heir's Jewess; she delays the overflow.'"

"They are fools!" interrupted Gideon. "Is this the first time that the Nile is late in its overflow? But go out in the evening."

Sarah shook her head with greater vigor.

"I do not wish, I do not wish. Another time I went out in the evening.

All at once two women pushed out from a side path. I was frightened and wished to flee, when one of them, the younger and smaller, seized my hands, saying, 'Do not flee, we must look at thee;' the second, the elder and taller, stood some steps in front and looked me in the eyes directly. Ah, father, I thought that I should turn into stone. What a look, what a woman!"

"Who could she be?" asked Gideon.

"The elder woman looked like a priestess."

"And did she say anything?"

"Nothing. But when going and they were hidden behind trees, I heard surely the voice of the elder say these words: 'Indeed she is beautiful!'"

Gideon fell to thinking.

"Maybe they were great ladies from the court."

The sun went down, and on both banks of the Nile dense crowds of people collected waiting impatiently for the signal of the overflow, which in fact was belated. For two days the wind had been blowing from the sea and the river was green; the sun had pa.s.sed the star Sothis already, but in the well of the priest in Memphis the water had not risen even the breadth of a finger. The people were alarmed, all the more since in Upper Egypt, according to signals, the overflow proceeded with regular increase and even promised to be perfect.

"What detains it at Memphis then?" asked the anxious earth-tillers waiting for the signal in disquiet.

When the stars had appeared in the sky, Tafet spread a white cloth on the table, placed on it the candlestick with seven lighted torches, pushed up three armchairs, and announced that the Sabbath supper would be served immediately.

Gideon covered his head then, and raising both hands above the table, said with his eyes looking heavenward,--

"G.o.d of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Thou who didst lead our people out of Egypt, who didst give a country to the slave and exile, who didst make with the sons of Judah an eternal covenant, O Jehovah, O Adonai, permit us to enjoy without sin the fruits of the enemies' country.

Bring us out of sorrow and fear in which we are buried, and restore us to the banks of the Jordan, which we left for Thy glory."

At the moment a voice was heard from beyond the wall,--

"His worthiness Tutmosis, the most faithful servant of his holiness and of his son Prince Rameses!"

"May he live through eternity!" called a number of voices from the garden.

"His worthiness," said a single voice again, "sends greeting to the most beautiful rose of Lebanon."

When the voice ceased, the sound of harps and flutes was heard.

"That is music!" exclaimed Tafet, clapping her hands. "We shall pa.s.s the Sabbath with music."

Sarah and her father, frightened at first, began to laugh, and sat down again at the table.

"Let them play," said Gideon; "their music is not bad for the appet.i.te."

The flute and harp played, then a tenor voice sang,--

"Thou art more beautiful than all the maidens who look at themselves in the Nile. Thy hair is blacker than the feathers of a raven, thy eyes have a milder glance than the eyes of a deer which is yearning for its fawn. Thy stature is the stature of a palm, and the lotus envies thee thy charm. Thy bosoms are like grape cl.u.s.ters with the juice of which kings delight themselves."

Again the flute and harp were heard, and next a song,--

"Come and repose in the garden. The servants which belong to thee will bring various vessels and beer of all kinds. Come, let us celebrate this night and the dawn which will follow it. In my shadow, in the shadow of the fig, giving sweet fruit, thy lover will rest at thy right hand; and thou wilt give him to drink and consent to all his wishes--"

Next came the flutes and harps, and after them a new song,--

"I am of a silent disposition, I never tell what I see, I spoil not the sweetness of my fruits with vain tattling."[4]

[4] Authentic.

CHAPTER X

The song ceased, drowned by an uproar and by a noise as of many people running.

"Unbelievers! Enemies of Egypt!" cried some one. "Ye are singing when we are sunk in suffering, and ye are praising the Jewess who stops the flow of the Nile with her witchcraft."

"Woe to you!" cried another. "Ye are trampling the land of Prince Rameses. Death will fall on you and your children."

"We will go, but let the Jewess come out so that we may tell our wrongs to her."

"Let us flee!" screamed Tafet.

"Whither?" inquired Gideon.

"Never!" said Sarah, on whose mild face appeared a flush of anger. "Do I not belong to the heir, before whose face those people all prostrate themselves?"

And before her father and the old woman had regained their senses, she, all in white, had run out on the roof and called to the throng beyond the wall,--

"Here I am! What do ye want of me?"

The uproar was stilled for a moment, but again threatening voices were raised,--

"Be accursed, thou strange woman whose sin stops the Nile in its overflow!"

A number of stones hurled at random whistled through the air; one of them struck Sarah's forehead.

"Father!" cried she, seizing her head.

Gideon caught her in his arms and bore her from the terrace. In the night were visible people, in white caps and skirts, who climbed over the wall below.

Tafet screamed in a heaven-piercing voice, the black slave seized an axe, took his place in the doorway, and declared that he would split the head of any man daring to enter.

"Stone that Nubian dog!" cried men from the wall to the crowd of people.