So but two alternatives remained--to
bide within the fortifications of the old temple, and send out
messengers for help, or to march through the city boldly, break down the
gates if these were shut against them, seize boats, and sail up the Nile
for some loyal town, or if that could not be done, to take their chance
in the open lands.
Now some favoured one scheme, and some the other, so that at last the
decision was left with her Majesty. She thought awhile, then said:
"Here I will not stay, to be starved out as we must ere ever an army
could be gathered to rescue us, and be given into the power of that vile
and wicked man, the murderer of the good god, my father. Better that
I should die fighting in the streets, for then at least I shall pass
undefiled to join him in his eternal habitation beyond the sun. We march
at midnight."
So they bowed beneath her word, and made ready while the women of his
household raised a death-wail for Pharaoh, and criers standing on the
high towers proclaimed the accession of Neter-Tua, Morning-Star of Amen,
Glorious in Ra, Hathor, Strong in Beauty, as sole Lord and Sovereign of
the North and South, and of Egypt's subject lands.
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