The faint light of the dawning fell upon the golden bed of
Pharaoh's Queen, it gleamed upon the golden armour that was piled by the
bed, and on the polished surface of the great black bow. It shone upon
the face of her who lay in the bed.
Then he remembered. Surely he had slept with the Golden Helen, who was
his bride, and surely he had dreamed an evil dream, a dream of a snake
that wore the face of Pharaoh's Queen. Yea, there lay the Golden Helen,
won at last--the Golden Helen now made a wife to him. Now he mocked his
own fears, and now he bent to wake her with a kiss. Faintly the new-born
light crept and gathered on her face; ah! how beautiful she was in
sleep. Nay, what was this? Whose face was this beneath his own? Not so
had Helen looked in the shrine of her temple, when he tore the web. Not
so had Helen seemed yonder in the pillared hall when she stood in the
moonlit space--not so had she seemed when he sware the great oath to
love her, and her alone. Whose beauty was it then that now he saw? By
the Immortal Gods, it was the beauty of Meriamun; it was the glory of
the Pharaoh's Queen!
He stared upon her lovely sleeping face, while terror shook his soul.
How could this be? What then had he done?
Then light broke upon him. He looked around the chamber--there on the
walls were the graven images of the Gods of Khem, there above the bed
the names of Meneptah and Meriamun were written side by side in the
sacred signs of Khem.
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