Uarda : a Romance of Ancient Egypt — Volume 10 by Georg Ebers
page 41 of 61 (67%)
page 41 of 61 (67%)
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hands, and Praxilla is my youngest child, the only one left to me by the
envious Gods." While he was still speaking, they heard the guards call out and a child's loud cry, and at the same instant little Scherau rushed into the tent holding up his hand exclaiming. "I have it! I have found it!" Uarda, who had remained behind the curtain which screened the sleeping room of the tent--but who had listened with breathless attention to every word of the foreigners, and who had never taken her eyes off the fair Praxilla--now came forward, emboldened by her agitation, into the midst of the tent, and took the jewel from the child's hand to show it to the Greek king; for while she stood gazing at Praxilla it seemed to her that she was looking at herself in a mirror, and the idea had rapidly grown to conviction that her mother had been a daughter of the Danaids. Her heart beat violently as she went up to the king with a modest demeanor, her head bent down, but holding her jewel up for him to see. The bystanders all gazed in astonishment at the veteran chief, for he staggered as she came up to him, stretched out his hands as if in terror towards the girl, and drew back crying out: "Xanthe, Xanthe! Is your spirit freed from Hades? Are you come to summon me?" Praxilla looked at her father in alarm, but suddenly she, too, gave a piercing cry, snatched a chain from her neck, hurried towards Uarda, and seizing the jewel she held, exclaimed: |
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