--Translator.]

besides, you share my guilt, for," she added, turning to the priest,
"I confess that the misfortune happened because I would try with my
horses to overtake Paaker's Syrian racers, which he declared to be
swifter than the Egyptian horses. It was a mad race."

"And Amon be praised that it ended as it did," exclaimed the master of
the ceremonies. "Packer's chariot lies dashed in pieces in the valley,
and his best horse is badly hurt."

"He will see to him when he has taken the physician to the house of the
paraschites," said the princess. "Dost thou know, Penbesa--thou anxious
guardian of a thoughtless girl--that to-day for the first time I am glad
that my father is at the war in distant Satiland?"--[Asia].

"He would not have welcomed us kindly!" said the master of the
ceremonies, laughing.

"But the leech, the leech!" cried Bent-Anat. "Packer, it is settled
then. You will conduct him, and bring us to-morrow morning news of the
wounded girl."

Paaker bowed; the princess bowed her head; the priest and his companions,
who meanwhile had come out of the temple and joined him, raised their
hands in blessing, and the belated procession moved towards the Nile.

Paaker remained alone with his two slaves; the commission with which the
princess had charged him greatly displeased him. So long as the
moonlight enabled him to distinguish the litter of Mena's wife, he gazed