purple tent beside Kasana's, which active servants were beginning to take
down.

Prince Siptah and the chief-priest Bai had received Pharaoh's permission
to set off for Tanis, to fulfil the wish of a "dying woman."

Soon after Ephraim took leave of the old slave and bade him give Kasana's
nurse the cloak and tell her that the messenger had followed her advice
and his uncle's.

Then he set off on his walk.

He escaped unchallenged from the Egyptian camp and, as he entered the
wilderness, he heard the shout with which he called his shepherds in the
pastures. The cry, resounding far over the plain, startled a sparrow-
hawk which was gazing into the distance from a rock and, as the bird
soared upward, the youth fancied that if he stretched out his arms, wings
must unfold strong enough to bear him also through the air. Never had he
felt so light and active, so strong and free, nay had the priest at this
hour asked him the question whether he would accept the office of a
captain of thousands in the Egyptian army, he would undoubtedly have
answered, as he did before the ruined house of Nun, that his sole desire
was to remain a shepherd and rule his flocks and servants.

He was an orphan, but he had a nation, and where his people were was his
home.

Like a wanderer, who, after a long journey, sees his home in the
distance, he quickened his pace.