Morning Star

by H. Rider Haggard

  So Rames went and was no more seen, and by degrees the talk as to thematter of his victory over the Prince of Kesh, and as to his appointmentby the whim of the maiden Queen to command the splendid embassy ofatonement which she had despatched to the old King, the dead man'sfather, died away for lack of anything to feed on.

  Tua kept her counsel well, nor was aught known of that midnightinterview with the young Count her general. Moreover, Napata was faraway, so far that starting at the season when it did, the embassy couldscarce return till two years had gone by, if ever it did return. Alsofew believed that whoever came back, Rames would be one of them, sinceit was said openly that so soon as he was beyond the frontiers ofEgypt, the soldiers had orders to kill him and take on his body as apeace-offering.

  Indeed, all praised the wit and wisdom of the Queen, who by this politicdevice, had rid herself of a troublesome business with as little scandalas possible, and avoided staining her own hands in the blood of afoster-brother. Had she ordered his death forthwith, they said, it wouldhave been supposed also that she had put him away because he was of aroyal race, one who, in the future, might prove a rival, or at leastcause some rebellion.

  Meanwhile greater questions filled the mouths of men. Would Pharaoh dieand leave Neter-Tua, the young and lovely, to hold his throne, and ifso, what would happen? It was a thousand years since a woman had reignedin Egypt, and none had reigned who were not wed. Therefore it seemednecessary that a husband should be found for her as soon as might be.

  But Pharaoh did not die. On the contrary, though very slowly, herecovered and was stronger than he had been for years, for the fit thatstruck him down seemed to have cleared his blood. For some three monthshe lay helpless as a child, amusing himself as a child does with littlethings, and talking of children whom he had known in his youth, or whensome of these chanced to visit him as old men, asking them to play withhim with tops or balls.

  Then one day came a change, and rising from his bed he commanded thepresence of his Councillors, and when they came, inquired of them whathad happened, and why he could remember nothing since the feast.

  They put him off with soft words, and soon he grew weary and dismissedthem. But after they had gone and he had eaten he sent for Mermes, theCaptain of the Guard of Amen and his friend, and questioned him.

  "The last thing I remember," he said, "was seeing the drunken Prince ofKesh fighting with your son, that handsome, fiery-eyed Count Rames whomsome fool, or enemy, had set to wait upon him at table. It was a dog'strick, Mermes, for after all your blood is purer and more ancient thanthat of the present kings of Kesh. Well, the horror of the sight of myroyal guest, the suitor for my daughter's hand, fighting with an officerof my own guard at my own board, struck me as a butcher strikes an ox,and after it all was blackness. What chanced, Mermes?"

  "This, Pharaoh: My son killed Amathel in fair fight, then those blackNubian giants in their fury attacked your guard, but led by Rames theEgyptians, though they were the lesser men, overcame them and slew mostof them. I am an old soldier, but never have I seen a finer fray----"

  "A finer fray! A finer fray," gasped Pharaoh. "Why this will mean awar between Kesh and Egypt. And then? Did the Council order Rames to beexecuted, as you must admit he deserved, although you are his father?"

  "Not so, O Pharaoh; moreover, I admit nothing, though had he played acoward's part before all the lords of Egypt, gladly would I have slainhim with my own hand."

  "Ah!" said Pharaoh, "there speaks the soldier and the parent. Well, Iunderstand. He was affronted, was he not, by that bedizened black man?Were I in your place I should say as much. But--what happened?"

  "Your Majesty having become unconscious," explained Mermes, "her Majestythe Queen Neter-Tua, Glorious in Ra, took command of affairs accordingto her Oath of Crowning. She has sent an embassy of atonement of twothousand picked soldiers to the King of Kesh, bearing with them theembalmed body of the divine Amathel and many royal gifts."

  "That is good enough in its way," said Pharaoh. "But why two thousandmen, whereof the cost will be very great, when a score would havesufficed? It is an army, not an embassy, and when my royal brother ofKesh sees it advancing, bearing with it the ill-omened gift of his onlyson's body, he may take alarm."

  Mermes respectfully agreed that he might do so.

  "What general is in command of this embassy, as it pleases you to callit?"

  "The Count Rames, my son, is in command, your Majesty."

  Now weak as he was still, Pharaoh nearly leapt from his chair:

  "Rames! That young cut-throat who killed the Prince! Rames who is thelast of the old rightful dynasty of Kesh! Rames, a mere captain, incommand of two thousand of my veterans! Oh, I must still be mad! Whogave him the command?"

  "The Queen Neter-Tua, Star of Amen, she gave him the command, O Pharaoh.Immediately after the fray in the hall she uttered her decree and causedit to be recorded in the usual fashion."

  "Send for the Queen," said Pharaoh with a groan.

  So Tua was summoned, and presently swept in gloriously arrayed, and onseeing her father sitting up and well, ran to him and embraced him andfor a long time refused to listen to his talk of matters of State. Atlength, however, he made her sit by him still holding his hand, andasked her why in the name of Amen she had sent that handsome youngfirebrand, Rames, in command of the expedition to Kesh. Then sheanswered very sweetly that she would tell him. And tell him she did, atsuch length that before she had finished, Pharaoh, whose strength as yetwas small, had fallen into a doze.

  "Now, you understand," she said as he woke up with a start. "Theresponsibility was thrust upon me, and I had to act as I thought best.To have slain this young Rames would have been impossible, for allhearts were with him."

  "But surely, Daughter, you might have got him out of the way."

  "My father, that is what I have done. I have sent him to Napata, whichis very much out of the way--many months' journey, I am told."

  "But what will happen, Tua? Either the King of Kesh will kill him andmy two thousand soldiers, or perhaps he will kill the King of Kesh as hekilled his son, and seize the throne which his own forefathers held forgenerations. Have you thought of that?"

  "Yes, my father, I thought of it, and if this last should happen throughno fault of ours, would Egypt weep, think you?"

  Now Pharaoh stared at Tua, and Tua looked back at Pharaoh and smiled.

  "I perceive, Daughter," he said slowly, "that in you are the makings ofa great queen, for within the silken scabbard of a woman's folly I seethe statesman's sword of bronze. Only run not too fast lest you shouldfall upon that sword and it should pierce you."

  Now Tua, who had heard such words before from Asti, smiled again butmade no answer.

  "You need a husband to hold you back," went on Pharaoh; "some great manwhom you can love and respect."

  "Find me such a man, my father, and I will wed him gladly," answered Tuain a sweet voice. "Only," she added, "I know not where he may be soughtnow that the divine Amathel is dead at the hand of the Count Rames, ourgeneral and ambassador to Kesh."

  So when he grew stronger Pharaoh renewed his search for a husband meetto marry the Queen of Egypt. Now, as before, suitors were not lacking,indeed, his ambassadors and councillors sent in their names by twos andthrees, but always when they were submitted to her, Tua found somethingagainst everyone of them, till at last it was said that she must bedestined for a god since no mere mortal would serve her turn. But whenthis was reported to her, Tua only answered with a smile that she wasdestined to that royal lover of whom Amen had spoken to her mother in adream; not to a god, but to the Chosen of the god, and that when she sawhim, she felt sure she would know him at once and love him much.

  After some months had gone by Pharaoh, quite weary of this play, askedthe advice of his Council. They suggested to him that he should journeythrough the great cities of Egypt, both because the change mightcompletely re-establish his divine health, and in the hope that on hertravels the Queen Neter-Tua would meet som
eone of royal blood with whomshe could fall in love. For by now it was evident to all of them thatunless she did fall in love, she would not marry.

  So that very night Pharaoh asked his daughter if she would undertakesuch a journey.

  She answered that nothing would please her better, as she wearied ofThebes, and desired to see the other great cities of the land, to makeherself known to those who dwell in them, and in each to be proclaimedas its future ruler. Also she wished to look upon the ocean whereof shehad heard that it was so big that all the waters of the Nile flowinginto it day and night made no difference to its volume.

  Thus then began that pilgrimage which afterwards Tua recorded in thehistory of her reign on the walls of the wonderful temples that shebuilt. Her own wish was that they should sail south to the frontiers ofEgypt, since there she hoped that she might hear some tidings of Ramesand his expedition, whereof latterly no certain word had come. Thisproject, however, was over-ruled because in the south there wereno great towns, also the inhabitants of the bordering desert wereturbulent, and might choose that moment to attack.

  So in the end they went down and not up the Nile, tarrying for a whileat every great city, and especially at Atbu, the holy place where thehead of Osiris is buried, and tens of thousands of the great men ofEgypt have their tombs. Here Tua was crowned afresh in the very shrineof Osiris amidst the rejoicings of the people.

  Then they sailed away to On, the City of the Sun, and thence to makeofferings at the Great Pyramids which were built by some of the earlykings who had ruled Egypt, to serve them as their tombs.

  Neter-Tua entered the Pyramids to look upon the bodies of these Pharaohswho had been dead for thousands of years, and whose deeds were allforgotten, though her father would not accompany her there because theways were so steep that he did not dare to tread them. Afterwards, withAsti and a small guard of the Arab chiefs of the desert, she mounted adromedary and rode round them in the moonlight, hoping that she wouldmeet the ghosts of those kings, and that they would talk with her as theghost of her mother had done. But she saw no ghosts, nor would Asti tryto summon them from their sleep, although Tua prayed her to do so.

  "Leave them alone," said Asti, as they paused in the shadow of thegreatest of the pyramids and stared at its shining face engraved frombase to summit with many a mystic writing.

  "Leave them alone lest they should be angry as Amen was, and tell yourMajesty things which you do not wish to hear. Contemplate their mightyworks, such as no monarch can build to-day, and suffer them to resttherein undisturbed by weaker folk."

  "Do you call these mighty works?" asked Tua contemptuously, for she wasangry because Asti would not try to raise the dead. "What are they afterall, but so many stones put together by the labour of men to satisfytheir own vanity? And of those who built them what story remains? Thereis none at all save some vain legends. Now if _I_ live I will rear agreater monument, for history shall tell of me till time be dead."

  "Perhaps, Neter-Tua, if you live and the gods will it, though formy part I think that these old stones will survive the story of mostdeeds."