he suddenly felt Ephraim's right hand clutch his
wrist, and heard him exclaim: "She! She! Look yonder! It is she!" The
youth had flushed crimson, and he was not mistaken; the beautiful Kasana
was passing amid Pharaoh's train in the same chariot in which she had
pursued the convicts, and with her came a considerable number of ladies
who had joined what the commander of the foot-soldiers, a brave old
warrior, who had served under the great Rameses, termed "a pleasure
party."

On campaigns through the desert and into Syria, Libya, or Ethiopia
the sovereign was accompanied only by a chosen band of concubines in
curtained chariots, guarded by eunuchs; but this time, though the
queen had remained at home, the wife of the chief priest Bai and other
aristocratic ladies had set the example of joining the troops, and it
was doubtless tempting enough to many to enjoy the excitements of war
without peril.

Kasana had surprised her friend by her appearance an hour before;
only yesterday the young widow could not be persuaded to accompany
the troops. Obeying an inspiration, without consulting her father, so
unprepared that she lacked the necessary traveling equipments, she had
joined the expedition, and it seemed as if a man whom she had hitherto
avoided, though he was no less a personage than Siptah, the king's
nephew, had become a magnet to her.

When she passed the prisoners, the prince was standing in the chariot
beside the young beauty in her nurse's place, explaining in jesting
tones the significance of the flowers in a bouquet, which Kasana
declared could not possibly have been intended for her, because an hour
and a quarter before she had not thought of going with the army.

But Siptah protested that the Hathors had revealed at sunrise the
happiness in store for him, and that the choice of each single blossom
proved his assertion.

Several young courtiers who were walking in front of their chariots,
surrounded them and joined in the laughter and merry conversation, in
which the vivacious wife of the chief priest shared, having left her
large travelling-chariot to be carried in a litter.

None of these things escaped Joshua's notice and, as he saw Kasana, who
a short time before had thought of the prince with aversion, now saucily
tap his hand with her fan, his brow darkened and he asked himself
whether the young widow was not carelessly trifling with his misery.

But the prisoners' chief warder had now noticed the lo