Night after night, he fell asleep upon his ponderings, but they
returned to him with fresh food for thought after every sunset. The
reconstruction of something worshipful was more fascinating than had
been the demolition of the gods. It took many a night's meditation for
the evolution of any fixed idea from the bewildering convection of
thought. And at last he had concluded only that there was one
thing--Power--Purpose, which was greater than man.
This was not a great achievement. He had simply permitted the
universal, indefinable claim to piety, inherent in every reasoning
thing, to assert itself.
Great and sincere and beyond expression was his amazement and his joy
when a taskmaster called him from the canal-bed one day and informed
him that he was free.
The order was shown him at his request, and the name of the Princess
Ta-user as his champion filled him with puzzlement. State news
filtered slowly down even to the level he had occupied for the past
eight months. He had heard that it was Masanath whom the Hathors had
destined to wear the crown of queen to Rameses; the convicts had known
of the supremacy of Har-hat. He could not understand how it came that
Ta-user, lately discarded, could prevail upon the crown prince to
persuade Meneptah, or could herself persuade the king to the overthrow
of the fan-bearer's wishes in the matter.
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