lepiodorus to the terribly excited Klea.
"I would have you imprisoned with the blasphemers, if I did not well
understand the anguish which has turned your brain. We will interfere
on behalf of the abducted girl, and you must wait patiently in silence.
You, Callimachus, must at once order Ismael, the messenger, to saddle
the horses, and ride to Memphis to deliver a despatch from me to the
queen; let us all combine to compose it, and subscribe our names as soon
as we are perfectly certain that Irene has been carried off from these
precincts. Philammon, do you command that the gong be sounded which
calls together all the inhabitants of the temple; and you, my girl, quit
this hall, and join the others."

CHAPTER XVI.

Klea obeyed the high-priest's command at once, and wandered--not knowing
exactly whither--from one corridor to another of the huge pile, till she
was startled by the sound of the great brazen plate, struck with mighty
blows, which rang out to the remotest nook and corner of the precincts.
This call was for her too, and she went forthwith into the great
court of assembly, which at every moment grew fuller and fuller. The
temple-servants and the keepers of the beasts, the gate-keepers,
the litter-bearers, the water-carriers-all streamed in from their
interrupted meal, some wiping their mouths as they hurried in, or still
holding in their hands a piece of bread, a radish, or a date which they
hastily munched; the washer-men and women came in with hands still wet
from washing the white robes of the priests, and the cooks arrived with
brows still streaming from their unfinished labors. Perfumes floated
round from the unwashed hands of the pastophori, who had been busied in
the laboratories in the preparation of incense, while from the library
and writing-rooms came the curators and scribes and the officials of
the temple counting-house, their hair in disorder, and their light
working-dress stained with red or black. The troop of singers, male
and female, came in orderly array, just as they had been assembled for
practice, and with them came the faded twins to whom Klea and Irene had
been designated as successors by Asclepiodorus. Then came the pupils of
the temple-school, tumbling noisily into the court-yard in high delight
at this interruption to their lessons. The eldest of these were sent
to bring in the great canopy under which the heads of the establishment
might assemble.

Last of all appeared Asclep