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

"No, Prince," answered the captain bluntly; "but I think he fears lest
you should kill him and declare yourself Pharaoh as next in blood."

"Ah!" said Abi, "as next of blood. Then I suppose that there are still
no children at the Court?"

"None, O Prince. I saw Ahura, the royal wife, the Lady of the Two
Lands, that fairest of women, and other lesser wives and beautiful
slave girls without number, but never a one of them had an infant on
her breast or at her knee. Pharaoh remains childless."

"Ah!" said Abi again. Then he walked forward out of the pavilion
whereof the curtains were drawn back, and stood a while upon the prow
of the vessel.

By now night had fallen, and the great moon, rising from the earth as
it were, poured her flood of silver light over the desert, the
mountains, the limitless city of Thebes, and the wide rippling bosom
of the Nile. The pylons and obelisks, glittering with copper and with
gold, towered to the tender sky. In the window places of palaces and
of ten thousand homes lamps shone like stars. From gardens, streets
and the courts of temples floated the faint sound of singing and of
music, while on the great embattled walls the watchmen called the hour
from post to post.

It was a wondrous scene, and the heart of Abi swelled as he gazed upon
it. What wealth lay yonder, and what power. There was the glorious
house of his brother, Pharaoh, the god in human form who for all his
godship had never a child to follow after him when he ascended to
Osiris, as he who was sickly probably must do before so very long.

Yes, but before then a miracle might happen; in this way or in that a
successor to the throne might be found and acknowledged, for were not
Pharaoh and his House beloved by all the priests of Amen, and by the
people, and was not he, Abi, feared and disliked because he was
fierce, and the hated savage blood flowed in his veins? Oh! what evil
god had put it in his father's heart to give him a princess of the
Hyksos for a mother, the Hyksos, whom the Egyptians loathed, when he
had the fairest women of the world from whom to choose? Well, it was
done and could not be undone, though because of it he might lose his
heritage of the greatest throne in all the earth. Also was it not to
this fierce Hyksos blood that he owed his strength and vigour?

Why should he wait? Why should he not set his fortune on a cast? He
had three hundred soldiers with him, picked men and brave, children of
the sea and the desert, sworn to his House and interests. It was a
time of festival, those gates were ill-guarded. Why should he not
force them at the dead of night, make his way to the palace, cause
Pharaoh to be gathered to his fathers, and at the dawn discover
himself seated upon Pharaoh's throne? At the thought of it Abi's heart