Those who were loyal among them to Pharaoh's House, and those who feared turmoil, began to work their way backwards, and slipped by twos and threes out of the great open doors, till Tua had no friend left in all that hall.

But ever as they went, others of the turbulent and the rebellious who had been concerned in the slaughter of Pharaoh's guard, took their place, pouring in from the mob without.
Wild desert-dwellers of the Bedouin tribes, who for thousands of years had been the bitter enemies of Egypt; descendants of the Hyksos, whose forefathers had ruled the land for a dozen generations, and at last been driven out; those Hyksos whose blood ran in Abi's veins, and who looked to him to lift them up again; evil-doers who had sought shelter in his regiments; hook-nosed Semites from the Lebanon; black, barbarian savages from the shores of Punt--with such as these was that hall filled.
Abi was the hope of every one of them; to him they looked for the spoils of Egypt, and before them on Abi's throne they saw a woman who stood between them and their ends, who in her ancient pride dared to demand that he, her husband, should do homage to her, and who to-morrow, if she conquered, would give them to the sword.
"Tear her to pieces!" they screamed, "the bastard whom childless Pharaoh palmed off upon the land! She is a sorceress who keeps fat on air--an evil spirit.

Away with her! Or if you fear, then let us come!" At length they had roared themselves hoarse; at length they grew still.
Then Abi, who all this while had stood there hesitating, and now and again turning to hearken to Kaku who whispered in his ear, looked up at Tua and spoke.
"You see and you hear, Queen," he said.

"My people mistrust you, and they are a rough people, I cannot hold them back for long.

If once they get at you, very soon that sweet body of yours will be in more fragments than was Osiris after Set had handled him." Now Tua, who hitherto had sat still and indifferent, like one who takes no heed, seemed to awake, and answered: "A bad example, Prince, for Osiris rose again, did he not ?" Then she leaned back and once more was silent.
"Do you still desire that I should do homage to you, Queen, I, your husband ?" he asked presently.
"Why not ?" she replied.