Vastly different, however, was his favoritism from the favoritism of
Har-hat. During the wise administration of the young adviser Egypt
recovered something of her former glory, lost in the dreadful
plague-ridden days preceding the Exodus. The army was reorganized
first, for Ta-user's party began to make demonstrations the hour that
the news of the Red Sea disaster reached the Hak-heb. All public
building and national extravagance were halted, and the surplus
treasure was expended in restocking the fields and granaries and
restoring commerce. Within five years after the Exodus the great check
Egypt had met in her nineteenth dynasty was not greatly apparent.
So the land recovered from the plagues, but its ruler never. The death
of Rameses lay like a heavy sin and torturing remorse on his
conscience. He wept till the feeble eyes lost their sight, but not
their susceptibility to tears. At last, succumbing to melancholia, he
became a child, for whom Hotep reigned and for whom the queen cared
with touching devotion.
The story of Seti is history. It is needless to say that his rough
usage at the hands of Ta-user awakened him, but it was long before he
found courage to return to Io, the sweetheart of his childhood.
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