“Nay; it is thou who shalt tell me, O my King.  I know thee, even as all Egypt knows thee.  There is no power in thee for great evil, but behold to what depths of misery is Egypt sunk!  Through thee?  Aye, if we charge the mouth for the word the mind willed it to say.  Have the gods afflicted thee with madness, or have they given thee into the compelling hands of a knave?  Say, who is it, thou or another, who playeth a perilous game with Israel, this day, when its God hath already rent Egypt and consumed her in wrath?  Like a wise man thou admittest thine error and biddest thy scourge depart, and lo! ere thy words are cold thou dost arise and recall them and invite the descent of new and hideous affliction upon thine empire!  Behold the winnings of thy play, thus far!  From Pelusium to Syene, a waste, full of famine, mourners and dead men, and among these last—­thy Rameses!—­”

Meneptah did not permit him to finish.  Purple with an engorgement of grief and fury, the monarch broke in, flailing the air with his arms.

“Har-hat!” he cried.  “Not I!  Har-hat, who cozened me!”

The voice rang through the royal inclosure, and the ministers came running.

Foremost was Har-hat.

At sight of his enemy, the king put Kenkenes between him and the fan-bearer.  At sight of Kenkenes, Har-hat stopped in his tracks.

Behind followed Kephren and Seneferu, the two generals, who, with the exception of Har-hat, the commander-in-chief, were the only arms-bearing men away from their places among the soldiers; after these, Hotep and Nechutes, Menes of the royal body-guard, the lesser fan-bearers, the many minor attaches to the king’s person—­in all a score of nobles.

They came upon a portentous scene.

The tumult of preparation had subsided and the hush of readiness lay over the desert.  The orders were to move the army at sunrise, and that time was past.  The pioneers, or path-makers for the army, were already far in advance.  Horses had been bridled and each soldier stood by his mount.  Captains with their eyes toward the royal pavilion moved about restlessly and wondered.  The high commanding officers absent, the next in rank began to weigh their chances to assume command.  Soldiers began to surmise to one another the cause of the delay, which manifestly found its origin in the quarters of the king.

All this was the environment of a hollow square formed by the royal guard.  Within was the Pharaoh, shrinking by the side of his messenger.  The messenger, taller, more powerful, it seemed, by the heightening and strengthening force of righteous wrath, faced the mightiest man in the kingdom.  Har-hat, though a little surprised and puzzled, was none the less complacent, confident, nonchalant.  Near the fan-bearer, but behind him, were the ministers, astonished and puzzled.  But since the past days had been so filled with momentous events, they were ready to expect a crisis at the slightest incident.