Page:Anthology of Modern Slavonic Literature in Prose and Verse by Paul Selver.djvu/105

Rh gleams upon thy finger, the massive doors of the cloister will open, and, filled with yearning and Jove, she will return unto thee"?

Hearing these words, Horus asked naught else; he became silent and hid his eyes with his hand.

Suddenly he gave a cry of pain.

"What ailS thee, O Horus?"

"A bee bas stung my foot," replied the prince, growing pale.

By the greenish lustre of the moon, the courtier gazed at his foot.

"Render thanks unto Osiris," he said, "that it is not a spider, whose venom at this hour is wont to be fatal."

O, how vain are human hopes, before the unrelenting decrees

At this moment a captain of the host entered, and bowing down before Horus, he quoth thus:

"The mighty Rameses, waiting until his body shall grow cold, has dispatched me unto thee with the command: Go unto Horus, for my hours in the world are numbered, and fulfil his desire, even as thou hast fulfilled mine. Even though he command thee to surrender Upper Egypt to the Ethiopians and to conclude a brotherly alliance with these foes, accomplish it, when thou beholdest my ring upon his finger; for through the lips of rulers speaketh immortal Osiris."