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Lifting
her head she commanded that the doors should be locked and guarded so
that none might go in or out, and that those physicians who were amongst
the company should attend to the wounded, and to Pharaoh, who was
ill. Then she called the High Council of the Kingdom, all of whom were
gathered there about her, and spoke in a cold, calm voice, while the
company flocked round to listen.
"Lords and people," she said, "the gods for their own purposes have
suffered a fearful thing to come to pass. Egypt's guest and his guard
have been slain before Egypt's kings, yes, at their feast and in their
very presence, and it will be said far and wide that this has been done
by treachery. Yet you know well, as I do, that it was no treachery,
but a mischance. The divine prince who is dead, as all of you saw,
grew drunken after the fashion of his people, and in his drunkenness he
struck a high-born man, a Count of Egypt and an officer of Pharaoh, who
to do him greater honour was set to wait upon him, calling him by vile
names, and drew his sword upon him to kill him.


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