"Haggard, H Rider- Morning Star" - читать интересную книгу автора (Haggard H. Rider)

At any rate, so believing, in the hope that it may interest readers of
to-day, I have ventured to discover and present one such romance,
whereof the motive, we may be sure, is more ancient, by far, than the
old Egyptians, namely, the triumph of true love over great
difficulties and dangers. It is pleasant to dream that the gods are on
the side of such lovers, and deign for their sakes to work the
miracles in which for thousands of years mankind has believed,
although the scientist tells us that they do not happen.

How large a part marvel and magic of the most terrible and exalted
kind played in the life of Old Egypt and of the nations with which she
fought and traded, we need go no further than the Book of Exodus to
learn. Also all her history is full of it, since among the Egyptians
it was an article of faith that the Divinity, which they worshipped
under so many names and symbols, made use of such mysterious means to
influence or direct the affairs of men and bring about the
accomplishment of Its decrees.

H. R. H.




Morning Star

by H. Rider Haggard




CHAPTER I

THE PLOT OF ABI

It was evening in Egypt, thousands of years ago, when the Prince Abi,
governor of Memphis and of great territories in the Delta, made fast
his ship of state to a quay beneath the outermost walls of the mighty
city of Uast or Thebes, which we moderns know as Luxor and Karnac on
the Nile. Abi, a large man, very dark of skin, for his mother was one
of the hated Hyksos barbarians who once had usurped the throne of
Egypt, sat upon the deck of his ship and stared at the setting sun
which for a few moments seemed to rest, a round ball of fire, upon the
bare and rugged mountains, that ring round the Tombs of the Kings.

He was angry, as the slave-women, who stood on either side fanning
him, could see well enough by the scowl on his coarse face and the
fire in his large black eyes. Presently they felt it also, for one of
them, staring at the temples and palaces of the wonderful city made
glorious by the light of the setting sun, that city of which she had