"The sun dies, but there rises the full moon to give us light, and what have we to fear with swords at our sides and her Highness Userti's mail beneath our robes?
Oh! Ana, I am weary of men with their cruelties and shouts and strugglings, and I find this wilderness a place of rest, for in it I seem to draw nearer to my own soul and the Heaven whence it came, or so I hope." "Your Highness is fortunate to have a soul to which he cares to draw near; it is not so with all of us;" I answered laughing, for I sought to change the current of his thoughts by provoking argument of a sort that he loved.
Just then, however, the horses, which were not of the best, came to a halt on a slope of heavy sand.

Nor would Seti allow the driver to flog them, but commanded him to let them rest a space.

While they did so we descended from the chariot and walked up the desert rise, he leaning on my arm.

As we reached its crest we heard sobs and a soft voice speaking on the further side.

Who it was that spoke and sobbed we could not see, because of a line of tamarisk shrubs which once had been a fence.
"More cruelty, or at least more sorrow," whispered Seti.