They did not believe that anything would happen, no, not even the priests believed it who here at Memphis, the city of Ptah, thought little of Amen, the god of Thebes.

They thought that this piteous prayer was but a last cry of dying faith wrung from a proud and fallen woman in her wretchedness.
And yet, and yet they stared, for she had spoken with a strange certainty like one who knew the god, and was she not named Star of Amen, and were there not wondrous tales as to her birth, and had not a lotus-bloom seemed to turn to gold and jewels in the hand of this young, anointed Queen who bore the Cross of Life upon her breast?
No, nothing would happen, but still they stared.
It was a very strange sunset.

For days the heat had been great, but now it was fearful, also a marvellous stillness reigned in heaven and earth.
Nothing seemed to stir in all the city, no dog barked, no child cried, no leaf quivered upon the tall palms; it might have been a city of the dead.
Dense clouds arose upon the sky, and moved, though no wind blew.

Where the sun's rays touched them they were gold and red and purple, but above these of an inky blackness.

They took strange shapes those clouds, and marshalled themselves like a host gathering for battle.