rone. They
did not believe that anything would happen, no, not even the priests
believed it who here at Memphis, the city of Ptah, thought little of
Amen, the god of Thebes. They thought that this piteous prayer was but
a last cry of dying faith wrung from a proud and fallen woman in her
wretchedness.

And yet, and yet they stared, for she had spoken with a strange
certainty like one who knew the god, and was she not named Star of
Amen, and were there not wondrous tales as to her birth, and had not a
lotus-bloom seemed to turn to gold and jewels in the hand of this young,
anointed Queen who bore the Cross of Life upon her breast? No, nothing
would happen, but still they stared.

It was a very strange sunset. For days the heat had been great, but now
it was fearful, also a marvellous stillness reigned in heaven and earth.
Nothing seemed to stir in all the city, no dog barked, no child cried,
no leaf quivered upon the tall palms; it might have been a city of the
dead.

Dense clouds arose upon the sky, and moved, though no wind blew. Where
the sun's rays touched them they were gold and red and purple, but above
these of an inky blackness. They took strange shapes those clouds, and
marshalled themselves like a host gathering for battle. There were the
commanders moving quickly to and fro; there the chariots, and there the
sullen lines of footmen with their gleaming spears. Now one cloud higher
than the rest seemed to shoot itself across the arch of heaven, and its
fashion was that of a woman with outspread hair of gold. Her feet stood
upon the sun, her body bent itself athwart the sky, and upon the far
horizon in the east her hands held the pale globe of the rising moon.

The watchers were frightened at this cloud. "It is Isis with the moon in
her arms," said one. "Nay, it is the mother goddess Nout brooding upon
the world," answered another. And though they only spoke softly, in that
awful silence their voices reached Tua on the throne, and for the first
time her face changed, for on it came a cold, curious smile.

Kaku began to whisper into Abi's ear, and there was fear in the eyes of
both of them. He pointed with his finger at two stars, which of a sudden
shone out through the green haze above the sunset glow, and then turned
and looked at the Queen, urging his master eagerly. At last Abi spoke.

"Ra is set," he said. "Come, let us make an end of all this folly."

"Not yet," answered Tua quietly, "not yet awhile."