soft folds they saw once again the gleam of gold.
standing on either side of the coffin, Nicholas and Royan peeled back
the linen mesh. It crackled softly and but as it came tore like tissue
paper und their fingers, away they both involuntarily gasped with
wonder as the as only fraction ask of Pharaoh was revealed. It death-
man, but it was a perfect ally larger than the head of a it. Pharaoh's
features had been pre, image in every deta ty in this extraordinary work
of art.
served for all eterni ed in silent wonder into the obsidian and rock
They star crystal eyes of Pharaoh, and Pharaoh gazed back at them sadly,
almost accusingly it was a long time before either of them could summon
the head thecourag6 and presumption to lift it away from did so, they
found further of the mummy. But when the
evidence that in antiquity the body of the king and that of his general,
Tanus, had been changed. The mummy that lay before them was obviously
too large for the coffin that contained it. It had been partially
unwrapped, and cramped into the interior.
'A royal mummy would have had hundreds of charrns and amulets placed
beneath the wrappings,' Royan whispered . 'This is the plainly dressed
corpse of a nobleman and not that of the king.'
Nicholas gently lifted the inner layer of bandage away from the dead
head and a thick coil- of braided hair was revealed.
'The portraits of Pharaoh Mamose on the walls of the arcade show that
his head hair was dyed with henna,' Nicholas murmured. 'Look at this.'
The braid was the colour of the winter grasses of the African savannah,
gold and silver.
'There can be no doubt now. This is the body of Tanus. The friend of
Taita and the lover of the queen.'
'Yes,' Royan agreed, her eyes soft with tears. 'He is the true father of
Lostris's son, who became in his time the Pharaoh Tamose and the
forefather of a great line of kings.
So this is the man whose blood runs through the history of ancient
Egypt.'
'In his way he was as great as any Pharaoh,' Nicholas said quietly.
t was Royan who roused herself first. 'The river!'
aT
she cried, with a razor edge to her voice. 'We cannot let all this go
again, when the river rises.'
'Neither can we hope to save all of it. There is too much. A great mass
of treasure. Our time here has almost run out, so we must pick out the
most beautiful and important pieces and pack them into the crates. Lord
alo'the knows if we even have time for that.'
So they worked in a frenzy in the short time that was left to them. They
could not even think about saving the eapons, the statues and the
murals, the furniture and the banqueting. utensils and the wardrobes of
costumes. The great golden chariot must stand where it had stood for
four thousand years, They removed the golden death'mask from over
Tanus's head, but they left his mummy in the innermost of the golden
coffins. Then Nicholas sent for Mai Metemma. The old abbot came with
twenty of his monks to receive the lie of the ancient saint that he had
