He glanced behind him at his ruined hall, at the dying and the dead.
"You are Pharaoh and no other," he repeated with a shudder. "Give breath
to your servant, and let him live on in your shadow."
"The first is not mine to give," she answered coldly, "though perchance
it may please Amen to hold you back a little while from that place
where you must settle your account with him who went before me, and his
companions who died in your streets. I hope so, for you have work to do.
As for the second--arise, you Priests and Officers, and see this Prince
of yours do homage to the Queen of Egypt."
They rose, and clung to each other trembling, for all the heart was out
of them. Then she pointed to her foot with the sceptre in her hand,
and in their presence Abi knelt down and kissed her sandal. After him
followed the others, the priests, the captains, the head-stewards, and
the butlers, till at length came Kaku, the astrologer, who prostrated
himself before her, trembling in every limb. But him she would not
suffer even to touch her sandals.
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