The Mummy and Miss Nitocris | Page 8

is, and shall be,
until the Peace of all Things shall come."
* * * * *
Then the dream-vision changed from moonlight to sunlight, from night
to morning; for it was the dawn of the day that was to see, as all men
believed, the gorgeous ceremony of the nuptials of the daughter of
Rameses with Menkau-Ra, the Mohar, chief of the House of War and
mightiest of all the warriors of the Land of Khem, now that Rameses
had passed from the black banks of the Nile to the shores of Amenti,
and his mummy was waiting the summons of the High Gods which
should recall it to life in the fulness of time and the dawn of the
Everlasting Peace.
Never had even the Land of Khem seen a fairer dawn. The East shone
in silver, blushed into amethyst, and flamed in gold as the Restorer of
all things rose bright and glorious in sudden splendour over the City of
the White Wall. Standing on the flat roof of the temple of Ptah, he
looked about him in the first flush of this morning which had just
dawned, big with fate, not only for him and his beloved, but also for the
Land of Khem, and perchance for the world.

The great river was spreading its annual blessings over the land. The
waters were broadening out into wide shining sheets, and the slow, soft
music of their rippling was stealing along the great water-walls of the
temples and palaces which formed the river-front of Memphis. Only a
week ago the victorious armies of Khem had brought their spoils and
their prisoners across the eastern frontier. There had been fruit, bread,
and flesh, and wine for the poor, and banquets of royal lavishness for
those who could claim right of entry into the sacred circle which
enclosed the Throne, the Temple, and the camp of the victorious
warrior.
For days he had heard the name of Menkau-Ra the Conqueror shouted
up to the heavens by the crowds that had thronged the streets and the
market-places, and, mingled with it, he had also heard the name of the
girl-queen whose arms had been about his neck, and whose lips he had
kissed the night before, and he knew that even now the people were
asking why the Conqueror should not wed the daughter of Rameses,
and become the father of a line of even greater and yet mightier
Pharaohs.
He had heard their cries calmly and without anger, for he knew that that
one stolen hour of sweet intercourse with her meant much more than
the Conqueror himself could win--something that could not be taken by
force, or even through the will of the dead king. Her soul was his, and
he knew well that the man to whom she had not given her soul would
never be permitted to lay a loving hand on her body.
"Ah yes, there he comes, I suppose," he went on, still talking aloud to
himself, as a shrill musical peal of silver trumpets broke out from the
direction of the barracks to the north of the palace. "Alas! were I but
truly Nefer! That golden-crowned murderer--for sure I am that he killed
him--he would not now be making ready for his triumph at the head of
his victorious troops through the streets and squares of Memphis. If that
were so, how glad a day this would be for Egypt and for us!"
But, as the Divine Assessors willed it, there was no triumph that day in
Memphis. The sun had hardly risen to a level with the topmost wall of
the Rameseum before messengers were sent out from the palace

bearing the tidings that Nitocris the Queen had been stricken with a
sudden malady, and that all festivities were to be deferred till the next
day at the earliest.
That night, when the moon was sinking low down in the west towards
the dark hills of the Libyan Desert, and the Isis Star was glowing palely
like an expiring lamp hung high above the brightening eastern
earth-line, he saw her muffled form gliding ghost-like towards him as
he stood waiting for her on the terrace. She was clad like the meanest of
her serving-maids, just as a common slave-wench who had stolen out to
meet a lover of her own sort might have been. When she came within a
pace of him, he held his arms out. She put hers out too, and for a
moment they looked in silence into each other's eyes, and then she,
seeing that the kiss which she expected did not come, parted her lips
and said smilingly:
"You need not fear to kiss them, dearest, they have not yet been
polluted by the lips of Menkau-Ra, although all