He was affronted, was he not, by that bedizened black man?
Were I in your place I should say as much.

But--what happened ?" "Your Majesty having become unconscious," explained Mermes, "her Majesty the Queen Neter-Tua, Glorious in Ra, took command of affairs according to her Oath of Crowning.

She has sent an embassy of atonement of two thousand picked soldiers to the King of Kesh, bearing with them the embalmed body of the divine Amathel and many royal gifts." "That is good enough in its way," said Pharaoh.

"But why two thousand men, whereof the cost will be very great, when a score would have sufficed?
It is an army, not an embassy, and when my royal brother of Kesh sees it advancing, bearing with it the ill-omened gift of his only son's body, he may take alarm." Mermes respectfully agreed that he might do so.
"What general is in command of this embassy, as it pleases you to call it ?" "The Count Rames, my son, is in command, your Majesty." Now weak as he was still, Pharaoh nearly leapt from his chair: "Rames! That young cut-throat who killed the Prince! Rames who is the last of the old rightful dynasty of Kesh! Rames, a mere captain, in command of two thousand of my veterans! Oh, I must still be mad! Who gave him the command ?" "The Queen Neter-Tua, Star of Amen, she gave him the command, O Pharaoh.
Immediately after the fray in the hall she uttered her decree and caused it to be recorded in the usual fashion." "Send for the Queen," said Pharaoh with a groan.
So Tua was summoned, and presently swept in gloriously arrayed, and on seeing her father sitting up and well, ran to him and embraced him and for a long time refused to listen to his talk of matters of State.

At length, however, he made her sit by him still holding his hand, and asked her why in the name of Amen she had sent that handsome young firebrand, Rames, in command of the expedition to Kesh.