Cleopatra | Page 9

father
came in and saw what the dying woman had done, he lifted up his
hands towards the vault of heaven and adored the Invisible, because of
the sign that had been sent. And as he adored, the Hathors[*] filled my
dying mother with the Spirit of Prophecy, and she rose in strength from
the couch and prostrated herself thrice before the cradle where I lay
asleep, the Royal asp upon my brow, crying aloud:
[*] The Egyptian /Parcæ/ or /Fates/.--Editor.
"Hail to thee, fruit of my womb! Hail to thee, Royal child! Hail to thee,
Pharaoh that shalt be! Hail to thee, God that shalt purge the land,
Divine seed of Nekt-nebf, the descended from Isis. Keep thee pure, and
thou shalt rule and deliver Egypt and not be broken. But if thou dost
fail in thy hour of trial, then may the curse of all the Gods of Egypt rest
upon thee, and the curse of thy Royal forefathers, the justified, who
ruled the land before thee from the age of Horus. Then in life mayst
thou be wretched, and after death may Osiris refuse thee, and the
judges of Amenti give judgment against thee, and Set and Sekhet
torment thee, till such time as thy sin is purged, and the Gods of Egypt,
called by strange names, are once more worshipped in the Temples of
Egypt, and the staff of the Oppressor is broken, and the footsteps of the
Foreigner are swept clean, and the thing is accomplished as thou in thy
weakness shalt cause it to be done."

When she had spoken thus, the Spirit of Prophecy went out of her, and
she fell dead across the cradle where I slept, so that I awoke with a cry.
But my father, Amenemhat, the High Priest, trembled, and was very
fearful, both because of the words which had been said by the Spirit of
the Hathors through the mouth of my mother, and because what had
been uttered was treason against Ptolemy. For he knew that, if the
matter should come to the ears of Ptolemy, Pharaoh would send his
guards to destroy the life of the child concerning whom such things
were prophesied. Therefore, my father shut the doors, and caused all
those who stood by to swear upon the holy symbol of his office, and by
the name of the Divine Three, and by the Soul of her who lay dead
upon the stones beside them, that nothing of what they had seen and
heard should pass their lips.
Now among the company was the old wife, Atoua, who had been the
nurse of my mother, and loved her well; and in these days, though I
know not how it had been in the past, nor how it shall be in the future,
there is no oath that can bind a woman's tongue. And so it came about
that by-and-by, when the matter had become homely in her mind, and
her fear had fallen from her, she spoke of the prophecy to her daughter,
who nursed me at the breast now that my mother was dead. She did this
as they walked together in the desert carrying food to the husband of
the daughter, who was a sculptor, and shaped effigies of the holy Gods
in the tombs that are fashioned in the rock--telling the daughter, my
nurse, how great must be her care and love toward the child that should
one day be Pharaoh, and drive the Ptolemies from Egypt. But the
daughter, my nurse, was so filled with wonder at what she heard that
she could not keep the tale locked within her breast, and in the night
she awoke her husband, and, in her turn, whispered it to him, and
thereby compassed her own destruction, and the destruction of her child,
my foster-brother. For the man told his friend, and the friend was a spy
of Ptolemy's, and thus the tale came to Pharaoh's ears.
Now, Pharaoh was much troubled thereat, for though when he was full
of wine he would make a mock of the God of the Egyptians, and swear
that the Roman Senate was the only God to whom he bowed the knee,

yet in his heart he was terribly afraid, as I have learned from one who
was his physician. For when he was alone at night he would scream and
cry aloud to the great Serapis, who indeed is no true God, and to other
Gods, fearing lest he should be murdered and his soul handed over to
the tormentors. Also, when he felt his throne tremble under him, he
would send large presents to the temples, asking a message from the
oracles, and more especially from the oracle that is at Philæ. Therefore,
when it came to his