Page:Orczy--the gates of Kamt.djvu/293

 was triumphant, and I, helpless, left once more, after a brief ray of hope, in an uncertainty which was now still harder to bear. "Before thou goest, Neit-akrit," said Ur-tasen, "I would have thee swear to me that neither by look nor word wilt thou betray to any one the plans of the high priest of Ra."

But Neit-akrit was silent; and Ur-tasen added quietly: "Nay! perhaps thou needest not swear. An oath can so easily be broken, in the spirit if not in the letter. I think I can trust thee best when I say that, shouldst thou before dawn anon think of warning the stranger of what awaits him in the nook beside the sacred cataract, and his footsteps should not in consequence lead him thither, then, of course, no obstacle will stand between the beloved of the gods and Maat-kha, his bride. The priests of Isis, after the first hour of dawn, will take the body of the holy Pharaoh back into his palace, and swear that he died of sickness in his bed. Then the happy union can be consummated, and thou, Neit-akrit, the defrauded Princess of Kamt, canst in thy unselfish joy watch the happiness of Maat-kha, the murderess, in the arms of her beloved, the son of Ra, loved of all the gods: and I can swear to thee that he shall not know that the wife of his bosom is the murderess of her first-born until she hath borne him a son, the heir to all her vices. Farewell, Neit-akrit, future queen of Kamt!"

Oh! he was a cunning brute, was old Ur-tasen: again he had put his finger upon the most vulnerable spot in any female armour. Death to the loved one or his happiness in another woman's arms: the great problem which has torn passionate women's hearts in every country and beneath every clime, since the world began.