[NOTE: There is a short list of bookmarks, or pointers, at the end of the
file for those who may wish to sample the author's ideas before making an
entire meal of them. D.W.]





JOSHUA

By Georg Ebers

Volume 2.


CHAPTER IX.

At the same hour a chamberlain was ushering Hosea into the audience
chamber.

Usually subjects summoned to the presence of the king were kept waiting
for hours, but the Hebrew's patience was not tried long. During this
period of the deepest mourning the spacious rooms of the palace, commonly
tenanted by a gay and noisy multitude, were hushed to the stillness of
death; for not only the slaves and warders, but many men and women in
close 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 a
pillar or crouched on the floor, hiding his face in his hands, while