myself awake and standing
in a crowded street. The sun shone brilliantly, and the air was soft and
warm. Magnificent buildings, of an architecture that my studies had long
since made me familiar with, lined it on either hand, while in the
roadway were many chariots and gorgeously-furnished litters, before and
beside which ran slaves, crying aloud in their masters' names for room.

From the position of the sun in the sky, I gathered that it must be
close upon midday. The crowd was momentarily increasing, and as I
walked, marvelling at the beauty of the buildings, I was jostled to and
fro and oftentimes called upon to stand aside. That something unusual
had happened to account for this excitement was easily seen, but what it
was, being a stranger, I had no idea. Sounds of wailing greeted me on
every side, and in all the faces upon which I looked signs of
overwhelming sorrow were to be seen.

Suddenly a murmur of astonishment and anger ran through the crowd, which
separated hurriedly to right and left. A moment later a man came
through the lane thus formed. He was short and curiously misshapen, and
as he walked he covered his face with the sleeve of his robe, as though
he were stricken with grief or shame.

Turning to a man who stood beside me, and who seemed even more excited
than his neighbours, I inquired who the new-comer might be.

"Who art thou, stranger?" he answered, turning sharply on me. "And
whence comest thou that thou knowest not Ptahmes, Chief of the King's
Magicians? Learn, then, that he hath fallen from his high estate,
inasmuch as he made oath before Pharaoh that the first-born of the King
should take no hurt from the spell this Israelitish sorcerer, Moses,
hath cast upon the land. Now the child and all the first-born of Egypt
are dead, and the heart of Pharaoh being hardened against his servant,
he hath shamed him and driven him from before his face."

As he finished speaking, the disgraced man withdrew his robe from his
face, and I realised the astounding fact _that Ptahmes the Magician and
Pharos the Egyptian were not ancestor and descendant, but one and the
same person_.

CHAPTER XI.

Of the circumstances under which my senses returned to me after the
remarkable vision, for that is the only name I can assign to it, which I
have described in the preceding chapter, only the vaguest recollection
remains to me.

When Pharos had ordered me to drink the stuff he had poured out, we were
stan