"Ah!" said Pharaoh, "there speaks the soldier and the parent. Well, I
understand. He was affronted, was he not, by that bedizened black man?
Were I in your place I should say as much. But--what happened?"

"Your Majesty having become unconscious," explained Mermes, "her Majesty
the Queen Neter-Tua, Glorious in Ra, took command of affairs according
to her Oath of Crowning. She has sent an embassy of atonement of two
thousand picked soldiers to the King of Kesh, bearing with them the
embalmed body of the divine Amathel and many royal gifts."

"That is good enough in its way," said Pharaoh. "But why two thousand
men, whereof the cost will be very great, when a score would have
sufficed? It is an army, not an embassy, and when my royal brother of
Kesh sees it advancing, bearing with it the ill-omened gift of his only
son's body, he may take alarm."

Mermes respectfully agreed that he might do so.

"What general is in command of this embassy, as it pleases you to call
it?"

"The Count Rames, my son, is in command, your Majesty."

Now weak as he was still, Pharaoh nearly leapt from his chair:

"Rames! That young cut-throat who killed the Prince! Rames who is the
last of the old rightful dynasty of Kesh! Rames, a mere captain, in
command of two thousand of my veterans! Oh, I must still be mad! Who
gave him the command?"