Here more guards rolled back the brazen gates which in
his folly of a few hours gone he had thought that he could force, and
through the avenues of blooming trees he was led to the great pillared
hall of audience.
After the brightness without, that hall seemed almost dark, only a ray
of sunshine flowing from an unshuttered space in the clerestory above,
fell full on the end of it, and revealed the crowned Pharaoh and his
queen seated in state upon their thrones of ivory and gold. Gathered
round and about him also were scribes and councillors and captains, and
beyond these other queens in their carved chairs and attended, each of
them, by beautiful women of the household in their gala dress. Moreover,
behind the thrones, and at intervals between the columns, stood the
famous Nubian guard of two hundred men, the servants of the body of
Pharaoh as they were called, each of them chosen for faithfulness and
courage.
The centre of all this magnificence was Pharaoh, on him the sunlight
beat, to him every eye was turned, and where his glance fell there heads
bowed and knees were bent.
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