Still he smiled and bowed on, till at length
the shouting died away, and quiet fell upon the place.
Abi was forgotten, they waited the coming of the Queen, and though no
herald called her advent, yet every heart of all those thousands felt
that she drew near to them. Look! Yonder she stood. They had watched
closely enough, yet none saw her come, doubtless because the shadows
were thick. But there she stood, quite alone upon the edge of the dais
in front of the two thrones, and, oh! she was different from what they
had expected. Thus now she wore no gorgeous robes, but only a simple
garment of purest white, cut low upon her bosom, where the red rays of
the sinking sun, striking up the hall, revealed to every eye that dark
mole shaped like the Cross of Life, which was her wondrous birthmark.
But two ornaments adorned her, the double snakes of royalty, golden with
red eyes, set in front of her tall white head-dress, which none but
she might wear, the crowns of Upper and of Lower Egypt, and of all
the subject lands, and in her hand a sceptre fashioned of gold, and
surmounted by a lotus-bloom of sapphire, that sceptre of which rumour
had told the magic tale.
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