The Prince of Egypt:The Long Lost Brother

Chapter :8 The search for Miriam

The next morning the guards stood waiting for Frollo to arrive. Frollo's carriage stops in front of them and Frollo steps out of the carriage. "Attention!" The guards stand tall waiting for their Orders. "Good morning, sir." Phoebus says addressing Frollo. Frollo gives a tired groan as he rubs his eyes. "Are you feeling all right?" Phoebus asks.

"I had a little trouble with the fireplace." "I see. Your orders, sir?" "Find the gypsy girl." Over the next few days Frollo integrated every gypsy he could find. He finds a group of gypsies in the bakers home and interrogates them. Ten pieces of silver for the gypsy Miriam. When they refuse to give her up he has them taken to the Palace of Justice.

He then finds a gypsy Caravan outside the city and has his men push it into the river with the people still inside. Then he has them dragged out of the water and lined up in front of him. Twenty pieces of silver for the gypsy, Miriam.

When they don't say anything, he gets angry. "Take them away!" Phoebus was getting tired of this. Frollo had clearly lost his mind and he was using innocent people to get what he wanted. Later on that day Frollo had stopped at the millers home. "Poor miller." One women said. "He's never harmed anyone!" Another said outraged. "Frollo's gone mad." A man said.

Miriam and Esmeralda stood in the crowd watching and waiting for Frollo to come out. "Its all my fault," Esmeralda said in a sad whisper to Miriam. "I should have made sure I had my necklace with me when we left." "it's not your fault Esme, don't blame yourself for this."

Meanwhile inside the house Frollo stood, Interrogating the miller. "We found this gypsy talisman on your property." "Have you been harbouring gypsies?" Frollo asked. "Our home is always open to the weary traveller." "Have mercy, my lord." The miller begged.

"I am placing you and your family under house arrest until I get to the bottom of this." "If what you say is true and you are innocent, then you have nothing to fear." He said turning his back to the door and walking back outside. But we are innocent.

 "I assure you; we know nothing of these gypsies." The miller pleaded, but his pleas fell on deaf ears as Frollo bared the door shut with a spear.

"Burn it." He said to Phoebus. What? Said Phoebus shocked and appalled at what he had just been asked to do. "Until it smolders." "These people are traitors and must be made examples of." "With all due respect, sir, I was not trained to murder the innocent." Said Phoebus. "But you were trained to follow orders." Said Frollo glaring down at him.

Instead of doing as he was told Phoebus dowsed the torch in a nearby barrel of water. "Insolent coward." Frollo took a torch from one of other soldiers and held it underneath the Windmill. Suddenly the windmill caught on fire and the fire spread to rest of the home.

Phoebus ducked out of the way as a piece of burning wood fell towards him. He suddenly heard the cry of a women coming from inside the burning cottage and dove into the fiery building to rescue the trapped family. Esmeralda and Miriam watched and waited with bated breath for Phoebes to remerge.

Suddenly Phoebus ran out from the flames the miller and his wife and children right behind him. He handed the millers wife her baby when suddenly he was hit in the back of the head. The miller and his wife ran away as Frollo approached on his horse.

"The sentence for insubordination is death." "Such a pity." "You threw away a promising career." Phoebus glared up at him. "Consider it my highest honour, sir." One of the soldiers raised his sword ready to behead Phoebus. But before he could succeed Esmeralda flung a small rock at Frollo's horse.

The horse reared up in alarm throwing Frollo off. Phoebus using this as a distraction he punched both of the guards in the face before climbing onto Frollo's horse to escape. "Get him, and don't hit my horse!"

Phoebus rode across a bridge as arrows showered down around him. Suddenly one struck him of the arrows struck him causing him to fall off the horse and over the bridge into the water below. The guards fired more arrows over the side but Frollo ordered them to stop.

"Don't waste your arrows." "Let the traitor rot in his watery grave." "Find the girl." "If you have to burn the city to the ground, so be it." Meanwhile hidden beneath the bridge was Miriam and Esmeralda. Esmeralda franticly wadded into the water to find the man she had fallen in love with.

Suddenly she remerged to the surface with an unconscious Phoebus in her arms, his armor having sunk to the bottom of the river. Miriam helped her carry the unconscious soldier. "Where can we go?" Esmeralda asked fearfully. "I know a place." Come on let's go!

Meanwhile Frollo stood with his soldiers not far from the cathedral. "Sir, we've looked everywhere and still no sign of the gypsy girl." "I had the entire cathedral surrounded." "Guards at every door." "There was no way she could have escaped." Unless...Frollo looked up at the church anger burning in his eyes.

Meanwhile Quasimodo paced back and forth nervously. Where was she were was Miriam? It wasn't safe out there with his master looking for her. He soon however heard a very familiar voice. "Quasi?" Quasimodo? Miriam? He climbed down the ladder to see his sister standing in the doorway.

Miriam you're all right!" "I knew you'd come back!" He said hugging his sister cheerfully. "You've done so much for me already, little brother, but I must ask your help one more time." "Yes, anything." He walked forward and stopped in his tracks when he saw the familiar face of captain Phoebus being carried into the room.

"This is Phoebus, he's wounded, and a fugitive like me." Said Miriam. "He can't go on much longer." I knew he'd be safe here. Then one of the gypsies carrying him, who he recognized as La Esmeralda from the festival pleaded with him.

"Please, can you hide him?" The look of worry in her eyes saddened him. This way, he motioned them to follow as they climbed into the loft. Esmeralda laid the wounded soldier on what Miriam had to Assume was where her brother usually slept.

Phoebus opened his weak eyes looking at Esmeralda. Esmeralda, he said weakly. Shh, shh, shh. "You'll hide here until you're strong enough to move." She opens a flask filled with wine. "Great. I could use a drink." She pours the wine onto his wounds and he winces in pain.

"Ah, yes! Hmmm! Feels like a 1470 burgundy." "Not a good year." "That family owes you their lives." "You're either the single bravest soldier I've ever seen or the craziest." She said smiling down at him. "Ex-soldier, remember?" He says with a wince. Why is it, whenever we meet, I end up bleeding?

"You're lucky." "That arrow almost pierced your heart." "I'm not so sure it didn't." Phoebus said placing his hand on hers. She leaned closer to him and they kissed. Quasimodo smiled at this. That man was lucky that he had someone who loved him.

Would anyone ever love him the way the Roma women loved the soldier. He didn't know. The roma woman smiled at the man as he fell asleep. Suddenly he was pulled out of his thoughts by the sound of the Romani woman's goat. He and Miriam ran to window and saw something horrible. Frollo Was coming!