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[NOTE: There is a short list of bookmarks, or pointers, at the end of thefile for those who may wish to sample the author's ideas before making anentire meal of them. D.W.]
JOSHUA
By Georg Ebers
Volume 2.
CHAPTER IX.
At the same hour a chamberlain was ushering Hosea into the audiencechamber.
Usually subjects summoned to the presence of the king were kept waitingfor hours, but the Hebrew's patience was not tried long. During thisperiod of the deepest mourning the spacious rooms of the palace, commonlytenanted by a gay and noisy multitude, were hushed to the stillness ofdeath; for not only the slaves and warders, but many men and women inclose attendance on the royal couple had fled from the pestilence,quitting the palace without leave.
Here and there a solitary priest, official, or courtier leaned against apillar or crouched on the floor, hiding his face in his hands, whileawaiting some order. Sentries paced to and fro with lowered weapons,lost in melancholy thoughts. Now and then a few young priests inmourning robes glided through the infected rooms, silently swingingsilver censers which diffused a pungent scent of resin and juniper.
A nightmare seemed to weigh upon the palace and its occupants; for inaddition to grief for their beloved prince, which saddened many a heart,the dread of death and the desert wind paralyzed alike the energy of mindand body.
Here in the immediate vicinity of the throne where, in former days, alleyes had sparkled with hope, ambition, gratitude, fear, loyalty, or hate,Hosea now encountered only drooping heads and downcast looks.
Bai, the second prophet of Amon, alone seemed untouched alike by sorrow,anxiety, or the enervating atmosphere of the day; he greeted the warriorin the ante-room as vigorously and cheerily as ever, and assured him—though in the lowest whisper—that no one thought of holding himresponsible for the misdeeds of his people. But when Hosea volunteeredthe acknowledgment that, at the moment of his summons to the king, he hadbeen in the act of going to the commander-in-chief to beg a release frommilitary service, the priest interrupted him to remind him of the debt ofgratitude he, Bai, owed to him as the preserver of his life. Then headded that he would make every effort in his power to keep him in thearmy and show that the Egyptians—even against Pharaoh's will, or whichhe would speak farther with him privately—knew how to honor genuinemerit without distinction of person or birth.
The Hebrew had little time to repeat his resolve; the head chamberlaininterrupted them to lead Hosea into the presence of the "good god."
The sovereign awaited Hosea in the smaller audience-room adjoining theroyal apartments.
It was a stately chamber, and to-day looked more spacious than when, asof yore, it was filled with obsequious throngs. Only a few courtiers andpriests, with some of the queen's ladies-in-waiting, all clad in deepmourning, stood in groups near the throne. Opposite to Pharaoh,squatting in a circle on the floor, were the king's councillors andinterpreters, each adorned with an ostrich plume.
All wore tokens of mourning, and the monotonous, piteous plaint of thewailing women, which ever and anon rose into a loud, shrill, tremulousshriek, echoed through the silent rooms within to this hall, announcingthat death had claimed a victim even in the royal dwelling.
The king and queen sat on