sied to those who bare the coffin, "Not one soul of you that lives
shall see the land where your conjurer is leading you! Ye shall thirst,
ye shall hunger, ye shall call on the Gods of Khem, and they shall not
hear you; ye shall die, and your bones shall whiten the wilderness.
Farewell! Set go with you. Farewell!"

So she cried and pointed down the way, and so fierce was her gaze, and
so awful were her words, that the people of the Apura trembled and the
women ceased to sing.

The Wanderer watched the Queen and marvelled. "Never had woman such a
hardy heart," he mused; "and it were ill to cross her in love or war!"

"They will sing no more at my gates," murmured Meriamun, with a smile.
"Come, Wanderer; they await us," and she gave him her hand that he might
lead her.

So they went back to the banquet hall.

They hearkened as they sat till far in the night, and still the Apura
passed, countless as the sands of the sea. At length all were gone, and
the sound of their feet died away in the distance. Then Meriamun the
Queen turned to Pharaoh and spake bitterly:

"Thou art a coward, Meneptah, ay, a coward and a slave at heart. In thy
fear of the curse that the False Hathor hath laid on us, she whom thou
dost worship, to thy shame, thou hast let these slaves go. Otherwise
had our father dealt with them, great Rameses Miamun, the hammer of the
Khita. Now they are gone hissing curses on the land that bare them, and
robbing those who nursed them up while they were yet a little people, as
a mother nurses her child."

"What then might I do?" said Pharaoh.

"There is nought to do: all is done," answered Meriamun.

"What is thy counsel, Wanderer?"

"It is ill for a stranger to offer counsel," said the Wanderer.

"Nay, speak," cried the Queen.

"I know not the Gods of this land," he answered. "If these people
be favoured of the Gods, I say sit still. But if not," then said the
Wanderer, wise in war, "let Pharaoh gather his host, follow after the
people, take them unawares, and smite them utterly. It is no hard task,
they are so mixed a multitude and cumbered with much baggage!"

This was to speak as the Queen loved to hear. Now she clapped her hands
and cried:

"Listen, listen to good counsel, Pharaoh."

And now that the Apura were gone, his fear of them went also, and as
he drank wine Pharaoh grew bold, till at last he sprang to his feet
and swore by Amen, by Osiris, by Ptah, and by his father--great
Rameses--that