abroad without notice to his household and commanding the service of a
secret guard to spy upon his every action, and doubtless to make report
thereof to the police of Pharaoh."

There are two faces to everything, thought I to myself again.



CHAPTER II

THE BREAKING OF THE CUP

We walked down a broad street bordered by trees, beyond which were
lime-washed, flat-roofed houses built of sun-dried brick, standing,
each of them, in its own garden, till at length we came to the great
market-place just as the full moon rose above the palm-trees, making the
world almost as light as day. Tanis, or Rameses as it is also called,
was a very fine city then, if only half the size of Memphis, though
now that the Court has left it I hear it is much deserted. About this
market-place stood great temples of the gods, with pylons and avenues
of sphinxes, also that wonder of the world, the colossal statue of the
second Rameses, while to the north upon a mound was the glorious palace
of Pharaoh. Other palaces there were also, inhabited by the nobles and
officers of the Court, and between them ran long streets where dwelt the
citizens, ending, some of them, on that branch of the Nile by which the
ancient city stood.

Seti halted to gaze at these wondrous buildings.

"They are very old," he said, "but most of them, like the walls and