e hour of your need; if so and I am
living, I will come. Yea, if I am dead I think that I still shall
come, since nothing can really part us. Meanwhile by day and by
night I wear your ring and whenever I look on it I think of Amada
the woman whose lips have pressed my own, and forget Amada the
priestess who for her soul's sake has been pleased to break the
heart of the man who loved her and whom she misjudged so sorely in
her pride and anger."

This tablet I wrapped up and sealed, using clay and her own ring to make
the seal, and gave it for delivery to the priest.

At length we drew near to the river and here, gathered on the open land,
I found the most of those who had fought with me in the battle against
the Easterns, and with them a great concourse of others from the
city. These collected round me, some of them wounded and hobbling upon
crutches, praying me not to go, as did the others who foresaw sorrow to
Egypt from my loss. But I broke away from them almost in tears and
with my mother hid myself beneath the canopy of the boat. Here Bes was
waiting, also his beautiful wife who, although she seemed sad at leaving
Egypt, smiled a greeting to us while the steersmen and rowers of the
boat, tall Ethiopians every one of them, rose and gave me a General's
salute. Then, as the wind served, we hoisted the sail and glided away up
Nile, till presently the temples and palm-groves of Memphis were lost to
sight.

Of that long, long journey there is no need to tell. Up the Nile we
travelled slowly, dragging the boat past the cataracts till Egypt was
far behind us. In the end, many days after we had passed the mouth of
another river that was blue in colour which flowed from the northern
mountain lands down into the Nile, we came to a place where the rapids
were so long and steep that we must leave the boat and travel overland.
Drawing near to it at sunset I saw a multitude of people gathered on the
sand and beyond them a camp in which were set many beautiful pavilions
that seemed to be broidered with silk and gold, as were the banners that
floated above them whereon appeared the effigy of a grasshopper, also
done in gold with silver legs.

"It seems that my messengers travelled in safety," said Bes to me, "for
know, that yonder are some of my subjects who have come here to meet
us. Now, Master, I must no longer call you master since I fear I am once
more a king. And you must no longer call me Bes, but Karo