“What is it, man?” she asked of the head physician, who, by way of answer, lifted the linen on the bed, and showed her Pharaoh’s legs and feet, white and withered as though with fire.

“What sickness is this?” asked Tua again.

“We know not, O Queen,” answered the physician, “for in all our lives we have never seen its like.  The flesh is suddenly wasted, and the limbs are paralysed.”

“But I know,” broke in Asti.  “This is not sickness, it is sorcery.  Pharaoh has been smitten by some foul spell of the Prince Abi, or of his wizards.  Say, who was with him last?”

“It seems that the Lady of the Footstool, Merytra, sang him to sleep, as was her custom,” answered the physician, “and left him about two hours ago, so say the guard.  When I came in to see how his Majesty rested but now, I found him thus.”

Now Tua lifted up her head and spoke, saying: 

“My divine Father is helpless, and therefore again I rule alone in Egypt.  Hear me and obey.  Let the Prince Abi be brought from his prison to the inner hall, for I would question him at once.  Let the waiting-woman, Merytra, be brought also under guard with drawn swords.”

The officer of the watch bowed and departed to do the bidding of her Majesty, while others went to light the hall.

Soon he returned to an outer chamber whither Tua had withdrawn herself while the physicians examined Pharaoh.

“O Queen,” he said, with a frightened face, “be not wrath, but the Prince Abi has gone.  He has escaped out of his prison, and the waiting-woman, Merytra, is gone also.”

“How came this about?” asked Tua in a cold voice.

“O Queen, the small gate was open, for people passed in and out of it continually, making preparation for to-morrow’s march, it seems that about an hour ago the lady Merytra came to the gate and showed Pharaoh’s signet to the officer, saying that she was on Pharaoh’s business.  With her went a fat man dressed in the robe of a master of camels that in the darkness the officer thought was a certain Arab of the Desert who has been to and fro about the camels.  It is believed that this man was none other than the Prince Abi, dressed in the Arab’s robe, and that he escaped from his cell by some secret passage which was known to him, a passage of the old priests.  The Arab, whose robes he wore, cannot be found, but perhaps he is asleep in some corner.”

“Bar the gates,” said Tua, “and let none pass in or out.  Asti, take men with you, and go search the room where Merytra slept.  Perchance she has returned again.”

So Asti went, and a while after re-appeared carrying something enveloped in a cloth.

“Merytra has gone, O Queen,” she said in an ominous voice, “leaving this behind hidden beneath her bed,” and she placed the object on a table.

“What is it?  The mummy of a child?” asked Tua, shrinking back.

“Nay, Queen, the image of a man.”