Waterbury evening Democrat., 1889-10-22

ever to ever shall it be- And woe to him who failethi
 *
 Even as write, beyond the fertile fields, the Nile is running red as though with l blood. Bright before me beats the light | upon the far Arabian hills, and bright 1t falls upon the piles of Abouthis At Ab- | outhis. within the temples, still do the priests make prison, but mo they know no moro; still the sacrifice is offered, and the l stony roofs echo down the prayers of those | who pray. Still from here, from this lone cell within my prison tower, I, the Word of Shame, watch thy fluttering banners, o | Abouthis, Haunting from thy pylon walls and hear the chants as the long procession | winds from sanctuary to sanctuary.
 l O Abouthis, lost Abouthisl my heart goes out toward theel For the day comes when the desert sands shall fill thy holy places! Thy gods are doomed, O Abouthisi New faiths shall make mock of all thy holies, | and centurion shall call unto centurion across thy fortress walls. I weep-I weep tears of blood; for mine is the weakness l that brought about these evils and mine forever is their shame.
 Behold it is written hereafter:
 1 Here in Abouthis was I born, 1, Har- machis, and my father, tho justified in Osiris, was High Priest of the Temple of l was born also Cleopatra, the Queen of Egypt. In those fields passed my youth watching the baser people at their labors, and going in and out at will among the great | courts of the temples. Of my mother I | knew naught, for she died when yet hung | at the breast. But ere she died, so the old wife, Atoua, told 10 me, she took from 8 coffer of ivory an ur9us of pure gold and laid it on my brow. And those who saw her I d htQ hi hnISo hot c1o l lte traught of the divinity, and that in her mad ness she foreshadowed that the day of the Macedonian Lagid9 was ended for Ptolemy Athletes the Piper) then wore the double crown-and that Egypt's scepter should once again pass to the hand of one of Egypt's true and royal race. But when my father, the High Priest Amenemhat, who even then was full of years, for was his only child and tho child of his age (she who was his wife before my mother having been, for what crime know not, cursed by Selkhet with the curse of barrenness) I say when my father ca me in and saw what the dying woman had done, he lifted up his hand toward the vault of heaven and adored | the Invisible, because of the sign that had been sent. And even as he adored, behold the Hathors filled my dying mother with the Spirit of Prophecy and she rose in strength from the couch and thrice prostratcd her. self before the cradle where 1 lay asleep, the Royal asp upon my brow, and cried aloud:
 ''Hail to thee, fruit of my wombl Hail to thee, Royal childi Hail to thee, Pharaoh that shalt Hel Hail to thee, God that shalt purge the land, Divine seed of N ekt-neb, the Osirian. KRep thou pure, and thou shalt rule and deliver Egypt and not be broken. But if in the hour of trial thou dost fail, then may the curse of all the Gods of Egypt rest upon thee, and the curse of thy Royal forefathers, the justified, who ruled the land before thee, even from tho age of Horus; then in life mayest thou be wretch ed, and after death may Osiris refuse thee, and the judges of Amenti give judgment against thee, and Set and Sekhet torment thee, even until such time as thy sin is purged, and the Gods of Egypt, called by strange names, once moro arc wershiped in the temples of Egypt, and the staff of the Oppressor is broken, and the footsteps of tho foreigner arc swept clean, and the thing is accomplished as thou in thy weak ness shalt cause it to be done."
 And when she had spoken thus, the Spirit of Prophecy went out of her, and she fell dead across the cradle where slept, so that l awoke with a cry.
 But my father, Amenemhat, the High Priest, trembled, and was very fearful both
 because of the words which had been said !
 mouth of my mother, and because what had
 been uttered was treason against Ptolemy. 1 For he knew that if the matter should come
 to the ears of Ptolemy, Pharaoh would send
 his guards to destroy the life of tho child
 of whom such things were prophesied. Therefore, my father shut the doors, and
 caused all those who wero there to swear
 upon the holy symbol of his office, and by the
 name of the Divine Three, and by the soul
 of her who lay dead upon tho stones beside
 them, that naught of what they had seen
 and heard should pass their lips.
 | But among the company was the old wife,
 Atoua, who had been the nurse of my moth
 CT, and loved her well; and in these days,
 though know not how it hath been in the
 past, nor howit shall be in the future, there
 is no oath that can bind woman's tongue.
 And so it came about that by and by, when l the matter had become homely in her mind,
 and her fear had fallen from her, she spoke
 of the prophecy to her daughter, who nursed | me at the breast now that my mother was
 dead. This she did as they walked together in the desert carrying food to the husband
 of the daughter, who was sculptor, and 7 shaped the pictures of the holy gods in the
 tombs that are fashioned in the rock-tell-
 ing the daughter, my nurse, how great
 should be her care and love toward the child that one day should be Pharaoh and drive 7 the Ptolemies from Egypt. But tho daugh- } ter, my nurse, was so filled with wonder at what she heard that she could not keep the tale locked within her breast, and in the night she awol1e her husband, and, in turn, ) whispered of it to him, and thereby con- passed her own destruction, and the de- ) struction of her child, my foster-brother. For the man told his friend, and the friend was spy of Ptolemy's, and thus the tale ) came to Pharaoh's ears. Now, Pharaoh was ) much troubled thereat, for though when he , was full of wine he would make a mock ot ) the Gods of the Egyptians. and swear that } the Roman Senate was the only God to , whom he bowed the knee, yet in his heart 7 was he terribly afraid, as I have learned ) from one who was his physician; for when 7 he was alone at night he would scream and