Chapter XIV…

Chapter XIV

In the month of Choeak (from the middle of September to the middle of October), the waters of the Nile were highest, and began to fall slightly. In the gardens people gathered tamarinds, dates, olives; and trees blossomed a second time.

At this juncture his holiness Rameses XII. left his sun-bright palace in Memphis, and with a grand suite on some tens of stately barges sailed to Thebes, to thank the gods there for the bounteous inundation, and also to place offerings on the tombs of his eternally living ancestors.

The most worthy ruler took farewell of his heir very graciously; but the direction of state affairs during his absence he left with Herhor.

Rameses felt this proof of want of confidence so greatly that for three days he took no food and did not leave his villa; he only wept. Later he ceased to shave, and transferred himself to Sarah's house, so as not to meet Herhor or annoy his own mother, whom he considered the cause of his failures.

On the following day Tutmosis visited him in this retreat, bringing two boats filled with musicians and dancers, and a third containing baskets of food and flowers, with pitchers of wine. But the prince commanded the musicians and dancers to depart, and taking Tutmosis to the garden, he said,--

"Of course my mother--may she live through eternity!--sent thee to separate me from the Jewess? Tell her worthiness that were Herhor to become not merely viceroy, but the son of my father, I should do that which pleases me. I know how to do it. To-day they wish to deprive me of Sarah, and to-morrow they would take my power from me; I will show them that I shall not renounce anything."

The prince was irritated. Tutmosis shrugged his shoulders, and remarked finally,--

"As a whirlwind sweeps a bird into a desert, so does anger cast a man on the shores of injustice. How canst thou wonder if the priests are displeased because the heir to the throne has connected his life with a woman of another country and a strange religion? Sarah does not please them, especially since thou hast her alone. Hadst thou a number of various women, like all noble youths, they would not mind the Jewess. But have they done her harm? No. On the contrary, even some priest defended her against a raging crowd which it pleased thee to liberate from imprisonment."

"But my mother?"

Tutmosis laughed.

"Thy worthy mother loves thee as her own eyes and heart. Of course Sarah does not please her, either, but dost thou know what her worthiness said once to me? This,--that I should entice Sarah from thee. What a jest on her part! To this I answered with a second jest: 'Rameses has given me a brace of hunting dogs and two Syrian horses because he has grown tired of them; perhaps some day he will give me his mistress too, of course I shall have to take her with other things.'"

"Do not think of it. I would not give Sarah to any man, were it only for this, because of her my father has not appointed me viceroy."

Tutmosis shook his head.

"Thou art greatly mistaken," answered he, "so much mistaken that I am terrified. Dost thou not really understand the causes of the disfavor? Every enlightened Egyptian knows them."

"I know nothing."

"So much the worse," said the anxious Tutmosis. "Thou dost not know, then, that warriors, since the manœuvres, especially Greek warriors, drink thy health in every dramshop."

"They got money to do so."

"True; but not to cry out, with all the voice that is in them, that when thou shalt succeed to his holiness--may he live through eternity!--thou wilt begin a great war, after which there will be changes in Egypt."

"What changes? And who is the man who during the life of the pharaoh may dare to speak of the plans of his successor?"

Now the prince grew gloomy.

"That is one thing, but I will tell thee another," said Tutmosis, "for misfortunes, like hyenas, never come singly. Dost thou know that the lowest people sing songs about thee,--sing how thou didst free the attackers from prison, and what is worse, they repeat again, that, when thou shalt succeed his holiness, rents will be abolished. It must be added that when common people speak of injustice and rents, disturbances follow; and either a foreign enemy attacks our weakened state, or Egypt is divided into as many parts as there are nomarchs. Finally, judge for thyself, is it proper that any man's name should be mentioned oftener than the pharaoh's, and that any man should stand between the people and our lord? If thou permit, I will tell how priests look on this matter."

"Of course, speak."

"Well, a very wise priest who from the summit of the temple of Amon examines celestial movements, has thought out this statement: 'The pharaoh is the sun, the heir to the throne the moon. When the moon follows the god of light from afar, we have brightness in the daytime and clearness at night. When the moon wishes to be too near the sun, it disappears itself and the nights are dark. But if the moon stands before the sun there is an eclipse, and in the world great terror--'"

"And all this babble," interrupted Rameses, "goes to the ears of his holiness. Misfortune on my head! Would that I had never been the son of a pharaoh!"

"The pharaoh, as a god upon earth, knows everything; but he is too mighty to care for the drunken shouts of soldiers or the whispers of earth-tillers. He understands that every Egyptian would die for him, and thou first of all."

"Thou hast spoken truth!" answered the anxious prince. "But in all this I see new vileness and deceit of the priests," added he, rousing himself. "It is I, then, who hide the majesty of our lord, because I free the innocent from prison, or do not let my tenant torture earth-workers with unjust tribute. But when his worthiness Herhor manages the army, appoints leaders, negotiates with foreign princes, and directs my father to spend his time in prayers--"

Tutmosis covered his ears, and, stamping, cried,--

"Be silent! be silent! every word of thine is blasphemy. His holiness alone directs the state, and whatever is done on earth proceeds from his will. Herhor is a servant of the pharaoh and does what his lord enjoins on him. If thou wilt convince thyself--oh, that my words be not ill understood--"

The prince grew so gloomy that Tutmosis broke off the conversation and took farewell of his friend at the earliest. When he sat down in his boat, which was furnished with a baldachin and curtains, he drew a deep breath and draining a large goblet of wine, thought,--

"Brr! I thank the gods for not giving me such a character as that which Rameses has. He is a most unhappy man in the happiest conditions. He might have the most beautiful women in Memphis, but he sticks to one to annoy his mother. Meanwhile it is not his mother that he annoys, but all the virtuous virgins and faithful wives who are withering from sadness that the heir to the throne, and moreover a youth of great comeliness, does not snatch from them virtue or force them to unfaithfulness. He might not only drink but even swim in the best wine; meanwhile he prefers the wretched camp beer, and bread rubbed with garlic. Whence came these low inclinations? I cannot imagine. Or was it that the worthy Nikotris in her critical period looked at workmen while they were eating?

"He might do nothing from daylight till darkness. If he wished, the most famous lords, with their wives, sisters, and daughters, would serve food to him. He not only stretches forth his own hands to take food, but, to the torment of our noble youths, he washes himself, dresses himself, and his barber spends whole days in snaring birds and thus wastes his abilities.

"O Rameses, Rameses!" sighed the exquisite. "Is it possible that fashion should be developed in the time of such a prince? We wear the same aprons from one year to another, and we retain wigs, only thanks to court dignitaries, for Rameses will not wear any wig. This is a great offence to the whole order of nobles. And all brought about by cursed politics, brr! Oh, how happy I am that I need not divine what they are thinking of in Tyre or Nineveh; break my head over wages for the army; calculate how many people have been added to Egypt or taken from it, and what rents must be collected. It is a terrible thing to say to one's self, 'My tenant does not pay what I need and expend, but what the increase of the Nile permits.'"

Thus meditated the exquisite Tutmosis, while he strengthened his anxious soul with golden wine. Before the boat had sailed up to Memphis, heavy sleep had mastered him in such wise that his slaves had to carry their lord to the litter.

After the departure of Tutmosis, which resembled a flight, the heir fell to thinking deeply; he even felt fear.

Rameses was a sceptic. As a pupil of the priests, and a member of the highest aristocracy, he knew that when certain priests had fasted many months and mortified their senses they summoned spirits, while others spoke of spirits as a fancy, a deception. He had seen, too, that Apis, the sacred bull before which all Egypt fell prostrate, received at times heavy blows of a cane from inferior priests, who gave the beast food and brought cows to him.

He understood, finally, that his father, Rameses XII., who for the common crowd was a god who lived through eternity, and the all-commanding lord of this world, was really just such a person as others, only a little more weakly than ordinary old men, and very much limited in power by the priestly order.

The prince saw all this, and jeered in his soul and even in public at many things. But all his infidelity fell before the actual truth,--that no one was permitted to trifle with the titles of the pharaoh.

Rameses knew the history of his country, and he remembered that in Egypt many things were forgiven the mighty. A great lord might ruin a canal, kill a man in secret, revile the gods privately, take presents from ambassadors of foreign states, but two sins were not forgiven,--the betrayal of priestly secrets, and treason to the pharaoh. A man who committed one or the other disappeared, sometimes after a year, from among his friends and servants. But where he had been put or what had been done with him, no one even dared to mention.

Rameses felt that he was on an incline of this sort from the time that the army and the people began to mention his name and speak of certain plans of his,--changes in the state, future wars. Thinking of this, the prince felt as if a nameless crowd of rebels and unfortunates were pushing him violently to the point of the highest obelisk, from which he must tumble down and be crushed into jelly.

Later on, when, after the longest life of his father possible, he became pharaoh, he would have the right and the means to accomplish many deeds of which no one in Egypt could even think without terror. But to-day he must in truth have a care, lest they declare him a traitor and a rebel against the fundamental laws of Egypt. In that state there was one visible ruler,--the pharaoh. He governed, he desired, he thought for all, and woe to the man who dared to doubt audibly the all-might of the sovereign, or mention plans of his own, or even changes in general.

Plans were made in one place alone,--in that hall where the pharaoh listened to advice from his aiding council, and expressed to it his own opinions. No changes could come save from that place. There burned the only visible lamp of political wisdom, the light of which illuminated Egypt. But touching that light, it was safer to be silent.

All these considerations flew through the prince's head with the swiftness of a whirlwind while he was sitting on the stone bench under the chestnut-tree in Sarah's garden, and looking at the landscape there around him.

The water of the Nile had fallen a little, and had begun to grow as transparent as a crystal. But the whole country looked yet like an arm of the sea thickly dotted with islands on which rose buildings, gardens, and orchards, while here and there groups of great trees served as ornament.

Around all these islands were well-sweeps, with buckets by which bronze-hued naked men with dirty breech clouts raised water from the Nile and poured it into higher reservoirs. One such place was in the prince's mind especially. That was a steep eminence on the side of which three men were working at three well-sweeps. One poured water from the river into the lowest well; another drew from the lowest and raised water two yards higher to a middle place; the third raised water from the middle to the highest place. There some people, also naked, drew water in buckets, and irrigated beds of vegetables, or watered trees from sprinkling-pots.

The movement of the sweeps going down and rising, the turn of the buckets, the gushing of the pots was so rhythmic that the men who caused it might be thought automatons. No one of them spoke to his neighbor, no man changed place or looked about him; he merely bent and rose in one single method from daylight until evening, from one month to another, and doubtless he had worked thus from childhood and would so work till death took him.

"And creatures such as these," thought the prince, as he looked at their toil, "desire me to realize their imaginings. What change in the state can they wish? Is it that he who draws from the lowest well should go to the highest, or instead of pouring from a bucket should sprinkle trees with a watering-pot?"

Anger rose to his head, and humiliation crushed him because he, the heir to the throne, thanks to the fables of creatures like those who nodded all their lives over wells of dirty water, was not now the vice-pharaoh.

At that moment he heard a low rustle among the trees, and delicate hands rested on his shoulder.

"Well, Sarah?" asked the prince, without turning his head.

"Thou art sad, my lord. Moses was not so delighted at sight of the promised land as I was at those words of thine: 'I am coming to live with thee.' But thou art a day and a night here, and I have not seen thy smile yet. Thou dost not even speak to me, but movest about in gloom, and at night thou dost not fondle me, but only sighest."

"I have trouble."

"Tell me what it is. Grief is like a treasure given to be guarded. As long as we guard it ourselves even sleep flees away, and we find relief only when we put some one else to watch for us."

Rameses embraced Sarah, and seated her on the bench at his side.

"When an earth-tiller," said he, smiling, "is unable to bring in all his crops from the field before the overflow, his wife helps him. She helps him to milk cows too, she takes out food to the field for him, she washes the man on his return from labor. Hence the belief has come that woman can lighten man's troubles."

"Dost thou not believe this, lord?"

"The cares of a prince," answered Rameses, "cannot be lightened by a woman, even by one as wise and powerful as my mother."

"In God's name, what are thy troubles? Tell me," insisted Sarah, drawing up to the shoulder of Prince Rameses. "According to our traditions, Adam left Paradise for Eve; and he was surely the greatest king in the most beautiful kingdom."

The prince became thoughtful.

"Our sages also teach," said he, "that man has often abandoned dignities for woman, but it has not been heard that any man ever achieved something great through a woman; unless he was a leader to whom a pharaoh gave his daughter, with a great dowry and high office. But a woman cannot help a man to reach a higher place or even help him out of troubles."

"This may be because she does not love as I do," whispered Sarah.

"Thy love for me is wonderful, I know that. Never hast thou asked for gifts, or favored those who do not hesitate to seek success even under the beds of princes' favorites. Thou art milder than a lamb, and as calm as a night on the Nile. Thy kisses are like perfume from the land of Punt, and thy embrace as sweet as the sleep of a wearied laborer. I have no measure for thy beauty, or words for thy attractions. Thou art a marvel among women; women's lips are rich in trouble and their love is very costly. But with all thy perfection how canst thou ease my troubles? Canst thou cause his holiness to order a great expedition to the East and name me to command it? Canst thou give me the army corps in Memphis, for which I asked, or wilt thou, in the pharaoh's name, make me governor of Lower Egypt? Or canst thou bring all subjects of his holiness to think and feel as I, his most devoted subject?"

Sarah dropped her hands on her knees, and whispered sadly, "True, I cannot do those things--I can do nothing."

"Thou canst do much. Thou canst cheer me," replied Rameses, smiling. "I know that thou hast learned to dance and sing. Take off those long robes, therefore, which become priestesses guarding fire, and array thyself in transparent muslin, as Phœnician dancers do. And so dance and fondle me as they."

Sarah seized his hands and cried with flaming eyes,--

"Hast thou to do with outcasts such as these? Tell me--let me know my wretchedness; send me then to my father, send me to our valley in the desert. Oh, that I had never seen thee in it!"

"Well, well, calm thyself," said the prince, toying with her hair. "I must of course see dancers, if not at feasts, at royal festivals, or during services in temples. But all of them together do not concern me as much as thou alone; moreover, who among them could equal thee? Thy body is like a statue of Isis, cut out of ivory, and each of those dancers has some defect. Some are too thick; others have thin legs or ugly hands; still others have false hair. Who of them is like thee? If thou wert an Egyptian, all our temples would strive to possess thee as the leader of their chorus. What do I say? Wert thou to appear now in Memphis in transparent robes, the priests would be glad if thou wouldst take part in processions."

"It is not permitted us daughters of Judah to wear immodest garments."

"Nor to dance or sing? Why didst thou learn, then?"

"Our women dance, and our virgins sing by themselves for the glory of the Lord, but not for the purpose of sowing fiery seeds of desire in men's hearts. But we sing. Wait, my lord, I will sing to thee."

She rose from the bench and went toward the house. Soon she returned followed by a young girl with black, frightened eyes, who was bearing a harp.

"Who is this maiden?" asked the prince. "But wait I have seen that look somewhere. Ah! when I was here the last time a frightened girl looked from the bushes at me."

"This is Esther, my relative and servant," answered Sarah. "She has lived with me a month now, but she fears thee, lord, so she runs away always. Perhaps she looked at thee sometime from out the bushes."

"Thou mayst go, my child," said the prince to the maiden, who seemed petrified, and when she had hidden behind the bushes, he asked,--

"Is she a Jewess too? And this guard of thy house, who looks at me as a sheep at a crocodile?"

"That is Samuel the son of Esdras; he also is a relative. I took him in place of the black man to whom thou hast given freedom. But hast thou not permitted me to choose my servants?"

"That is true. And so also the overseer of the workmen is a Jew, for he has a yellow complexion and looks with a lowliness which no Egyptian could imitate."

"That," answered Sarah, "is Ezechiel, the son of Reuben, a relative of my father. Does he not please thee, my lord? These are all thy very faithful servants."

"Does he please me," said the prince, dissatisfied, drumming with his fingers on the bench. "He is not here to please me, but to guard thy property. For that matter, these people do not concern me. Sing, Sarah."

Sarah knelt on the grass at the prince's feet, and playing a few notes as accompaniment, began,--

"Where is he who has no care? Who is he who in lying down to slumber has the right to say: This is a day that I have spent without sorrow? Where is the man who lying down for the grave, can say: My life has passed without pain, without fear, like a calm evening on the Jordan.

"But how many are there who moisten their bread with tears daily, and whose houses are filled with sighing.

"A wail is man's earliest speech on this earth, and a groan his farewell to it. Full of suffering does he come into life, full of sorrow does he go to his resting-place, and no one asks him where he would like to be.

"Where is that offspring of man who has not tasted the bitterness of being? Is it the child which death has snatched from its mother, or is it the babe whose mother's breast was drained by hunger ere the little one could place lips to it?

"Where is the man who is sure of his fate, the man who can look with unfailing eye at the morrow? Does he who toils on the field know that rain is not under his power, and that not he shows its way to the locust swarm? Does the merchant who gives his wealth to the winds, which come he knows not whence, and his life to the waves on that abyss which swallows all, and returns nothing?

"Where is the man without dread in his spirit? Is it the hunter who chases the nimble deer and on the road meets a lion which mocks at his arrows? Is it the warrior who goes forth to gain glory with toiling, and meets a forest of sharp lances and bronze swords which are thirsting for his life blood? Is it the great king who under his purple puts on heavy armor, who spies out with sleepless eye the treachery of overpowering neighbors, and seizes with his ear the rustle of the curtain lest treason overturn him in his own tent?

"For this reason men's hearts in all places and at all times are overflowing with sadness. In the desert the lion and the scorpion are his danger, in the cave lurks the dragon, among flowers the poisonous serpent. In the sunshine a greedy neighbor is thinking how to decrease his land, in the night the active thief is breaking through the door to his granary. In childhood he is incompetent, in old age stripped of strength. When full of power, he is surrounded by perils, as a whale is surrounded by abysses of water.

"Therefore, O Lord, my Creator, to Thee the tortured human soul turns itself. Thou hast brought it into a world full of ambushes, Thou hast grafted into it the terror of extinction. Thou hast barred before it all roads of peace, save the one road which leads to Thee. And as a child which cannot walk grasps its mother's skirt lest it fall, so wretched man stretches forth his hands toward Thy tenderness, and struggles out of uncertainty."

Sarah was silent; the prince fell into meditation, and then said,--

"Ye Jews are a gloomy nation. If men in Egypt believed as thy song teaches, no one would laugh on the banks of the Nile. The wealthy would hide in underground temples through terror, and the people, instead of working, would flee to caves, look out and wait for mercy which would never come to them.

"Our world is different: in it a man may have everything, but he himself must do everything. Our gods help no idleness. They come to the earth only when a hero dares a deed which is superhuman and when he exhausts every power present. Such was the case with Rameses the Great when he rushed among two thousand five hundred hostile chariots, each of which carried three warriors. Only then did Amon the eternal father reach his hand down and end the battle with victory. But if instead of fighting he had waited for the aid of your God, long ago would the Egyptians have been moving along the Nile, each of them bearing a brick and a bucket, while the vile Hittites would be masters going around with clubs and papyruses.

"Therefore, Sarah, thy charms will scatter my sorrows sooner than thy song. If I had acted as your Jewish song teaches, and waited for divine assistance, wine would have flowed away from my lips, and women would have fled from my household.

"Above all, I could not be the pharaoh's heir any more than my brothers, one of whom does not leave his room without leaning on two slaves, while the other climbs along tree trunks."

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Chapter XV

The next day Rameses sent his black men with commands to Memphis, and about midday came a great boat toward Sarah's house from the direction of the city. The boat was filled with Greek soldiers in lofty helmets and gleaming breastplates.

At command sixteen men armed with shields and short darts landed and stood in two ranks. They were ready to march to the house, when a second messenger from the prince detained them. He commanded the soldiers to remain at the shore, and summoned only their leader, Patrokles.

They halted and stood without movement, like two rows of columns covered with glittering armor. After the messenger went Patrokles in a helmet with plumes, wearing a purple tunic over which he had gilded armor ornamented on the breast with the picture of a woman's head bristling with serpents instead of hair.

The prince received the famous general at the garden gate. He did not smile as usual, did not even answer the low bow of Patrokles, but said coldly,--

"Worthiness, tell the Greek warriors that I will not review them until their lord, his holiness, appoints me leader a second time. They have lost that honor by uttering in dramshops shouts worthy of drunkards. These shouts offend me. I call attention also to this, worthiness, that the Greek regiments do not show sufficient discipline. In public places the soldiers of this corps discuss politics and a certain possible war. This looks like treason to the state. Only the pharaoh and members of his supreme council may speak of such matters. But we, soldiers and servants of our lord, whatever position we occupy, may only execute the commands of our most gracious ruler, and be silent at all times. I beg thee to communicate these considerations to my regiments, and I wish all success to thee, worthiness."

"It will be as commanded, worthiness," answered the Greek.

He turned on his heel, and standing erect moved with a rattle toward the boat. He knew about these discussions of the soldiers in the dramshops, and understood straightway that something disagreeable had happened to the heir, whom the troops worshipped. Therefore, when he had reached the handful of armed men on the bank, he assumed a very angry mien, and, waving his hands with rage, cried,--

"Valiant Greek soldiers! mangy dogs, may the leprosy consume you! If, from this time on, any Greek mentions the name of the heir to the throne in a dramshop, I will break a pitcher on his head, cram the pieces down his throat, and then drive him out of the regiment! One and another of you will herd swine for Egyptian earth-workers, and hens will lay eggs in your helmets. Such is the fate waiting for stupid soldiers who know not how to keep their tongues quiet. And now--to the left! to the rear! turn! and march to the boat, may the plague strike you! A soldier of his holiness should drink first of all to the health of the pharaoh and the prosperity of the worthy minister of war, Herhor,--may they live through eternity!"

"May they live through eternity!" repeated the soldiers.

All took their places in the boat, looking gloomy. But when near Memphis Patrokles smoothed out his wrinkled forehead and commanded them to sing the song of that priest's daughter who so loved soldiers that she put a doll in her bed and passed the whole night in the booth of the sentries. Keeping time to this song, they always marched best, and moved the oars with most nimbleness.

In the evening another boat approached Sarah's dwelling, out of which came the chief steward of the prince's property.

Rameses received this official at the garden gate also. Perhaps he did this through sternness, or perhaps not to constrain the man to enter the house of his mistress and a Jewess.

"I wished," said the heir, "to see thee and to say that among my people certain improper conversations circulate concerning decrease of rent, or something of that kind. I wish those people to know that I will not decrease rents. But should any man in spite of warnings persist in his folly and talk about rents, he will receive blows of canes."

"Perhaps it would be better if he paid a line,--an uten or a drachma, whatever is commanded, worthiness," said the chief steward.

"Yes; but the worst offender might be beaten."

"I make bold to offer a remark, worthiness," said the steward in a low tone, inclining continually, "that the earth-workers, roused by some unknown person, really did talk for a time about decrease of rent. But some days ago they ceased on a sudden."

"In that case we might withhold the blows of canes," said Rameses.

"Unless as preventive means," put in the steward.

"Would it not be too bad to spoil the canes?"

"We shall never lack articles of that sort."

"But with moderation in every case. I do not wish it to go to his holiness that I torture men without need. For rebellious conversation we must beat and take fines in money, but when there is no cause for punishment we may be magnanimous."

"I understand," answered the steward, looking into the eyes of Rameses.

"Let them cry out as much as they like if they do not whisper blasphemy."

These talks with Patrokles and the steward were reported throughout Egypt.

After the steward's departure, the prince yawned and looking around with a tired glance, he said to himself,--

"I have done all I could, but now, if I can, I will do nothing."

At that moment, from the direction of the outhouses, low groans and the sound of frequent blows reached the prince. Rameses turned his head, and saw that the overseer of the workmen, Ezechiel, son of Reuben, was beating some subordinate with a cane, pacifying him meanwhile,--

"Be quiet! be silent, low beast!"

The beaten workman, lying on the ground, closed his mouth with his hand so as not to cry.

At first the prince rushed like a panther toward the outhouses. Suddenly he halted.

"What am I to do?" whispered he. "This is Sarah's place, and the Jew is her relative."

He bit his lips, and disappeared among the trees, the more readily since the flogging was finished.

"Is this the management of the humble Jews?" thought Rameses. "Is this the way? That man looks at me as a frightened dog might, but he beats the workmen. Are the Hebrews all like him?"

And for the first time the thought was roused in the prince's soul, that under the guise of kindness Sarah, too, might conceal falsehood.

Certain changes had indeed taken place in Sarah; above all, moral changes.

From the moment when she met Rameses in the valley of the desert he had pleased her, but that feeling grew silent immediately beneath the influence of the stunning news that the shapely youth was a son of the pharaoh and heir to the throne of Egypt. When Tutmosis bargained with Gideon to take her to the prince's house, Sarah fell into a state of bewilderment.

She would not renounce Rameses for any treasure, nor at the cost of life, but one could not say that she loved him at that time. Love demands freedom and time to give forth its most beautiful blossoms; neither freedom nor time had been left to her. She made the acquaintance of the prince on a certain day; the following day they took her away almost without consulting her wishes, and bore her to that villa opposite Memphis. In a couple of days she became the prince's favorite, astonished, frightened, not understanding what had taken place with her.

Moreover, before she could make herself used to the new impressions, the Jewess was disturbed by ill-will from surrounding people; then the visit of unknown ladies; finally, that attack on the villa.

Then, because Rameses took her part and wished to rush on the rioters, she was still more terrified. She lost presence of mind at the thought that she was in the hands of a man of such power and so violent, who, if it suited him, had the right to shed blood, to slay people.

Sarah fell into despair for the moment: it seemed to her that she would go mad. She heard the terrible commands of the prince who summoned the servants to arms. But at that very moment a slight thing took place, one little word was heard which sobered Sarah, and gave a new turn to her feelings.

The prince, thinking that she was wounded, drew the bandage from her head; but when he saw the bruise, he cried,--

"That is only a blue spot! How that blue spot changes the face!"

At these words Sarah forgot pain and fear. New alarm seized her: so she had changed to such a degree that it astonished the prince, but he was only astonished.

The blue spot disappeared in a couple of days, but feelings unknown up to that time remained in Sarah's soul and increased there. She began to be jealous of the prince, and to fear that he would reject her.

And still another anxiety tortured the Jewess. She felt herself a servant, a slave in respect to Rameses. She was and wished to be his faithful servant, his devoted slave, as inseparable as his shadow, but at the same time she desired that he, at least when he fondled her, should not treat her as though he were lord and master.

She was his indeed, but he was hers also. Why does he not show, then, that he belonged to her, even in some degree? But with every word and motion he makes her understand that a certain gulf is between them. What kind of gulf? Has she not held him in her embraces? Has he not kissed her lips and bosom?

A certain day the prince came to her with a dog. He stayed only a couple of hours; but during that entire interval the dog lay at his feet in Sarah's place, and when she wished to sit there the dog growled. And the prince laughed and thrust his fingers into the hair of that unclean creature, as he had into her hair. And the dog looked into the prince's eyes just as she had,--with this difference, perhaps, that he looked with more confidence.

She could not pacify herself, and she hated the clever beast which was taking a part of the tenderness due to her, paying no attention whatever to her, and bearing itself with an intimacy towards its lord that she did not dare to claim. She would have been unable to have such an indifferent mien, or to look in another direction if the prince's hand had rested on her head.

Not long before this incident the prince mentioned dancers a second time. Then Sarah burst out angrily,--

"How did he permit himself to be familiar with those naked, shameless women? And Jehovah looking down from high heaven did not hurl His thunders at those monstrous creatures!"

It is true that Rameses told her that she was dearer than all else to him, but these words did not pacify Sarah; they only produced this effect,--that she determined not to think of aught beyond her love.

What would come on the morrow? Never mind. And when at the feet of the prince she sang that hymn about those sufferings which pursue mankind from the cradle to the grave, she described in it the state of her own soul, and her last hope, which was Jehovah.

That day Rameses was with her; hence she had enough, she had all the happiness which life could give. But just there began for Sarah the greatest bitterness.

The prince lived under one roof with her, he walked with her in the garden, and sometimes went out on the Nile in a boat with her. But he was not more accessible by the width of one hair than when he was on the other side of the river, within the limits of the pharaoh's palace.

He was with her, but his mind was in some other place, Sarah could not even divine where. He embraced her, or toyed with her hair, but he looked toward the city, at those immense many-colored pylons of the pharaoh's palace, or at some unknown object.

At times he did not even answer her questions, or he looked at her suddenly as if roused from sleep, or as if he wondered that he saw her there beside him.

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Chapter XVI

Thus seemed those moments of approach between Sarah and her princely lover, which were rare enough withal. For after he had given those commands to Patrokles and the steward, Rameses spent the greater part of the day away from the villa, generally in a boat or sailing on the Nile. He caught with a net fish which swam in thousands in the blessed river, or he went into swamps, and hidden among lofty lotus stems brought down with arrows wild birds, which circling in noisy flocks were as numerous as flies are. But even at those times ambitious thoughts did not desert him; so he turned the hunting into a kind of predicting or soothsaying. More than once, when he saw a flock of yellow geese upon the water, he drew his bow and said, "If I hit I shall be like Rameses the Great."

The arrow made a low whistle, and the stricken bird, fluttering its wings, gave out cries so painful that there was a movement in the whole swampy region. Clouds of geese, ducks, and storks rose in the air, and making a great circle above their dying comrade, dropped down to other places.

When there was silence again, the prince pushed his boat farther, with caution guiding himself by the movement of reeds or the broken calls of birds, and when in the green growth he saw a spot of clear water and a new flock, he drew his bow again, and said,--

"If I hit I shall be pharaoh; if I miss--"

This time the arrow struck the water, and bounding a number of times along its surface, disappeared among lotuses. The excited prince sent more and more arrows, killing birds or only frightening flocks of them. From the villa they knew where he was by the noisy cloud of birds which rose from time to time and circled above the boat in which he was sailing.

When toward evening he returned to the villa wearied, Sarah waited on the threshold with a bronze basin, a pitcher of light wine, and a garland of roses. The prince smiled at her, stroked her face, but looking into her eyes, which were full of tenderness, he thought,--

"Would she beat Egyptian people, like her relatives who look frightened all the time? Oh, my mother is right not to trust Jews, though Sarah may be different from others."

Once, returning unexpectedly, he saw in the space before the villa a crowd of naked children playing joyously. All were yellow, and at sight of him they vanished with cries like wild geese from a swampy meadow. Before he reached the terrace they were gone, not a trace was left.

"Who are those little things," asked he, "who rushed away from me?"

"Those are children of my servants," replied Sarah.

"Of Jews?"

"Of my brothers."

"Gods, what a numerous people!" laughed Rameses. "And who is that again?" added he, pointing to a man who looked timidly from beyond the wall.

"That is Aod, son of Barak, my relative. He wants to serve thee, lord. May I take him?"

The prince shrugged his shoulders.

"This is thy place," answered he; "take those who please thee. But if these people increase so, they will soon master Memphis."

"Thou canst not endure my brethren," whispered Sarah, as she dropped to his feet frightened.

The prince looked at her with astonishment.

"I do not even think of them," answered he, proudly.

These little happenings, which fell on Sarah's soul like drops of fire, did not change Rameses with regard to her. He was kind and as fond as he had been, though his eyes turned more frequently to the other bank of the river, and rested on the mighty pylons of his father's palace.

Soon he discovered that others were yearning because he was in a banishment of his own choosing. A certain day from the opposite shore a stately royal barge pushed out into the river; it crossed the Nile from Memphis, and then circled near the prince's villa, so near that Rameses could recognize the persons in it. In fact he recognized beneath the purple baldachin his mother among court ladies, and opposite, on a low stool, the vice-pharaoh, Herhor. They did not look toward the villa, it is true, but the prince divined that they saw him.

"Ha! ha!" thought he. "My worthy mother and his worthiness the minister would be glad to entice me hence before his holiness returns to Memphis."

The month Tobi (the end of October and beginning of November) came. The Nile had fallen a distance equalling the stature of a man, and one-half in addition, uncovering daily new strips of black clammy earth. Wherever the water withdrew a narrow plough appeared drawn by two oxen. Behind the plough went a naked ploughman, at the side of the oxen a driver with a short club, and behind him a sower, who, wading to his ankles in earth, carried wheat in an apron, and scattered it almost in handfuls.

The most beautiful season of the year was beginning in Egypt,--the winter. Heat did not go beyond 70° Fahrenheit; the earth was covered quickly with emerald green, from out which sprang narcissus and violets. The odor of them came forth oftener and oftener amid the odor of earth and water.

A number of times the barge bearing the worthy lady Nikotris and the vice-pharaoh Herhor appeared near Sarah's dwelling. Each time the prince saw his mother conversing with the minister joyously, and convinced himself that they refrained ostentatiously from looking toward him, as if to show indifference.

"Wait!" whispered he, in anger, "I will show you that life does not annoy me, either."

So when one day, shortly before sunset, the queen's gilded barge appeared with a purple tent having ostrich plumes on each of its four corners, Rameses gave command to prepare a boat for two persons, and told Sarah that he would sail with her.

"O Jehovah!" cried she, clasping her hands. "But thy mother is there, and the viceroy!"

"But in this boat will be the heir to the throne. Take thy harp, Sarah."

"And the harp, too?" cried Sarah. "But if her worthiness were to speak to thee! I should throw myself into the river."

"Be not a child," replied Rameses, laughing. "My mother and his worthiness love songs immensely. Thou mayest even win their favor if thou sing some splendid song of the Hebrews. Let there be love in it."

"I know no song of that kind," answered Sarah, in whom the prince's words had roused hope of some sort. Her song might please those powerful rulers, and then what?

On the royal barge they saw that the heir to the throne was sitting in a simple boat and rowing.

"Dost thou see, worthiness," whispered the queen to the minister, "that he is rowing toward us with his Jewess?"

"The heir has borne himself with such correctness toward his warriors and his people, and has shown so much compunction in withdrawing from the limits of the palace, that his mother may forgive small errors," answered Herhor.

"Oh, if he were not sitting in that boat, I would give command to break it!" said the worthy lady.

"For what reason?" asked the minister. "The prince would be no descendant of high priests and pharaohs if he did not break through restraints which the law, alas, puts on him, or perhaps our mistaken customs. He has given proof in every case that in serious junctures he is able to command himself. He is even able to recognise his errors,--a rare power and priceless in an heir to the throne of Egypt. The very fact that the prince wishes to rouse our curiosity with his favorite shows that the position in which he finds himself pains him; besides, his reasons are among the noblest."

"But the Jewess!" whispered the lady, crushing her feather fan between her fingers.

"At present I am quite at rest regarding her," continued Herhor. "She is shapely, but dull; she never thinks of using influence on the prince, nor could she do so. Shut up in a cage which is not over-costly, she takes no gifts, and will not even see any one. In time, perhaps, she might learn to make use of her position even to the extent of decreasing the heir's treasury by some talents. Before that day comes, however, Rameses will be tired of her."

"May the all-knowing Amon speak through thy mouth," said the lady.

"The prince, I am sure of this, has not grown wild over a favorite, as happens often to young lords in Egypt. One keen, intriguing woman may strip a man of property and health, nay, bring him to the hall of judgment. The prince is amused with her as a grown-up man might be amused with a slave girl. And Sarah is pregnant."

"Is that true?" cried the queen. "How dost thou know?"

"It is not known to his worthiness the heir, or even to Sarah," said Herhor, smiling. "We must know everything. This secret, however, was not difficult to get at. With Sarah is her relative Tafet, an incomparable gossip."

"Have they summoned a physician already?"

"Sarah knows nothing of this, I repeat, but the worthy Tafet, from fear lest the prince might grow indifferent to her foster child, would be glad to twist the neck of this secret. But we do not let her. That will be the prince's child also."

"But if it is a son? Thou knowest that he may make trouble," put in the lady.

"All is foreseen," replied Herhor. "If the child is a daughter, we will give her a dowry and the education proper for young ladies of high station. If a son, he will become a Jew--"

"Oh, my grandson, a Jew!"

"Do not take thy heart too soon from him. Our envoys declare that the people of Israel are beginning to desire a king. Before the child matures their desires will ripen, and then--we may give them a ruler, and of good blood indeed."

"Thou art like an eagle which takes in East and West at a glance," said the queen, eying the minister with amazement. "I feel that my repulsion for this maiden begins to grow weaker."

"The least drop of the pharaoh's blood should raise itself above nations, like a star above the earth," added Herhor.

At that moment the heir's boat moved at a few tens of paces from the royal barge, and the queen, shielded by her fan, looked at Sarah through its feathers.

"In truth the girl is shapely," whispered Queen Nikotris.

"Thou art saying those words for the second time, worthy lady."

"So thou hast noted that?" laughed her worthiness.

Herhor dropped his eyes.

In the boat was heard a harp, and Sarah began a hymn, with trembling voice,--

"How great is Jehovah, O Israel! how great is Jehovah, thy God."

"A most beautiful voice," whispered the queen.

The high priest listened with attention.

"His days have no beginning," sang Sarah, "and His dwelling has no limit. The eternal heavens change beneath His eye, like a garment which a man puts on his body and then casts away from him. The stars flash up, and are quenched, like sparks from fuel, and the earth is like a brick which a traveller touches once with his foot while going ever farther.

"How great is thy Lord, O Israel! There is no being who can say to Him, 'Do this!' there is no womb which could have given birth to Him. He created the bottomless deeps above which He moves when He wishes. He brings light out of darkness, and from the dust of the earth He creates living things which have voices.

"For Him savage lions are as locusts, the immense elephant He looks on as nothing, before Him the whale is as weak as an infant.

"His tricolored bow divides the heavens into two parts and rests on the ends of the earth plain. Where are the gates which could equal Him in loftiness? Nations are in terror at the thunder of His chariot, and there is naught beneath the sun which could stand His flashing arrows.

"His breath is the north wind at midnight, which freshens trees when withering, His anger is like the chamsin which burns what it touches.

"When He stretches His hands above the waters, they are petrified. He pours the sea into new places, as a woman pours out leaven. He rends the earth as if it were old linen, and clothes in silvery snow the naked tops of mountains.

"In a grain of wheat He hides one hundred other grains, and causes birds to incubate. From the drowsy chrysalis He leads to life a golden butterfly, and makes men's bodies wait in tombs until the day of resurrection."

The rowers, absorbed in the song, raised their oars, and the purple barge dropped slowly down with the sweep of the river. All at once Herhor rose, and commanded,--

"Turn now toward Memphis!"

The oars fell; the barge turned where it stood, and raised the water with noise. After it followed Sarah's hymn decreasing gradually,--

"He sees the movement of hearts, the silent hidden ways on which pass the innermost thoughts in men's breasts. But no man can gaze into His heart and spy out His purposes.

"Before the gleam of His garments mighty spirits hide their faces. Before His glance the gods of great cities and nations turn aside and shrink like withering leaves.

"He is power, He is life, He is wisdom. He is thy Lord, thy God, O Israel!"

"Why command, worthiness, to turn away our barge?" asked the worthy Nikotris.

"Lady, dost thou know that hymn?" asked Herhor, in a language understood by priests alone. "That stupid girl is singing in the middle of the Nile a prayer permitted only in the most secret recesses of our temples."

"Is that blasphemy then?"

"There is no priest in the barge except me," replied the minister. "I have not heard the hymn, and if I had I should forget it. Still I am afraid that the gods will lay hands on that girl yet."

"But whence does she know that awful prayer, for Rameses could not have taught it to her?"

"The prince is not to blame. But forget not, lady, that the Jews have taken from our Egypt many such treasures. That is why, among all nations on earth, we consider them alone as sacrilegious."

The queen seized the hand of the high priest.

"But my son--will no evil strike him?" whispered she, looking into his eyes.

"I say, worthiness, that no evil will happen to any one. I heard not the hymn, and I know nothing. The prince must be separated from that Jewess."

"But separated mildly; is that not the way?" asked the mother.

"In the mildest way possible and the simplest, but separation is imperative. It seemed to me," continued the high priest, as if to himself, "that I foresaw everything. Everything save an action for blasphemy, which threatens the heir while he is with that strange woman."

Herhor thought awhile, and added,--

"Yes, worthy lady! It is possible to laugh at many of our prejudices; still the son of a pharaoh should not be connected with a Jewess."

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Chapter XVII

Since the evening when Sarah sang in the boat, the royal barge had not appeared on the Nile, and Prince Rameses was annoyed in real earnest.

The month Mechir (December) was approaching. The waters decreased, the land extended more widely each day, the grass became higher and thicker, and in the grass flashed up flowers of the most varied hues and of incomparable odor. Like islands in a green sea appeared, in the course of a single day, flowery places, as it were white, azure, yellow, rosy, or many-colored carpets from which rose an intoxicating odor. Still the prince was wearied, and even feared something. From the day of his father's departure he had not been in the palace, and no one from the palace had come to him, save Tutmosis, who since the last conversation had vanished like a snake in the grass. Whether they respected the prince's seclusion, or desired to annoy him, or simply feared to pay him a visit because he had been touched by disfavor, Rameses had no means of knowing.

"My father may exclude me from the throne, as he has my elder brothers," thought the heir sometimes; and sweat came out on his forehead, while his feet became cold.

"What would he do in that case?"

Moreover Sarah was ill, thin, pale, her great eyes sank; at times she complained of faintness which attacked her in the morning.

"Surely some one has bewitched the poor thing," groaned the cunning Tafet, whom the prince could not endure for her chattering and very bad management.

A couple of times, for instance, the heir noticed that in the evening Tafet sent off to Memphis immense baskets with food, linen, even vessels. Next day she complained in heaven-piercing accents that flour, wine, and even vessels were lacking. Since the heir had come to the villa ten times more of various products had been used there than formerly.

"I am certain," thought Rameses, "that that chattering termagant robs me for her Jews, who vanish in the daytime but are prowling around in the night, like rats in the nastiest corners!"

The prince's only amusement in these days was to look at the date harvest. A naked man took his place at the foot of a high palm without side branches, surrounded the trunk and himself with a circular rope which resembled the hoop of a barrel. Then he raised himself on the tree by his heels, his whole body bent backward, but the hoop-like rope held him by squeezing his body to the tree. Next he shoved the flexible hoop up the trunk some inches, raised himself by his heels again, then shoved the rope up. In this way he climbed, exposed meanwhile to the peril of breaking his neck, till he reached the top, where grew a crown of great leaves and dates.

The prince was not alone when he saw these gymnastics; Jewish children also were spectators. At first there was no trace of them. Then among bushes and from beyond the wall curly heads and black gleaming eyes appeared. Afterward, when they saw that the prince did not drive them away, these children came out each from a hiding-place and approached the tree gradually. The most daring among the girls picked up a beautiful date which she brought to Rameses. One of the boys ate the smallest date, and then the children began to eat and to give the prince fruit. At first they brought him the best, then inferior dates, finally some that were spoilt altogether.

The future ruler of the world fell to thinking, and said to himself,--

"They crawl in at all points, and will treat me always in this way: they will give the good as a bait, and what is spoiled out of gratitude."

He rose and walked away gloomily; but the children of Israel rushed, like a flock of birds, at the labor of the Egyptian, who high above their heads was singing unmindful of his bones and of this, that he was harvesting not for his own use.

Sarah's undiscovered disease, her frequent tears, her vanishing charms, and above all the Jews, who, ceasing to hide, managed the place with increasing tumult, disgusted Rameses to the utmost degree with that beautiful corner. He sailed no more in a boat, he neither hunted nor watched the date harvest, but wandered gloomily through the garden, or looked from his roof at the palace. He would never go back to that palace unless summoned, and now he thought of a trip to his lands near the sea, in Lower Egypt.

In such a state of mind was he found by Tutmosis, who on a certain day came in a ceremonial barge to the heir with a summons from the pharaoh.

"His holiness is returning from Thebes, and wishes the heir to go forth and meet him."

The prince trembled, he grew pale and crimson, when he read the gracious letter of his lord and ruler. He was so moved that he did not notice his adjutant's new immense wig, which gave out fifteen different perfumes, he did not see his tunic and mantle, more delicate than mist, nor his sandals with gold rings as ornaments.

After some time Rameses recovered, and inquired without looking at Tutmosis,--

"Why hast thou not been here for such a period? Did the disfavor into which I have fallen alarm thee?"

"Gods!" cried the exquisite. "When wert thou in disfavor, and in whose? Every courier of his holiness inquired for thy health; the worthy lady, Nikotris, and his worthiness Herhor have sailed toward this villa repeatedly, thinking that thou wouldst make a hundred steps toward them after they had made a couple of thousand toward thee. I say nothing of the troops. In time of review the warriors of thy regiments are as silent as palm-trees, and do not go from the barracks. As to the worthy Patrokles, he drinks and curses all day from vexation."

So the prince had not been in disfavor, or if he had been the disfavor was ended. This thought acted on Rameses like a goblet of good wine. He took a bath quickly, anointed his body, put on fresh linen, a new kaftan, a helmet with plumes, and then went to Sarah.

Sarah screamed when she saw the prince arrayed thus. She rose up, and seizing him around the neck, whispered,--

"Thou art going, my lord! Thou wilt not come back to me."

"Why not?" wondered the heir. "Have I not gone away often and returned afterward?"

"I remember thee dressed in just this way--over there in our valley," said Sarah. "Oh, where are those hours! So quickly have they passed, and so long is it since they vanished."

"But I will return and bring the most famous physician."

"What for?" inquired Tafet. "She is well, my dear chick--she needs only rest. But Egyptian physicians would bring real sickness."

The prince did not look at the talkative woman.

"This was my pleasantest month with thee," said Sarah, nestling up to Rameses, "but it has not brought happiness."

The trumpets sounded on the royal barge, repeating a signal given higher up on the river.

Sarah started.

"Dost thou hear, lord, that terrible outburst? Thou hearest and smilest, and, woe to me, thou art tearing away from my embraces. When trumpets call nothing can hold thee, least of all thy slave, Sarah."

"Wouldst thou have me listen forever to the cackling of hens in the country?" interrupted the prince, now impatient. "Be well, and wait for me joyously."

Sarah let him go from her grasp, but she had such a mournful expression that Rameses grew mild and stroked her.

"Only be calm. Thou fearest the sound of our trumpets. But were they ill-omened the first day?"

"My lord," answered Sarah, "I know that over there they will keep thee, so grant me this one, this last favor. I will give thee," continued she, sobbing, "a cage of pigeons. They were hatched out and reared here; hence, as often as thou rememberest thy servant, open the cage and set one of them free; it will bring me tidings of thee, and I will kiss and fondle it as--as-- But go now!"

The prince embraced her and went to the barge, telling his black attendant to wait for the pigeons.

At sight of the heir, drums and fifes sounded, and the garrison raised a loud shout of welcome. When he found himself among warriors, the prince drew a deep breath, and stretched out his arms, like a man liberated from bondage.

"Well," said he to Tutmosis, "women have tormented me, and those Jews-- O Cyrus! command to roast me on a slow fire at once, but put me not in the country a second time."

"So it is," confirmed Tutmosis; "love is like honey. It must be taken by sips, a man must not swim in it. Brr! shudders pass over me when I think that thou hast passed nearly two months fed on kisses in the evening, dates in the morning, and asses' milk at midday."

"Sarah is a very good girl," said Rameses.

"I do not speak of her, but of those Jews who have settled down at that villa like papyrus in swamp land. Dost thou see, they are looking out at thee yet, and perhaps are sending greetings," said the flatterer.

The prince turned to another side with displeasure, and Tutmosis winked joyfully at the officers, as if to tell them that Rameses would not leave their society very soon this time.

The higher they ascended the Nile the denser on both banks were spectators, the more numerous were boats on the river, and the more did flowers, garlands, and bouquets float down; these had been thrown at the barge of the pharaoh.

About five miles above Memphis there were multitudes of people with banners, with statues of gods, and with music; an immense roar was heard, like the sound of a tempest.

"There is his holiness!" cried Tutmosis, delighted.

One spectacle was presented to the eyes of the onlookers: in the middle of a broad bend in the river sailed the great barge of the pharaoh, rising in front like the breast of a swan. At the right and left sides of it, like two giant wings, pushed forward the countless boats of his subjects, and in the rear, like a rich fan, stretched the retinue of the ruler of Egypt.

Every one living shouted, sang, clapped hands, and threw flowers at the feet of the lord whom no one even saw. It was enough that under that gilded canopy and those ostrich plumes waved a ruddy blue flag, denoting that the pharaoh was present.

The people in the boats were as if drunk, the people on the shore as if mad. Every moment some boat struck or overturned a boat and some man fell into the water, out of which luckily the crocodiles had fled, frightened by the unparalleled uproar. On the banks men ran into one another, for no one paid heed to his neighbor, his father, or his child, but fixed his wild eyes on the gilded beak of the barge and the tent of the pharaoh. Even people who were trampled, whose ribs the wild crowd broke stupidly, and whose joints they put out, had no cry save this,--

"May he live through eternity, O our ruler!--Shine on, thou the sun of Egypt!"

The madness of greeting spread to the barge of Rameses: officers, soldiers, and oarsmen pressed into one throng and strove to outshout one another. Tutmosis, forgetting the heir to the throne, clambered up on the prow, and almost flew into the water.

Meanwhile a trumpet sounded from the pharaoh's barge, and soon after one answered from the barge of Rameses. A second signal, and the barge of the heir touched the great barge of the pharaoh.

Some official called to Rameses. From barge to barge they extended a gangway of cedar with carved railings, and the prince found himself next in the embrace of his father.

The presence of the pharaoh, or the storm of shouts roaring about him, so stunned Prince Rameses that he could not utter a syllable. He fell at his father's feet, and the lord of the world pressed the heir to his sacred bosom.

A moment later the side walls of the tent rose, and all the people on both banks of the Nile saw their ruler on a throne, and on the high step of it Rameses kneeling, with his head on the breast of his father.

Such silence followed that the rustling of banners on the barges was audible. Then on a sudden burst forth one immense roar, greater than all which had preceded. With this the Egyptian people honored the reconciliation of son and father; they greeted their present, and saluted their future ruler.

If any man had reckoned on dissensions in the sacred family of the pharaoh, he might convince himself then that the new royal branch held to its parent trunk firmly.

His holiness looked very ill. After the tender greeting of his son, he commanded him to sit at the side of the throne.

"My soul was rushing forth toward thee, Rameses," said he, "and all the more ardently the better were the tidings which I had of thee. To-day I see not only that thou hast the heart of a lion, but that thou art a man full of prudence, who knows how to estimate his own acts, who is able to restrain himself, and who feels for the interests of Egypt."

When the prince, filled with emotion, was silent and kissed his father's feet, the pharaoh continued,--

"Thou hast done well to renounce command of the Greek regiments, because from this day the corps in Memphis is thine, thou art its commander."

"My father!" whispered the heir, trembling.

"Besides, in Lower Egypt, which is open on three sides to attacks of hostile nations, I need a wise, active man, who will watch all things round him, weigh them well in his heart, and act promptly. For this reason I appoint thee my lieutenant in that half of the kingdom."

Abundant tears flowed from the prince's eyes. With those tears he bade farewell to his youth; he greeted power, to which his soul had turned for years with uncertainty and longing.

"I am now weak and wearied," said the ruler, "and were it not for anxiety touching thy youth and the future of Egypt, I would this day beg my deathless ancestors to call me to their glory. Each day is for me more difficult, and therefore, Rameses, thou wilt begin to share the burden of rule with me. As a hen teaches her chicks to search out grains of corn and hide before the hawk, so I will teach thee that toilsome art of ruling a state and watching the devices of enemies. May thou fall on them in time, like an eagle on timid partridges."

The pharaoh's barge and its well-ordered retinue had descended to a point opposite the palace. The wearied ruler took a seat in his litter, and at that moment Herhor approached Rameses.

"Permit me, worthy prince," said he, "to be the earliest among those who are delighted with thy elevation. May thou lead the army with as much success as thou shalt govern the most important part of the state to the glory of Egypt."

Rameses pressed his hand firmly.

"Didst thou do this, O Herhor?" asked he.

"It belonged to thee," replied the minister.

"Thou hast my gratitude, and wilt see that it is of value."

"Thou hast rewarded me already in speaking thus," replied Herhor.

The prince wished to depart; Herhor detained him.

"A brief word. Be careful, O heir, that one of thy women, Sarah, does not sing religious hymns."

When Rameses looked at him with astonishment, he added,--

"During our sail on the Nile that maiden sang our most sacred hymn, a hymn to which only the pharaoh and high priests have the right to listen. Poor child! she might have suffered for her skill and for her ignorance of what she was singing."

"Then has she committed sacrilege?" inquired Rameses, in confusion.

"Yes, unconsciously," answered Herhor. "It is lucky that I was the only man who understood it, and my decision is that between that song and our hymn the resemblance is remote. In every case let her never repeat it."

"Well, and should she purify herself?" asked the prince. "Will it suffice her, as a foreign woman, if she gives thirty cows to the temple of Isis?"

"Yes, let her give them," replied Herhor, with a slight grimace. "The gods are not offended by gifts."

"Do thou, noble lord," said Rameses, "be pleased to accept this miraculous shield, which I received from my sacred grandfather."

"I?--the shield of Amenhôtep?" exclaimed the minister, with emotion. "Am I worthy of it?"

"By thy wisdom thou art equal to my grandfather, and thou wilt equal him in position."

Herhor made a low bow in silence. That golden shield set with precious stones, besides its great value in money, had moreover the virtue of an amulet; hence it was a regal present.

But the prince's words might have the loftier meaning that Herhor would equal Amenhôtep in position. Amenhôtep had been the father-in-law of a pharaoh. Had the heir decided already to marry Herhor's daughter?

That was the fond dream of Queen Nikotris and the minister. But it must be acknowledged that Rameses in speaking of the future dignities of Herhor had not thought in the least of marrying his daughter, but of giving him new offices, of which there was a multitude at the court and in the temples.

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Chapter XVIII

From the day that he became viceroy of Lower Egypt a life unparalleled in troubles set in for Rameses,--such a life as he had not even imagined, though born and reared in the pharaoh's palace.

People simply tortured him; his torturers were persons who had interests of various kinds and who were of various social classes.

On the very first day, at sight of the throngs of people, who crowded and pushed one another with eagerness, trampled his lawns, broke his trees, and injured even the wall which enclosed his villa, the heir demanded a guard for protection. But on the third day he was forced to flee from his own dwelling to the precincts of the palace proper, where, because of numerous sentries and above all because of high walls, access to him was made difficult.

During the ten days which preceded his departure, representatives of all Egypt, if not of the whole world of that period, passed before the eyes of the new viceroy.

First of all were admitted great personages. Hence to congratulate him came the high priests of temples, ministers, ambassadors, Phœnician, Greek, Hebrew, Assyrian, Nubian, men whose dresses even he could not remember. Next came the chiefs of neighboring provinces, judges, secretaries, the higher officers of the army corps in Memphis, and landowners.

These people desired nothing, they simply expressed their delight at honor shown him. But the prince, while listening to these persons from morning till midday and from midday till evening, felt confusion in his head, and a quivering in all his members.

After these came representatives of the lower classes with gifts: merchants bringing gold, foreign stuffs, amber, fruits, and perfumes. Then bankers and men who loaned money for interest. Further, architects with plans for new buildings, sculptors with projects for statues and carvings in relief, masons, potters, makers of ordinary and ornamental furniture, blacksmiths, founders, tanners, wine-merchants, weavers, even dissectors who opened the bodies of the departed.

The procession of those men rendering homage had not finished when an army of petitioners approached the viceroy. Invalids, widows, and orphans of officers requested pensions; noble lords required court offices for their sons. Engineers presented new methods of irrigating Egypt; physicians offered means against diseases of all sorts; soothsayers offered horoscopes. Relatives of prisoners petitioned to lessen punishments; those condemned to death begged for life; the sick implored the heir to touch them, or to bestow on them his spittle.

Finally, beautiful women announced themselves, the mothers of stately daughters begging the heir humbly but insistently to receive them into his mansion. Some indicated the amount of the pension demanded, praising their virginity and their talents.

After ten days of looking every moment at new persons and faces, and hearing petitions which only the possession of a world and divine power to dispense it could satisfy, Prince Rameses was exhausted. He could not sleep; he was so excited that the buzz of a fly pained his nerves, and at moments he did not understand what people said when they talked to him.

In this position Herhor came again to assist the viceroy. He commanded to inform the wealthy that the prince would not receive any more persons on questions of interest; and against common people, who, in spite of repeated invitations to disperse, were still waiting, he sent a company of Numidians with clubs. These succeeded with incomparably more ease than Rameses in meeting popular wishes, for before an hour had passed the petitioners had vanished from the square, like mist, while one and another of them for a couple of succeeding days poured water on their heads, or other bruised parts of their bodies.

After this trial of supreme power the prince felt profound contempt for men and became apathetic. He lay two days on a couch with his hands beneath his head gazing vacantly at the ceiling. He did not wonder that his sacred father passed his time at the altars of the gods, but he could not understand how Herhor was able to manage the avalanche of business, which, like a storm, not only surpassed the strength of a man, but might even crush him.

"How carry out plans in this case when a throng of petitions fetter our will, devour our thoughts, drink our blood? At the end of ten days I am sick, at the end of a year I should be an idiot. In this office it is impossible to carry out any plan; a man can just defend himself from madness."

He was so alarmed by his weakness in the position of ruler that he summoned Herhor, and with a complaining voice told of his suffering.

The statesman listened with a smile to the complaints of the young steersman of the ship of state, and at last said in answer,--

"Knowest thou, lord, that this immense palace in which we dwell was reared by one architect, named Senebi, who moreover died before it was finished? And to a certainty thou wilt understand how this famous architect could carry out his plan without weariness and be always in a cheerful temper."

"I am curious."

"Well, he did not do everything himself; he did not hew the beams or cut the stones, he did not make the bricks, he did not carry them to the scaffolding. He did not lay them into the wall and fasten them together. He only drew the plan, and moreover he had assistants. But thou, prince, hadst the wish to do all things thyself, to listen in person and transact every business. That goes beyond human strength."

"How should I do otherwise if among petitioners there are some who have suffered without cause, or if there is unrewarded service? Of course the foundation of the state is justice."

"How many canst thou hear in a day without weariness?" asked Herhor.

"Well, twenty."

"Thou art happy. I hear at the most six or ten, but they are not interested in the petitions,--they are chief secretaries, overseers, and ministers. These men report to me no details, only the most important things that are done in the army, on the estates of the pharaoh, in questions of religion, in the courts, in the provinces, and touching movements of the Nile. Therefore they report no trivial matter, because each man before he comes to me must hear ten inferior secretaries. Each inferior secretary and overseer collected information from ten sub-secretaries and sub-inspectors, and they in their turn have heard reports from ten officials who are under them. In this manner I and his holiness speaking with only ten people daily know all that is most important in a hundred thousand points of Egypt and the world beyond it.

"The watchman in charge of one part of a street in Memphis sees only a few houses. A decurion of ten policemen knows the whole street, a centurion a division of the city, the chief knows all the city. The pharaoh stands above them all, as if he were standing on the highest pylon of the temple of Ptah, and sees not only Memphis, but the cities, Sochem, On, Cherau, Turra, Tetani, with their suburbs, and a portion of the western desert.

"From that height his holiness is unable, it is true, to see the people who are wronged, or those who are unrewarded, but he is able to see the crowd of laborers who have collected without work. He cannot see warriors in the dramshops, but he can know what regiment is exercising. He cannot see what a given earth-tiller or citizen is preparing for dinner, but he can see a fire beginning in a given quarter of the city.

"This order in the state," continued Herhor, with growing animation, "is our strength and glory. Snofru, a pharaoh of the first dynasty, asked a certain priest what monument he should rear to himself.

"'Draw on the earth, O lord,' replied the priest, 'a square, and put on it six million unhewn stones; they will represent the people. On that foundation place sixty thousand hewn stones; they will be the lower officials. On them place six thousand polished stones; they will be thy higher officials. On these put sixty covered with carvings; those will be thy most intimate counsellors and chief leaders, and on the summit place one monolith with its pedestal and the golden image of the sun; that will be thyself.'

"The Pharaoh Snofru followed that advice. Thus rose the oldest pyramid, the step pyramid, a tangible image of our state; from that pyramid all others had their origin. Those are immovable buildings, from the summits of which the rim of the world is visible, and they will be a marvel to the remotest generations.

"In this system resides our superiority over all neighbors. The Ethiopians were as numerous as we, but their king himself took care of his own cattle, and beat his own subjects with a club; he knew not how many subjects he had, nor was he able to collect them when our troops invaded his country. There was not a united Ethiopia, but a great crowd of unorganized people. For that reason they are our vassals at present.

"The Prince of Libya judges all disputes himself, especially among the wealthy, and gives so much time to them that he cannot attend to his own business. So at his side whole bands of robbers rise up; these we exterminate.

"Were there in Phœnicia a single ruler who knew what was happening and who commanded in all parts, that country would not pay us one uten of tribute. But what a happiness for us that the kings of Nineveh and Babylon have each only one minister, and are tormented with the onrush of business as thou art this day. They wish to see, judge, and command everything; hence the affairs of their states are entangled for a century to come. But were some insignificant scribe to go from Egypt to those kings, explain their errors of management, and give them our official system, our pyramid, in a year's time Judæa and Phœnicia would fall into the hands of the Assyrians, and in a few tens of years powerful armies, coming from the East and the North by land and by sea, would hurl themselves on us, armies which we might not be able to vanquish."

"Therefore let us fall on them to-day and take advantage of their want of order," cried Rameses.

"We are not cured yet of previous victories," answered Herhor, coldly; and he began to take leave of the viceroy.

"Have victories weakened us?" burst out the heir. "Or have we not brought home treasures?"

"But does not the axe with which we cut wood become blunted?" inquired Herhor; and he went out.

The prince understood that the great minister wished peace at all costs, in spite of the fact that he was chief of the armies.

"We shall see," whispered Rameses to himself.

A couple of days before his departure Rameses was summoned to his holiness. The pharaoh was sitting in an armchair in a marble hall; no other person was present, and the four entrances were guarded by Nubian sentries.

At the side of the royal armchair was a stool for the prince, and a small table covered with documents written on papyrus. On the walls were colored bas-reliefs showing the occupations of field-workers, and in the corners of the hall were ungraceful statues of Osiris smiling pensively.

When the prince at command of his father sat down, his holiness spoke to him,--

"Here, my son, are thy documents as leader and viceroy. Well, have the first days of power wearied thee?"

"In thy service, holiness, I shall find strength."

"Flatterer!" said the pharaoh, smiling. "Remember that I do not require overwork on thy part. Amuse thyself; youth needs recreation. This does not mean, however, that thou art not to have important affairs to manage."

"I am ready."

"First I will disclose my cares to thee. Our treasury has a bad aspect; the inflow of revenue decreases yearly, especially in Lower Egypt, and expenditures are rising."

The pharaoh fell to thinking.

"Those women--those women, Rameses,--they swallow up the wealth, not of mortal men only, but my wealth. I have some hundreds of them, and each woman wishes to have as many maids as possible, as many dressmakers, barbers, slaves,--slaves for her litter, slaves for her chamber,--horses, oarsmen, even her own favorites and their children-- Little children! When I was returning from Thebes one of those ladies, whom I do not even remember, ran into my road and, showing a sturdy boy of three years, desired that I should designate for him a property, since he was, as she said, a son of mine. My son, and three years of age. Canst thou understand this? The affair was simple. I could not argue with a woman, besides, in such a delicate question. But for a man of noble birth it is easier to be polite than find money for every fancy of that sort."

He shook his head and continued,--

"Meanwhile incomes since the beginning of my reign have decreased one-half, especially in Lower Egypt. I ask what this means. They answer: people have grown poor, many citizens have disappeared, the sea has covered a certain extent of land on the north, and the desert on the east, we have had a number of bad harvests; in a word, tale follows tale while the treasury becomes poorer and poorer. Therefore I beg thee to explain this matter. Look about, learn to know well-informed men who are truthful, and form of them an examining commission. When they begin to report, trust not over-much to papyrus, but verify here and there in person. I hear that thou hast the eye of a leader; if that be true, one glance will tell thee how accurate the statements of the commission are. But hasten not in giving thy opinion, and above all, do not herald it. Note down every weighty conclusion which comes to thy head on a given day, and when a few days have passed reëxamine that question and note it down a second time. This will teach thee caution in judgment and accuracy in grasping subjects."

"It will be as thou commandest," replied the prince.

"Another mission which thou must accomplish is truly difficult. Something is happening in Assyria which begins to alarm my government. Our priests declare that beyond the Northern sea stands a pyramidal mountain covered with green at its base and with snow on the summit. This mountain has marvellous qualities. After many years of quiet it begins all at once to smoke, roar, and tremble, and then it hurls out as much liquid fire as there is water in the Nile. This fire, which flows down its sides in various directions and over an immense stretch of country, ruins the labor of earth-tillers.

"Well, Assyria is a mountain of that sort. For whole ages calm and quiet reign in that region, till all on a sudden a tempest bursts out there, great armies pour forth from it and annihilate peaceful neighbors. At present around Nineveh and Babylon seething is audible: the mountain is smoking. Thou must learn therefore how far that smoke indicates an outburst, and think out means of precaution."

"Shall I be able to do so?" asked the prince, in a low voice.

"Thou must learn to observe. If thou hast the wish to learn anything well, be not satisfied with the witness of thy own eyes, but strengthen thyself with the aid of a number of others. Confine not thyself to the judgment of Egyptians alone, for each people, each man has a special way of looking at subjects, and neither one grasps the whole truth in any question. Listen therefore to what the Phœnicians, the Hebrews, the Hittites, and the Egyptians think of the Assyrians, and weigh in thy own heart with care all that agrees in their judgments concerning Assyria. If all tell thee that danger is coming from that point, thou wilt know that it is coming; but if different men speak variously, be on thy guard also, for wisdom commands us to look for less good and more evil."

"Thy speech is like that of the gods," whispered the heir of Egypt.

"I am old, and from the height of the throne things are seen of which mortal men have not even a suspicion. Wert thou to inquire of the sun what he thinks of this world's affairs, he would tell thee things still more curious."

"Among the people from whom I am to gain knowledge of Assyria, thou hast not mentioned the Greeks, O father," put in Rameses.

The pharaoh nodded, and said with a kindly smile,--

"The Greeks! oh, the Greeks! A great future is in store for that people. In comparison with us they are in childhood, but what a spirit is in them!

"Dost remember my statue made by a Greek sculptor? That is my second self, a living person! I kept it a month in the palace, but at last I gave it to the temple in Thebes. Wilt thou believe, fear seized me lest that stone I should rise from its seat and claim one-half of the government. What a disorder would rise then in Egypt!

"The Greeks! Hast thou seen the vases which they make, the palaces which they build? From that clay out there and from stone something comes that delights my old age and forbids me to think of my feebleness.

"And their language! O gods, it is music and sculpture and painting. In truth, I say that if Egypt could ever die as a man dies, the Greeks would take all its property. Nay more, they would persuade the world that everything done by us was their work, and that we never existed. And still they are only the pupils of our primary schools, for, as thou knowest, we have no right to communicate the highest knowledge to foreigners."

"Still, father, it seems that thou hast no trust in the Greeks."

"No, for they are peculiar; one can trust neither Greek nor Phœnician. The Phœnician, when he wishes, sees and will tell thee genuine truth of Egypt, but thou wilt never know when he is telling it. The Greek, as simple as a child, would tell the truth always, but he is never able.

"The Greeks look at the world in a manner different altogether from our way. In their wonderful eyes everything glitters, assumes colors and changes, as the sky and the water of Egypt. How then could we rely on their judgment?

"In the days of the Theban dynasty, far away toward the north, was the little town of Troy. We have in Egypt twenty thousand as large as it. Various Greek vagrants laid siege to that hamlet, and so annoyed its few inhabitants that after ten years of trouble they burned their little fortress and moved to other places. An every-day robber narrative! Meanwhile just see what songs the Greeks sing of the Trojan combats. We laugh at those wonders and heroisms, for our government had accurate information of events there. We see the lies which strike any one, but still we listen to those songs, as a child does to tales which its nurse tells, and we cannot tear ourselves free from them.

"Such are the Greeks: born liars, but fascinating; yes, and valiant. Every man of them would rather die than tell truth. They do not lie for profit, as do the Phœnicians, but because their mind constrains them."

"Well, what am I to think of the Phœnicians?"

"They are wise people of mighty industry and daring, but hucksters: for them life means profit, be it great or the greatest. The Phœnicians are like water: they bring much with them, but bear away much, and push in at all points. One must give them the least possible, and above all watch that they enter not through hidden crannies into Egypt. If thou pay them well and offer hope of still greater profit, they will be excellent assistants. What we know to-day of secret movements in Assyria we know through Phœnicians."

"And the Jews?" asked the prince, dropping his eyes.

"A quick people, but gloomy fanatics and born enemies of Egypt. Only when they feel on their necks the iron-shod sandal of the Assyrian, will they turn to us. May that time not come too late to them! It is possible to use their services, not here, of course, but in Nineveh and Babylon."

The pharaoh was wearied now. Hence the prince fell on his face before him, and when he had received the paternal embrace he went to his mother.

The lady, sitting in her study, was weaving delicate linen to make garments for the gods, and her ladies in waiting were sewing and embroidering robes or making bouquets. A young priest was burning incense before the statue of Isis.

"I come," said the prince, "to thank thee, my mother, and take farewell."

The queen rose and putting her arms around her son's neck, said to him tearfully,--

"Hast thou changed so much? Thou art a man now! I meet thee so rarely that I might forget thy features did I not see them in my heart every moment. Thou art unkind. How many times have I gone with the first dignitary of the state toward thy villa, thinking that at last thou wouldst cease to be offended, but thou didst bring out thy favorite in my presence."

"I beg thy pardon--I beg thy pardon!" said Rameses, kissing his mother.

She conducted him to a garden in which peculiar flowers grew, and when they were without witnesses, she said,--

"I am a woman, so a woman and a mother has interest for me. Dost thou wish to take that girl with thee on thy journey? Remember that the tumult and the movement which will surround thee may harm her, for in her condition calm and quiet are needed."

"Art thou speaking of Sarah?" inquired Rameses, astonished. "She has said nothing to me of that condition."

"She may be ashamed; perhaps she does not herself know," replied the queen. "In every case the journey--"

"I have no intention of taking her!" exclaimed Rameses. "But why does she hide this from me--as if the child were not mine?"

"Be not suspicious," chided the lady. "This is the usual timidity of young women. Moreover, she may be hiding her condition from fear lest thou cast her away from thee."

"For that matter, I shall not take her to my court!" broke out the prince, so impatiently that the queen's eyes were smiling, but she covered them with their long lashes.

"It is not well to be over-harsh with a woman who loved thee. I know that thou hast given an assured support to her. We will give her something also. And a child of the royal blood must be reared well, and have property."

"Naturally," answered Rameses. "My first son, though without princely rights, must be so placed that I may not be ashamed of him, and he must not regret separation from me."

After parting with the queen, Rameses wished to go to Sarah, and with that object returned to his chambers.

Two feelings were roused in him,--anger at Sarah for hiding the cause of her weakness, and pride that he was going to be a father.

He a father! This title gave him an importance which, as it were, supported his titles of commander and viceroy. Father! that did not mean a stripling who must look perforce with reverence on older people.

He was roused and enraptured. He wished to see Sarah, to scold, then embrace her and give her presents.

But when he returned to his part of the palace he found there two nomarchs from Lower Egypt who had come to report on their provinces, and when he had heard them out, he was wearied. Besides, he was to hold an evening reception and did not wish to be late in beginning.

"And again I shall not be with her," thought he. "Poor girl! for twenty days she has not seen me--"

He summoned the negro.

"Hast thou that cage which Sarah gave thee when we went to greet his holiness?"

"I have."

"Take a pigeon from it, and let the bird loose."

"The pigeons are eaten."

"Who ate them?"

"Thou. I told the cook that those birds came from the Lady Sarah; so he made a roast and pies out of them for thee, worthiness."

"May the crocodiles eat you both!" cried the prince, in anger.

He sent for Tutmosis and despatched him immediately to Sarah. He explained to him the history of the pigeons, and said,--

"Give her emerald earrings, bracelets, anklets, and two talents. Say that I am angry because she concealed her condition, but that I will forgive her if the child is healthy and handsome. Should she have a boy, I will give her another place," finished he with a smile. "But--but--persuade her to put away even a few Jews, and to take even a few Egyptian men and women. I do not wish my son to be born into such company; besides, he might play with Jew children. They would teach him to give his father the worst dates of the harvest."

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Chapter XIX

The foreign quarter in Memphis lay on the northeastern extremity of the city near the river. There were several hundred houses in that place and many thousand people,--Assyrians, Greeks, Jews, most of all, Phœnicians.

That was a wealthy quarter. A street thirty paces in width formed its leading artery. This street was rather straight, and paved with flat stones. On both sides were houses of sandstone, brick, or limestone, varying in height from three to five stories. In the cellars were stores of raw materials; on the ground floors were arched rooms; on the first stories dwellings of wealthy people; higher were the workshops of weavers, tailors, jewellers; highest of all, the crowded dwellings of laborers.

The buildings of this quarter, like those in the whole city, were mainly white; but one might see stone houses as green as a meadow, as yellow as a wheat-field, as blue as the sky, or as red as blood.

The front walls of many houses were ornamented with pictures representing the occupations of people who dwelt in them. On the house of a jeweller long rows of pictures announced that its owner sold to foreign kings chains and bracelets of his own making which roused their amazement. The immense palace of a merchant was covered with pictures representing the labors and perils of a trafficker: on the sea dreadful monsters with fish tails were seizing the man; in the desert winged dragons breathing fire were grasping after him, and on distant islands he was tormented by a giant whose sandals were larger than any ship of the Phœnicians.

A physician on the wall of his office represented persons who, thanks to his aid, had recovered lost hands and feet, even teeth and youthfulness. On a building occupied by a government administrator of the quarter were to be seen a keg into which people were throwing gold rings; a scribe into whose ears some one was whispering; an offender, stretched on the ground, whom two other men were beating.

The street was full. Along the walls stood litter-bearers, men with fans, messengers and laborers, ready to offer their services. In the middle of the street moved an unbroken line of merchants' wares carried by men, asses, or oxen attached to vehicles. On the sidewalks pushed forward noisy sellers of fresh water, grapes, dates, dried fish, and among them hucksters, flower-girls, musicians, and tricksters of various descriptions.

In this torrent of people which flowed forward and separated, in which men bought and sold, crying out in various tones, policemen were prominent. Each had a brownish tunic reaching to his knees, bare legs, an apron with blue and red stripes, a short sword at his side, and a strong stick in his hand. This official walked along on the sidewalk; sometimes he conversed with a colleague; most frequently, however, he stood on a stone at the edge of the street, so as to take in more accurately the crowd which flowed past in front of him.

In view of such watchfulness street thieves had to do their work cleverly. Usually two began to fight, and when a crowd had gathered around them and the police clubbed both spectators and quarrellers, other confederates in the art did the stealing.

About half-way between the two ends of the street stood the inn of Asarhadon, a Phœnician from Tyre. In this inn, for easier control, all were forced to dwell who came from beyond the boundaries of Egypt. It was a large quadrangular building which on each side had a number of tens of windows, and was not connected with other houses; hence men could go around the place and watch it from all points. Over the principal gate hung the model of a ship; on the front wall were pictures representing his holiness Rameses XII. placing offerings before the gods, or extending his protection to foreigners, among whom the Phœnicians were distinguished by a sturdy stature and very ruddy faces.

The windows were narrow, always open, and only in case of need shaded by curtains of linen or by colored slats. The chambers of the innkeeper and of travellers occupied three stories; the ground floor was devoted to a wineshop and an eating-place. Sailors, carriers, handicraftsmen, and in general the poorer class of travellers ate and drank in a courtyard which had a mosaic pavement and a linen roof resting on columns, so that all guests might be under inspection. The wealthier and better born ate in a gallery which surrounded the courtyard. In the courtyard the men sat on the pavement near stones which were used instead of tables; in the galleries, which were cooler, there were tables, stools, and armchairs, even low couches, with cushions, on which guests might slumber.

In each gallery there was a great table on which were bread, meat, fish, and fruits, also jugs holding several quarts of beer, wine, and water. Negroes, men and women, bore around food to the guests, removed empty vessels, and brought from the cellars full pitchers, while scribes watching scrupulously over the tables noted down carefully each piece of bread, bulb of garlic, and flagon of water. In the courtyard two inspectors stood on an elevation with sticks in their grasp; these men kept their eyes on the servants and the scribes on the one hand, and on the other by the aid of the sticks they settled quarrels between the poorer guests of various nations. Thanks to this arrangement thefts and battles happened rarely; they were more frequent in the galleries than the courtyard.

The Phœnician innkeeper himself, the noted Asarhadon, a man beyond fifty, dressed in a long tunic and a muslin cape, walked among the guests to see if each received what he had ordered.

"Eat and drink, my sons!" said he to the Greek sailors, "for such pork and beer there is not in all the world as I have. I hear that a storm struck your ship about Rafia? Ye should give a bounteous offering to the gods for preserving you. In Memphis a man might not see a storm all his life, but at sea it is easier to meet lightning than a copper uten. I have mead, flour, incense for holy sacrifices, and here, in the corner, stand the gods of all nations. In my inn a man may still his hunger and be pious for very slight charges."

He turned and went to the gallery among the merchants. "Eat and drink, worthy lords," incited he, making obeisance. "The times are good. The most worthy heir--may he live for ever!--is going to Pi-Bast with an enormous retinue, but from the upper kingdom a transport of gold has come, of which more than one of you will win a good portion. I have partridges, young goslings, fish direct from the river, perfect roast venison. And what wine they have sent me from Cyprus! May I be turned into a Jew if a goblet of that luxury is not worth two drachmas, but to you, my benefactors and fathers, I will give it to-day for one drachma,--only to-day, to make a beginning."

"Give it for half a drachma a goblet, and we will taste it," said one of the merchants.

"Half a drachma!" repeated the host. "Sooner will the Nile flow upward toward Thebes than I give such sweetness for half a drachma, unless I do it for thee, Lord Belezis, who art the pearl of Sidon. Hei, slaves! bring to our benefactors the largest pitcher of wine from Cyprus."

When the innkeeper had walked on, the merchant named Belezis said to his companions,--

"May my hand wither if that wine is worth half a drachma! But never mind! We shall have less trouble with the police hereafter."

Conversation with guests of all nations and conditions did not prevent the host from looking at the scribes who noted down food and drink, at the watchman who stared at the scribes and the servants, and above all at a traveller who had seated himself on cushions in the front gallery, with his feet under him, and who was dozing over a handful of dates and a goblet of pure water. That traveller was about forty years old, he had abundant hair and beard of raven color, thoughtful eyes, and wonderfully noble features which seemed never to have been wrinkled by anger or distorted by fear.

"That is a dangerous rat!" thought the innkeeper, frowning. "He has the look of a priest, but he wears a dark coat. He has left gold and jewels with me to the value of a talent, and he neither eats meat nor drinks wine. He must be a great prophet or a very great criminal."

Two naked serpent-tamers came into the courtyard bearing a basket full of poisonous reptiles, and began their exhibition. The younger one played on a flute, while the elder wound around his body snakes big and little, any one of which would have sufficed to drive away guests from the inn "Under the Ship."

The flute-player gave out shriller and shriller notes; the serpent-tamer squirmed, foamed at the mouth, quivered convulsively, and irritated the reptiles till one of them bit him on the hand, another on the face, while he swallowed alive a third one, the smallest.

The guests and the servants looked at the exhibition of the serpent-tamer with alarm. They trembled when he irritated the reptiles, they closed their eyes when they bit him; but when the performer swallowed one of the snakes, they howled with delight and wonder.

The traveller in the front gallery, however, did not leave his cushions, he did not deign even to look at the exhibition. But when the tamer approached for pay, he threw to the pavement two copper utens, giving a sign with his hand not to come nearer.

The exhibition lasted half an hour perhaps. When the performers left the courtyard, a negro attending to the chambers of the inn rushed up to the host and whispered something anxiously. After that, it was unknown whence, a decurion of the police appeared, and when he had conducted Asarhadon to a remote window, he conversed long with him. The worthy owner of the inn beat his breast, clasped his hands, or seized his head. At last he kicked the black man in the belly, and commanded him to give the police official a roast goose and a pitcher of Cyprus wine; then he approached the guest in the front gallery, who seemed to doze there unbrokenly, though his eyes were open.

"I have evil news for thee, worthy lord," said the host, sitting at the side of the traveller.

"The gods send rain and sadness on people whenever it pleases them," replied the guest, with indifference.

"While we were looking at the snake-tamers," continued the host, pulling at his parti-colored beard, "thieves reached the second story and stole thy effects,--three bags and a casket, of course very precious."

"Thou must inform the court of my loss."

"Wherefore the court?" whispered the host. "With us thieves have a guild of their own. We will send for their elder, and value the effects; thou wilt pay him twenty per cent of the value and all will be found again. I can assist thee."

"In my country," replied the guest, "no man compounds with thieves, and I will not. I lodge with thee, I trusted thee with my property, and thou wilt answer."

The worthy Asarhadon began to scratch his shoulder-blades.

"Man of a distant region," continued he, in a lower voice, "ye Hittites and we Phœnicians are brothers, hence I advise thee sincerely not to turn to an Egyptian court, for it has only one door,--that by which a man enters, but none by which he goes out."

"The gods can conduct an innocent man through a wall," said the Hittite.

"Innocent! Who of us in the land of bondage is innocent?" whispered the host. "Look in that direction; over there that commander of ten policemen is finishing a goose, an excellent young goose, which I myself would have eaten gladly. But dost thou know why, taking it from my own mouth, I gave that goose to him?"

"It was because the man came to inquire about thee."

When he said this, the Phœnician looked askance at the traveller, who did not lose calmness for an instant.

"He asked me," continued the host, "that master of ten policemen asked, 'What sort of man is that black one who sits two hours over a handful of dates?' I replied: 'A very honorable man, the lord Phut.' 'Whence comes he?' 'From the country of the Hittites, from the city of Harran; he has a good house there of three stories, and much land.' 'Why has he come hither?' 'He has come,' I replied, 'to receive five talents from a certain priest, talents lent by his father.'

"And dost thou know, worthy lord," continued the innkeeper, "what that decurion answered? 'Asarhadon,' said he, 'I know that thou art a faithful servant of his holiness, thou hast good food and pure wines; for this reason I warn thee, look to thyself. Have a care of foreigners who make no acquaintances, who avoid wine and every amusement, and are silent. That Phut of Harran may be an Assyrian spy.' The heart died in me when I heard this. But these words do not affect thee," said he, indignantly, when he saw that the terrible suspicion of espionage did not disturb the calm face of the Hittite.

"Asarhadon," said the guest, after a while, "I confided to thee myself and my property. See to it, therefore, that my bags and my casket are returned to me, for in the opposite case I shall complain of thee to that same chief of ten who is eating the goose which was intended for thee."

"Well, but permit me to pay the thieves only fifteen per cent of the value of the things," cried the host.

"Thou hast no right to pay."

"Give them even thirty drachmas."

"Not an uten."

"Give the poor fellows even ten drachmas."

"Go in peace, Asarhadon, and beg the gods to return thee thy reason," answered the traveller, with the same unchanging calmness.

The host sprang up, panting from anger.

"The reptile!" thought he. "He has not come for a debt simply. He is doing some business here. My heart tells me that he is a rich merchant, or maybe an innkeeper who, in company with priests and judges, will open another inn somewhere near this one. May the first fire of heaven burn thee! May the leprosy devour thee! Miser, deceiver, criminal from whom an honest man can make nothing."

The worthy Asarhadon had not succeeded yet in calming himself when the sounds of a flute and a drum were heard on the street, and after a while four dancers, almost naked, rushed into the courtyard. The carriers and sailors greeted them with shouts of delight, and even important merchants in the galleries looked at them with curiosity and made remarks on their beauty. The dancers with motions of the hands and with smiles greeted all the company. One began to play on a double flute, another accompanied with a drum, and the two others danced around the court in such fashion that there was hardly a guest whom their muslin shawls did not strike as they whirled.

Those who were drinking began to sing, shout, and call to the dancers, while among the common herd a quarrel sprang up which the inspectors settled with canes. A certain Libyan, angered at sight of the canes, drew a knife, but two black men seized his arms, took from him some bronze rings as pay for food, and hurled him out to the street. Meanwhile one of the dancers remained with the sailors, two went among the merchants who offered them wine and cakes, and the oldest passed among the tables to make a collection.

"By the sanctuary of the divine Isis!" cried she, "pious strangers, give offerings to the goddess who guards all creation. The more you give the more happiness and blessing will come to you. For the sanctuary of Mother Isis!"

They threw onto her drum coils of copper wire, sometimes a grain of gold. One merchant asked if it were permitted to visit her, to which she nodded with a smile.

When she entered the front gallery, Phut of Harran reached for his leather bag and took out a gold ring, saying,--

"Istar is a great and good goddess; take this for her sanctuary."

The priestess looked quickly at him and whispered,--

"Anael, Sachiel--"

"Amabiel, Abalidot," answered the traveller, in the same low tone.

"I see that thou lovest Mother Isis," said the priestess, aloud. "Thou must be wealthy and art bountiful, so it is worth while to soothsay for thee."

She sat down near him, ate a couple of dates, and looking at his hand began,--

"Thou art from a distant region, from Bretor and Hagit.[6] Thou hast had a pleasant journey. For some days the Phœnicians are watching thee," added she, in a lower voice.

[6] The spirits of the northern and eastern parts of the world.

"Thou hast come for money, though thou art not a merchant. Visit me this day after sunset. Thy wishes will be accomplished," said she, aloud. "They should be accomplished. I live on the Street of Tombs in the house of the Green Star," whispered she. "But beware of thieves who are watching for thy property," finished she, seeing that the worthy Asarhadon was listening.

"There are no thieves in my house!" burst out the Phœnician. "None steal except those who come from the street."

"Be not angry, old man," replied the priestess, jeeringly, "or a red line will come out on thy neck right away; that means an unlucky death."

When he heard this, Asarhadon spat three times, and in a low voice repeated a charm against evil predictions. When he had moved away to the depth of the gallery, the priestess began to coquet with the Harran man. She gave him a rose from her crown, embraced him at parting, and went to the other tables.

The traveller beckoned to the host.

"I wish," said he, "that woman to come to me. Give command to conduct her to my chamber."

Asarhadon looked into his eyes, clapped his hands, and burst out laughing.

"Typhon has possessed thee, O man of Harran!" cried he. "If anything of that sort happened in my house with an Egyptian priestess, they would drive me out of the city. Here it is permissible to receive only foreign women."

"In that case I will go to her," answered Phut, "for she is a wise and devout person, and has told me of many happenings. After sunset thou wilt give me a guide, so that I may not go astray."

"All the evil spirits have entered thy heart," said Asarhadon. "Dost thou know that this acquaintance will cost thee two hundred drachmas, perhaps three hundred, not counting that which thou must give the servants and the sanctuary. For such a sum, or say five hundred drachmas, thou mayst make the acquaintance of a young and virtuous woman, my daughter, who is now fourteen years of age, and like a prudent girl is collecting for herself a dowry. Do not wander in the night through a strange city, for thou wilt fall into the hands of the police or of thieves, but make use of that which the gods give thee at home. Dost thou wish?"

"But will thy daughter go with me to Harran?" inquired Phut.

The innkeeper looked at him with astonishment. All at once he struck his forehead, as if he had divined a secret, and seizing the traveller by the hand, he drew him to a quieter place at the window.

"I know all," whispered he, excitedly. "Thou art dealing in women. But remember that for taking away one Egyptian woman thou mayst lose thy property and go to the quarries. But--perhaps thou wilt take me into thy company, for here I know every road."

"In that case show me the road to the priestess," said Phut. "Remember that after sunset thou art to have a guide for me, and to-morrow my bags and casket, otherwise I shall complain to the court."

Then Phut left the gallery and went to his chamber on a higher story.

Asarhadon with anger approached a table at which Phœnician merchants were drinking, and called aside one of them named Kush.

"Thou bringest beautiful guests to me!" said he, unable to restrain the quivering of his voice. "That Phut eats almost nothing, and now, as if to insult my house, he is going out to an Egyptian dancer instead of giving presents to my women."

"What wonder in that?" answered Kush, smiling. "He could find a Phœnician woman in Sidon, but here he prefers an Egyptian. A fool is he who in Cyprus does not taste Cyprus wine, but Tyrian beer--"

"But I say," broke in the host, "that that man is dangerous. He seems to be a citizen, though he looks like a priest."

"Thou, Asarhadon, hast the look of a high priest, though thou art only an innkeeper. A bench does not cease to be a bench, though it has a lion's skin on it."

"But why does he go to priestesses? I would swear that that is a pretence, and that this churlish Hittite, instead of going to a feast with women, is going to some meeting of conspirators."

"Anger and greed have darkened thy reason," answered Kush, with impatience. "Thou art like a man who looking for melons on a fig-tree sees not the figs on it. It is clear to any merchant that if Phut is to collect five talents from a priest he must win favors from all who go around in the sanctuaries. But thou hast no understanding."

"My heart tells me that this must be an Assyrian ambassador watching to destroy his holiness."

Kush looked with contempt on Asarhadon.

"Watch him, then; follow every step of his. If thou discover anything, perhaps thou wilt get some part of his property."

"Oh, now thou hast given wise counsel," said the host. "Let that rat go to the priestesses, and from them to places unknown to me. But I will send after him my vision, from which nothing will be secret."

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Chapter XX

About nine in the evening Phut left the inn "Under the Ship" in company with a negro who carried a torch. Half an hour earlier Asarhadon sent out a confidential servant, commanding him to observe carefully if the guest from Harran left the house of the "Green Star," and if so to follow him.

A second confidential servant went at a certain distance behind Phut; in the narrower streets he hid among the houses, on the broader ones he feigned drunkenness.

The streets were empty; carriers and hucksters were sleeping. There was light only in the houses of artisans who were at work, or in those of rich people who were feasting on the terraces. In various houses were heard the sounds of harps and flutes, songs, laughter, the blows of hammers, the sound of saws in the hands of cabinet makers; at times the cry of a drunken man, or a call for assistance.

The streets along which Phut and the slave passed were narrow for the greater part, crooked and full of holes. As they approached the end of the journey, the stone houses were lower and lower, those of one story more frequent, and there were more gardens, or rather palms, fig-trees, and stunted acacias, which, inclining out from between the walls, seemed to have the intention to escape from their places. On the Street of Tombs the view changed on a sudden. In place of stone buildings there were broad gardens, and in the middle of them splendid villas. The negro stopped before one of the gates and quenched his torch.

"Here is the 'Green Star,'" said he, and, making a low bow to Phut, he turned homeward.

The man of Harran knocked at the gate. After a while the gatekeeper appeared. He looked attentively at the stranger, and muttered,--

"Anael, Sachiel."

"Amabiel, Abalidot," answered Phut.

"Be greeted," said the gatekeeper; and he opened quickly to the visitor.

When he had passed some tens of steps between trees, Phut found himself in the antechamber of the villa, where the priestess whom he knew greeted him. Farther in stood some man with black beard and hair; so much like the man of Harran was he, that Phut could not hide his astonishment.

"He will take thy place in the eyes of those who are spying thee," said the priestess, smiling.

The man who was disguised as Phut put a garland of roses on his head, and in company with the priestess went to the first story, where the sound of flutes and the clatter of goblets were heard soon after. Meanwhile two inferior priests conducted Phut to a bath in the garden. After the bath they curled his hair and put white robes on him.

From the bath all three went out again among the trees, passed a number of gardens, and found themselves in an empty space finally.

"There," said one of the priests, "are the ancient tombs; on that side is the city, and here the temple. Go whithersoever thou wishest. May wisdom point out the road to thee, and sacred words guard thee from perils."

The two priests went back to the garden, and Phut was in solitude. The moonless night was rather clear. From afar, covered with mist, glittered the Nile; higher up gleamed the seven stars of the Great Bear. Over the head of the stranger was Orion, and above the dark pylons flamed the star Sirius.

"The stars shine in our land more brightly," thought Phut.

He began to whisper prayers in an unknown tongue, and turned toward the temple.

When he had gone a number of steps, from one of the gardens a man pushed out and followed him. But almost at that very moment such a thick fog fell on the place that it was quite impossible to see aught save the roofs of the temple.

After a certain time the man of Harran came to a high wall. He looked up at the sky and began to go westward. From moment to moment night birds and great bats flew above him. The mist had become so dense that he was forced to touch the wall so as not to lose it. The journey had lasted rather long when all at once Phut found himself before a low door with a multitude of bronze nail heads. He fell to counting these from the left side on the top; at the same time he pressed some of them powerfully, others he turned.

When he had pressed the last nail at the bottom, the door opened. The man of Harran advanced a few steps, and found himself in a narrow niche where there was utter darkness.

He tried the ground carefully with his foot till he struck upon something like the brink of a well from which issued coolness. He sat down then and slipped fearlessly into the abyss, though he found himself in that place and in Egypt for the first time.

The opening was not deep. Phut stood erect on a sloping pavement, and began to descend along a narrow corridor with as much confidence as if he had known the passage for a lifetime.

At the end of the corridor was a door. By groping the stranger found a knocker, and struck three times with it. In answer came a voice, it was unknown from what direction.

"Hast thou, who art disturbing in a night hour the peace of a holy place, the right to enter?"

"I have done no wrong to man, child, or woman. Blood has not stained my hands. I have eaten no unclean food. I have not taken another's property. I have not lied. I have not betrayed the great secret," answered the man of Harran, calmly.

"Art thou he for whom we are waiting, or he who in public thou declarest thyself to be?" inquired the voice, after a while.

"I am he who was to come from brethren in the East; but that other name is mine also, and in the northern city I possess a house and land, as I have told other persons."

The door opened, and Phut walked into a spacious cellar which was lighted by a lamp burning on a small table before a purple curtain. On the curtain was embroidered in gold a winged globe with two serpents.

At one side stood an Egyptian priest in a white robe.

"Dost thou who hast entered," asked the priest, pointing at Phut, "know what this sign on the curtain signifies?"

"The globe," answered the stranger, "is an image of the world on which we live; the wings indicate that it is borne through space like an eagle."

"And the serpents?" asked the priest.

"The two serpents remind him who is wise that whoso betrays the great secret will die a double death,--he will die soul and body."

After a moment of silence the priest continued,--

"If thou art in real fact Beroes" (here he inclined his head), "the great prophet of Chaldea" (he inclined his head a second time), "for whom there is no secret in heaven or on earth, be pleased to inform thy servant which star is the most wonderful."

"Wonderful is Hor-set,[7] which encircles heaven in the course of twelve years; for four smaller stars go around it. But the most wonderful is Horka,[8] which encircles heaven in thirty years; for it has subject to it not only stars, but a great ring which vanishes sometimes."

[7] Jupiter.

[8] Saturn.

On hearing this, the Egyptian priest prostrated himself before the Chaldean. Then he gave him a purple scarf and a muslin veil, indicated where the incense was, and left the cave with low obeisances.

The Chaldean remained alone. He put the scarf on his right shoulder, covered his face with the veil, and, taking a golden spoon sprinkled into it incense, which he lighted at the lamp before the curtain. Whispering, he turned three times in a circle, and the smoke of the incense surrounded him with a triple ring, as it were.

During this time a wonderful disturbance prevailed in the cave. It seemed as if the top were rising and the sides spreading out. The purple curtain at the altar quivered, as if moved by hidden fingers. The air began to move in waves, as if flocks of unseen birds were flying through it.

The Chaldean opened the robe on his bosom, and drew forth a gold medal covered with mysterious characters. The cave trembled, the sacred curtain moved with violence, and little flames appeared in space at various points.

Then the seer raised his hands and began,--

"O Heavenly Father, gracious and merciful, purify my spirit. Send down on Thy unworthy servant a blessing, and extend Thy almighty arm against rebellious spirits, so that I may manifest Thy power.

"Here is the sign which I touch in thy presence. Here I am--I, leaning on the assistance of that God, the foreseeing and the fearless. I am mighty, and summon and conjure thee. Come hither with obedience,--in the name of Aye, Saraye, Aye, Saraye!"

At that moment from various sides were heard voices as of distant trumpets. Near the lamp some bird flew past, then a robe of ruddy color, afterward a man with a tail, finally a crowned cock which stood on the table before the curtain.

The Chaldean spoke again,--

"In the name of the Almighty and Eternal--Amorul, Taneha, Rabur, Latisten."

Distant sounds of trumpets were heard for a second time.

"In the name of the just and ever-living Eloy, Archima, Rabu, I conjure and summon thee. In the name of the star, which is the sun, by this its sign, by the glorious and awful name of the living God."

The trumpets sounded again, and stopped on a sudden. Before the altar appeared a crowned vision with a sceptre in its hand, and sitting on a lion.

"Beroes! Beroes!" cried the vision, with a restrained voice. "Why dost thou summon me?"

"I wish my brethren of this temple to receive me with sincere hearts, and incline their ears to the words which I bring them from brethren in Babylon," said the Chaldean.

"Be it so," said the vision, and vanished.

The Chaldean stood as motionless as a statue, with his head thrown back, with hands lifted upward. He stood thus half an hour in a position impossible for an ordinary person.

During this time a part of the wall which formed one side of the cave pushed back, and three Egyptian priests entered. At sight of the Chaldean, who seemed to lie in the air, resting his shoulders on an invisible support, the priests looked at one another with amazement. The eldest said,--

"Long ago there were men like this among us, but no one has such power in our day."

They walked around him on all sides, touched his stiffened members, and looked with fear at his face, which was bloodless and sallow, like that of a corpse.

"Is he dead?" asked the youngest.

After these words the body of the Chaldean, which had been bent backward, returned to a perpendicular position. On his face appeared a slight flush, and his upraised hands dropped. He sighed, rubbed his eyes like a man roused from sleep, looked at the priests, and said after a while, turning to the eldest,--

"Thou art Mefres, high priest of the temple of Ptah in Memphis. Thou art Herhor, high priest of Amon in Thebes, the first dignity in this state after the pharaoh. Thou," he indicated the youngest, "art Pentuer, the second prophet in the temple of Amon, and the adviser of Herhor."

"Thou art undoubtedly Beroes, the high priest and sage of Babylon, whose coming was announced to us a year ago," answered Mefres.

"Thou hast told truth," said the Chaldean.

He embraced them in turn, and they inclined before him.

"I bring you great words from our common fatherland, which is Wisdom," said Beroes. "Be pleased to listen and act as is needful."

At a sign from Herhor, Pentuer withdrew to the rear of the cave and brought out three armchairs of light wood for his superiors, and a low stool for his own use. He seated himself near the lamp, and took from his bosom a small dagger and wax-covered tablets.

When all three had occupied their chairs, the Chaldean began,--

"Mefres, the highest college of priests in Babylon addresses thee: 'The sacred order of priests in Egypt is falling. Many priests collect money and women, and pass their lives amid pleasure. Wisdom is neglected. Ye have no power over the world which is invisible. Ye have no power over your own souls. Some of you have lost the highest faith, and the future is concealed from you. Things worse than this even happen; for many priests, feeling that their spiritual power is exhausted, have entered the way of falsehood and deceive simple people by cunning devices.'

"The highest college says this: 'If ye wish to return to the good road, Beroes will remain some years with you, so as to rouse true light on the Nile by the aid of a spark brought from the high altar of Babylon.'"

"All is as thou sayest," answered Mefres, confused. "Remain with us therefore a number of years, so that the youth growing up at present may remember thy wisdom."

"And now, Herhor, to thee come words from the highest college."

Herhor inclined his head.

"Because ye neglect the great secrets, your priests have not noted that evil years are approaching Egypt. Ye are threatened by internal disasters from which only virtue and wisdom can save you. But the worst is that if in the course of the coming decade ye begin war with Assyria, she will defeat your forces. Her armies will come to the Nile and destroy all that has existed here for ages.

"Such an ominous juncture of stars as is now weighing on Egypt happened first during the XIV. dynasty, when the Hyksos kings captured and plundered this country. It will come for the third time in five or six hundred years from Assyria and the people of Paras, who dwell to the east of Chaldea."

The priests listened in terror. Herhor was pale; the tablets fell from Pentuer's fingers; Mefres held the amulet hanging on his breast, and prayed while his lips were parching.

"Be on your guard then against Assyria," continued the Chaldean, "for her hour is the present. The Assyrians are a dreadful people! They despise labor, they live by war. They conquer, they impale on stakes or flay living people, they destroy captured cities and lead away their inhabitants to bondage. For them to kill savage beasts is repose; to pierce prisoners with arrows or scoop out their eyes is amusement. Temples they turn into ruins, the vessels of the gods they use at their banquets, and make buffoons of priests and sages. They adorn their walls with skins torn from living people, and their tables with the blood-stained skulls of their enemies."

When the Chaldean ceased speaking, the worthy Mefres answered,--

"Great prophet, thou hast cast fear on our souls, and dost not indicate a remedy. It may be true, and to a certainty is so, since thou hast said it, that the fates for a certain time will be against us, but how avoid this predicament? In the Nile there are dangerous places through which no boat can pass safely; so the wisdom of the helmsmen avoids deadly whirlpools. It is the same with misfortunes of nations. A nation is a boat, and an epoch is the river, which at certain periods has whirlpools. If the frail boat of a fisherman can avoid peril, why should not millions of people escape under similar conditions?"

"Thy words are wise," replied Beroes, "but I can answer in part only."

"Dost thou not know all that will happen?" asked Herhor.

"Ask me not touching that which I know, but which I may not disclose at this moment. Most important in your case is to keep peace for ten years with Assyria. Ye have power to do that. Assyria still dreads you; she knows not the juncture of evil fates above Egypt, and desires to wage war with northern and eastern nations who live near the seacoast. Ye might, therefore, conclude a treaty to-day with Assyria."

"On what conditions?" asked Herhor.

"On very good ones. Assyria will yield to you the land of Israel as far as the city of Akko, and the land of Edom to the city of Elath. So your boundaries will be advanced ten days march toward the north without war, and ten days toward the east also."

"But Phœnicia?" inquired Herhor.

"Approach not temptation!" exclaimed Beroes. "If the pharaoh were to stretch his hand to-day toward Phœnicia, in a month Assyrian armies intended for the north and east would turn southward, and a year hence or earlier their horses would be swimming in your sacred river."

"Egypt cannot renounce influence over Phœnicia," interrupted Herhor, with an outburst.

"Should she not renounce she would prepare her own ruin," said the Chaldean. "Moreover, I repeat the words of the highest college: 'Tell Egypt,' declared the brothers in Babylon, 'to cower to the earth for ten years, like a partridge, for the falcon of evil fate is watching her. Tell her that we Chaldeans hate Assyria more than do the Egyptians, for we endure the burden of its rule; but still we recommend to the Egyptians peace with that bloodthirsty nation. Ten years is a short period; after that not only can ye regain your ancient place, but ye can save us.'"

"That is true!" added Mefres.

"Only consider," continued the Chaldean, "should Assyria begin war with you, she would involve also Babylon, which hates warfare. War will exhaust our wealth and stop the labor of wisdom. Even were ye not defeated your country would be ruined for a long period. Ye would lose not only people, but the fertile soil, which would be buried by sand in the absence of earth-tillers."

"We understand that," replied Herhor; "hence we have no thought of attacking Assyria. But Phœnicia--"

"What harm will it be to you," asked Beroes, "if the Assyrian robber squeezes the Phœnician thief? Your merchants and ours will gain by such action. But if ye want Phœnicians, let them settle on your shores. I am sure that the richest and most adroit of them would flee from Assyrian conquest."

"What would happen to our fleet, if the Assyrians settled in Phœnicia?" inquired Herhor.

"That is not your fleet, but the Phœnician," replied Beroes. "When Tyrian and Sidonian ships are lost to you, ye will build your own, and exercise Egyptians in navigation. If ye have mind and a practical character, ye will drive out Phœnician commerce from western regions."

Herhor waved his hand.

"I have told that which was commanded me," said Beroes, "and do ye that which pleaseth you. But remember that ten evil years are impending."

"It seems to me, holy father," said Pentuer, "that thou didst speak of internal troubles which threaten Egypt in the future. What will they be, if it please thee to answer thy servant?"

"Do not ask. Those are things which ye ought to know better than I, who am a stranger. Clear sight will discover the disease, and experience will give the remedy."

"Our working people are terribly oppressed by the great," whispered Pentuer.

"Devotion has decreased," added Mefres.

"There are many who sigh for a foreign war," began Herhor. "I have seen this long time that we cannot carry on one, unless ten years hence--"

"Then will ye conclude a treaty with Assyria?" inquired the Chaldean.

"Amon, who knows my heart," answered Herhor, "knows how repugnant that treaty is to me. It is not so long since those vile Assyrians paid us tribute. But if thou, holy father, and the highest college say that the fates are against us, we must make the treaty."

"We must indeed," added Mefres.

"In that case inform the priests in Babylon of your decision, and they will arrange that King Assar shall send an embassy to Egypt. This treaty, believe me, is of great advantage; without war ye will increase your possessions. Indeed our priesthood have given deep thought to this question."

"May all blessings fall on you, wealth, power, and wisdom," said Mefres. "Yes, we must raise our priestly order, and do thou, holy Beroes, assist us."

"There is need, above all, to assuage the suffering of the people," put in Pentuer.

"The priests! the people!" said Herhor, as if to himself. "Above all, it is needful in this case to restrain those who wish war. It is true that his holiness the pharaoh is with me, and I think I have gained influence over the heir,--may he live through eternity! But Nitager, to whom war is as water to a fish; but the leaders of our mercenary forces, who only in war have significance; but our aristocracy, who think that war will pay Phœnician debts and give them property--"

"Meanwhile earth-tillers are fainting beneath an avalanche of labor, and public workmen are revolting against demands of overseers," added Pentuer.

"He is always expressing his thought!" said Herhor, in meditation. "Think thou, Pentuer, of earth-tillers and laborers; thou, Mefres, of the priests. I know not what ye will effect, but I swear that if my own son favored war I would bind and destroy him."

"Act in this way," said Beroes,--"let him carry on war who wishes, but not in those regions where he can meet Assyria."

With this the session ended. The Chaldean put his scarf on his shoulder and the veil on his face; Mefres and Herhor, one on each side of him, and behind him Pentuer, all turned toward the altar.

When Beroes had crossed his hands on his breast, he whispered, and again subterranean disturbance set in, and they heard as it were a distant uproar, which astonished the assistants.

"Baralanensis, Baldachiensis, Paumachiæ," said the seer, aloud, "I summon thee to witness our stipulations and support our wishes."

The sound of trumpets was heard so distinctly that Mefres bowed to the earth, Herhor looked around in astonishment, while Pentuer knelt, fell to trembling, and covered his ears.

The purple curtain at the altar shook, and its folds took such a form as if a man were behind who wished to pass through it.

"Be witnesses," cried the Chaldean, in a changed voice, "ye powers above and ye powers beneath! And cursed be he who observes not this treaty or betrays its secret."

"Cursed!" repeated some voice.

"And destroyed!"

"And destroyed."

"In this visible and in that invisible life. By the ineffable name of Jehovah, at the sound of which the earth trembles, the sea draws back, fire quenches, and the elements of nature become evident."

A real tempest rose in the cave. The sound of trumpets was mingled with voices, as it were, of distant thunders.

The curtain of the altar rose almost horizontally, and behind it, amid glittering lightning, appeared wonderful creatures, half human, half plant and animal, crowded and mingled together.

Suddenly all was silent, and Beroes rose slowly in the air, higher than the heads of the priests there attending.

* * * * *

At eight o'clock next morning Phut of Harran returned to the Phœnician inn "Under the Ship" to which his bags and casket stolen by thieves had been returned safely. A few minutes later came Asarhadon's confidential servant, whom the innkeeper took to the cellar and examined briefly,--

"Well?"

"I was all night on the square where the temple of Set is," answered the servant. "At ten in the evening out of the garden which lies about four places farther than the house of the 'Green Star,' came three priests. One of them, with black beard and hair, turned his steps through the square toward the temple of Set. I ran after him, but mist fell, and he vanished from my eyes. Whether he returned to the 'Green Star' or when, I know not."

The innkeeper, when he had heard this account, struck his forehead and muttered to himself,--

"So my man from Harran, if he dresses as a priest and goes to a temple, must be a priest; and if he wears beard and hair, he must be a Chaldean priest. But if he meets priests here in secret, there must be some rogue's tricks. I will not tell the police, for I might be caught. But I will inform some great man from Sidon, for there may be profit in this, if not for me, for our people."

Soon the other messenger returned. Asarhadon went down to the cellar with this one also, and heard the following narrative,--

"I stood all night in front of the 'Green Star.' The man of Harran was there; he got drunk and raised such shouts that the policeman warned the doorkeeper."

"Did he?" inquired the innkeeper. "The man of Harran was at the 'Green Star' all night, and thou didst see him?"

"Not only I, but the policeman."

Asarhadon brought down the first servant, and commanded each to repeat his story. They repeated the stories faithfully, with the utmost conviction. It appeared then that Phut of Harran had remained all night at the "Green Star" without leaving the place for a moment; at the same time he went to the temple of Set, and did not return from it.

"Oh," muttered Asarhadon, "in all this there is some very great villany. I must inform the elders of the Phœnician society, as quickly as possible, that this Hittite knows how to be in two places at once. I shall also beg him to move out of my inn. I do not take people who have two forms,--one their own, the other in supply. For a man of that kind is a great criminal, a wizard, or a conspirator."

Asarhadon was afraid of such things; so he secured himself against enchantment by prayers to all the gods which adorned his inn. Then he hurried to the city, where he notified the elder of the Phœnician society and the elder of the guild of thieves of what had happened. Then, returning home, he summoned the decurion of police, and informed him that Phut might be a dangerous person. Finally he asked the man of Harran to leave the inn, to which he brought no profit, nothing but loss and suspicion.

Phut agreed to the proposition willingly, and informed the innkeeper that he intended to sail for Thebes that same evening.

"May thou never return!" thought the hospitable host. "May thou rot in the quarries, or fall into the river to be eaten by crocodiles."

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Chapter XXI

Prince Rameses began his journey in the most beautiful season of the year, during the month Phamenoth (end of December and beginning of January). The river had fallen to half its height, laying bare new strips of land day by day. From Thebes many barges with wheat were sailing down toward the sea; in Lower Egypt clover and beans had been harvested. Orange and pomegranate trees were covered with blossoms; in the fields earth-tillers had sown lupines, flax, barley, and had planted various beans, cucumbers, and other garden products.

Escorted to the landing of Memphis by priests, the highest dignitaries of the state, the guards of his holiness the pharaoh, the heir entered a gilded barge about ten in the morning. Under the bridge, on which were costly tents, twenty soldiers worked the oars, at the mast and at both ends of the boat the best naval engineers had taken their places. Some looked after the sails, others commanded the rowers, while still others steered the vessel.

Rameses had invited to his boat the most worthy high priest Mefres and the holy father Mentezufis, who were to be with him on the journey and in governing. The prince had invited also the worthy nomarch of Memphis, who conducted him to the boundary of his province.

Some hundreds of yards in front of the viceroy sailed the beautiful boat of the worthy Otoes, nomarch of Aa, a province adjoining the capital. Behind the prince came countless barges occupied by the court, by priests, by officials and officers.

Provisions and servants had been despatched earlier.

The Nile flows to Memphis between two lines of mountains. Farther the mountains turn eastward and westward, and the river divides into a number of arms in which the water flows through a broad plain to the Mediterranean.

When the barge had pushed away from the landing, the prince wished to converse with Mefres, the high priest. But at that moment such a shout broke forth that he was forced to leave his tent and show himself to the people.

The uproar grew greater, however, instead of subsiding. On both shores stood and increased every moment throngs of half-naked laborers, or people of the city dressed in holiday garments. Very many had garlands on their heads, almost all held green branches in their hands. Some groups sang; among others were heard the beating of drums and the sound of flutes.

Well-sweeps planted thickly along the river with buckets stood idle, but on the Nile circled a swarm of small boats, the occupants of which cast flowers at the barge of the viceroy. Some of them sprang into the water and swam after the vessel.

"They greet me as they would his holiness," thought the viceroy.

And great pride possessed his heart at sight of so many stately barges which he could detain at one sweep of the hand, and those thousands who had left their occupations and ran the risk even of death just to see his divine countenance.

Rameses was delighted, especially by that immense shout which rose from the people without ceasing for an instant. That shout filled his breast, rose to his head, exalted him. It seemed to the prince that if he should spring from the barge he would not touch water, for the enthusiasm of the multitude would seize him and bear him aloft above the earth, as a bird is borne in flying.

The barge approached the left bank somewhat; the forms of people were outlined more clearly, and the prince saw something which he had not expected. While persons in the first ranks were clapping their hands and singing, in farther ones clubs were visible falling thickly and swiftly on backs that were hidden.

The astonished heir turned to the nomarch of Memphis.

"But look, worthiness, sticks are at work there."

The nomarch shaded his eyes with his hand, his neck became red. "Pardon, most worthy prince, but I see badly."

"They are beating--surely they are beating!"

"That is possible," answered the nomarch. "Undoubtedly the priests have caught a band of thieves there."

Not over-pleased with this conversation, the heir went toward the stern to the engineers, who turned the barge suddenly toward the middle of the river, and from that point he looked back at Memphis.

Both banks higher up the Nile were almost deserted, the boats had disappeared, the well-sweeps were moving as if nothing had happened.

"Is the solemnity over?" inquired the prince of an engineer, pointing to a higher place on the river.

"It is. The people have returned to their work," said the engineer.

"Very quickly."

"They must recover lost time," said the engineer, incautiously.

The heir quivered, and looked at the man sharply. But he calmed himself soon and returned to the tent. For him shouts were of no further interest. He was gloomy and silent. After an outburst of pride, he felt contempt for that throng which passed so promptly from enthusiasm to well-sweeps and baling up muddy water.

At that point the Nile begins to separate into branches. The barge of the chief of Aa turned toward the west, sailed an hour, and stopped at the river bank. The crowds were still greater than at Memphis. A multitude of pillars had been set up with banners and triumphal arches entwined with green garlands. Among the people foreign faces and garments were more and more frequent.

When the prince landed, the priests approached with a baldachin, and the worthy nomarch Otoes began,--

"Be greeted, viceroy of the divine pharaoh, within the borders of Aa. As a sign of thy favor, which for us is as heavenly dew, be pleased to make an offering to the god Ptah, who is our patron, and take under thy protection and control this province, with its temples, officials, people, cattle, grain, and all that is here existent."

Then he presented a group of young exquisites, fragrant, rouged, arrayed in gold-embroidered garments. Those were the remoter and nearer relatives of the nomarch, the local aristocracy.

Rameses looked at them with attention.

"Aha!" said he. "It seemed to me that these gentlemen lacked something, and now I see what it is,--they have no wigs."

"Because thou, most worthy prince, dost not wear wigs, our young men have vowed not to wear them," replied the nomarch.

After this explanation one of the young men stood behind the prince with a fan, another with a shield, a third with a dart, and the procession began. The heir walked under the baldachin, before him a priest with a tube in which incense was burning; there were maidens also who scattered roses on the path over which the prince was to travel.

The people in holiday garments, with branches in their hands, formed a line and shouted; they sang songs, or prostrated themselves before the lieutenant of the pharaoh. But the prince saw that in spite of the loud sounds of joy their faces were unenlivened and anxious. He saw also that the crowd was divided into groups which people of some sort were directing, and that the rejoicing took place by command. And again he felt in his heart a chill of contempt for that throng which knew not how to rejoice even.

Gradually the retinue approached the walled column which indicated the boundary between Aa and Memphis. On three sides of the column were inscriptions describing the extent of the province, its population, and the number of its cities; on the fourth side was a statue of Ptah, surrounded from foot to breast with an envelope; he had the usual cap on his head and a staff in his hand.

One of the priests gave the prince a golden spoon with burning incense. The heir uttered prescribed prayers, whirled the censer to the height of the divinity's head, and bowed low a number of times in succession.

The shouts of the people and of the priests rose ever higher, though among youthful exquisites smiles and jests were observable. Since his reconciliation with Herhor the prince had shown great respect for gods and priests; so he frowned somewhat. In one moment the young men changed their bearing. All became serious, while some fell on their faces before the column.

"Indeed," thought the prince, "people of noble birth are better than that rabble. Whatever nobles do they do it with spirit, not like those who make an uproar in my honor but are glad to hurry back to their workshops and stables."

Now he measured better than ever the distance between him and the lowest people, and he understood that the aristocracy was the only class to which he was bound by a community of feeling. If suddenly they should vanish, those stately young men and beautiful women whose flashing glances followed every one of his movements, so as to serve him straightway and carry out his orders,--if they should vanish, the prince would feel more alone among the countless throngs of people than in a desert.

Eight negroes brought a litter adorned above the baldachin with ostrich feathers; the prince took his place in it, and advanced to the capital of Sochem, where he dwelt in a government palace.

The prince's stay in that province, which was only a few miles from Memphis, lasted a month. All this time he passed in receiving petitions, in accepting homage, in official receptions, and at feasts.

The feasts were of two kinds,--one in the palace, at which the aristocracy were present; the other in the outer court, where whole oxen were roasted, loaves of bread were eaten by the hundred, and hundreds of pitchers of beer drunk. At these appeared servants of the prince and the lower officials of the province.

Rameses admired the munificence of the nomarch, and the affection of the great lords around him, alert to every beck of his and ready to carry out his orders.

Wearied at last by amusements, Rameses declared to the worthy Otoes that he wished to become more nearly acquainted with the management of the province, for he had received a command from his holiness the pharaoh to study it.

His desire was satisfied. The nomarch requested the prince to sit in a litter borne by only two men, and with a great retinue escorted him to the temple of Hator. There the retinue remained in the antechamber, but the nomarch commanded the bearers to carry the prince to the summit of a pylon, which he himself ascended.

From the summit of a tower, ninety feet high, whence priests observed the sky and communicated through colored flags with the neighboring temples in Memphis, Atribis, and Anu, the eye surveyed in the radius of some miles almost a whole province.

From that place, too, the worthy Otoes showed Rameses the fields and vineyards of the pharaoh; he showed what canal they were clearing, what sluice they were repairing; he showed furnaces for smelting copper; he showed where the royal granaries stood, where the lotus and papyrus swamps were, what fields were covered with sand, and so on till he had finished.

Rameses was charmed with the beautiful view, and thanked Otoes warmly for the pleasure which he experienced. But when he returned to the palace, and, according to the advice of the pharaoh, noted impressions, he convinced himself that his knowledge of the economic conditions of Aa had not widened.

After some days he asked explanations again of Otoes touching the administration of the province. The worthy lord commanded all the officials to assemble and pass before the prince, who sat in the main court on an elevation.

Before the viceroy moved great and petty treasurers; scribes of grain, wine, cattle, woollen stuffs; chief masons, ditch diggers, naval and land engineers, healers of various diseases, officers over regiments of laborers, police scribes, judges, inspectors of prisons, even executioners and dissectors. After them the worthy nomarch presented the prince's own officials in that province to him. Rameses learned therefore, with no small astonishment, that in Aa and in the city of Sochem he had his own personal charioteer, torch-bearer, shield-bearer, dart-bearer, mace-bearer, some tens of litter-bearers, a number of cooks, cup-bearers, barbers, and many other servitors distinguished for attachment and faithfulness, though he had not even heard their names and did not know them.

Tortured and tired by a barren review of officials, the prince's courage fell. He was terrified by the thought that he understood nothing, hence was unfitted to rule; but he feared to confess this even to himself.

If Rameses could not rule Egypt, and others were able to rule it, what remained to him? Nothing but death. Without the throne he could have no happiness. He felt that for him life would be impossible unless he had power.

But when he had rested a few days, in so far as rest was attainable in that chaos of court life, he summoned Otoes, and said to him,--

"Worthiness, I have begged thee to acquaint me with the secret of governing Aa. Thou hast done so, thou hast shown me the country and the officials, but still I know nothing. On the contrary. I am like a man in the underground divisions of a temple who sees so many passages about him that he is unable at last to find his way out into daylight."

The nomarch was confused.

"What am I to do?" asked he. "What dost thou wish of me, O ruler? Only say the word and I will yield to thee office, property, even life."

And, seeing that the prince received this assurance with graciousness, he continued,--

"During thy journey thou hast seen the people of this province. Thou wilt say that all were not present. Agreed. I will command all to assemble, and they are, men, women, old men, and children, about two hundred thousand. From the summit of the pylon thou wert pleased to survey our whole province. But if it be thy wish, we can examine from near by every field, every village, and every street of the city of Sochem. Finally I have shown thee the officials; it is true, the very lowest were absent. But command and all will stand before thee to-morrow and fall on their faces. What am I to do more? Tell me, most worthy lord."

"I believe that thou art most faithful," answered Rameses. "Therefore explain to me two things: first, why has the income of his holiness diminished? second, what art thou doing thyself in the province?"

Otoes was confused, and the prince added quickly,--

"I wish to know what thou art doing here, and by what methods, since I am young and only commencing to govern."

"Thou hast the wisdom of a century," whispered the nomarch.

"Therefore it is proper," continued the prince, "that I should ask men of experience and that thou shouldst give me knowledge."

"I will show thee all, and give every explanation," said Otoes. "But we should go to a place where there is no uproar."

In fact, in the palace which the prince occupied as many people thronged in the inner and outer court as at a fair. They ate, drank, sang, raced or rested, and all this to enhance the glory of the viceroy whom they were serving.

About three in the afternoon, the nomarch gave command to bring two horses, and with the prince he rode forth from the city westward. The court remained in the palace and amused itself with still greater gladness.

The day was beautiful, cool; the earth was covered with plants and flowers. Over the heads of the horsemen were heard the songs of birds, the air was full of fragrance.

"How pleasant it is here!" exclaimed Rameses. "Now I am able to collect my thoughts for the first time in a month. I had begun to think that a whole regiment of chariots had assembled in my head, and that from morning till evening reviews were held there."

"Such is the fate of a ruler in this world," said the nomarch.

They halted on an eminence. At their feet lay an immense meadow, cut through by a blue stream. On the north and on the south were white walls of towns; beyond the meadow on the rim of the horizon extended the reddish sands of the western desert, from which came an occasional breath of heated air, as if from a furnace.

On the meadow were countless herds of animals,--horned and hornless oxen, sheep, goats, asses, antelopes, even rhinoceroses.

Here and there were visible swampy places covered with water plants and reeds in which were teeming wild geese, ducks, doves, storks, pelicans, and ibises.

"Behold, lord," said Otoes, "a picture of our country, Queneh, Egypt. Osiris fell in love with this strip of land in the midst of deserts; he covered it with plants and living creatures, so as to have from them profit. Then the kindly god took a human form and became the first pharaoh. When he felt that his body was withering, he left it and entered into his son, and later on into his son's son.

"Thus Osiris lives among us, since the beginning of ages, as pharaoh, and he gains profit from Egypt and its wealth which he himself created. The lord has extended like a mighty tree. All the pharaohs are his roots, the nomarchs and priests his larger branches, the nobles the smaller branches. The visible god sits on the throne of the earth and receives the income which belongs to him from Egypt; the invisible god receives offerings in the temples, and declares his will through the lips of the priesthood."

"Thou utterest truth," said the viceroy. "Thus is it written."

"Since Osiris the pharaoh," continued the nomarch, "cannot himself be occupied in the management of the country, he has appointed us nomarchs, who come of his blood, to watch over his property."

"That is true," said Rameses. "Sometimes even the sun god becomes incarnate in a nomarch and begins a new dynasty. Thus rose the dynasties of Memphis, Elephantina, Thebes, and Ksoi."

"Thou hast said it," continued Otoes. "But now I will answer that which thou hast asked of me.

"Thou hast asked what I do in this province? I guard the property of Osiris, the pharaoh, and my own part in it. Look at those flocks; thou seest various animals. Some give milk, others flesh, others wool and skins. The people of Egypt give wheat, wine, woollen stuffs, vessels, houses. My affair is to take from each what he should give, and lay it down at the feet of the pharaoh.

"In watching over the numerous herds I could not succeed alone; so I have chosen watchful dogs and wise shepherds. Some of my servants milk animals, shear them, remove their skins; others watch them so that thieves may not steal or the plunderer injure. So with the province. I could not collect all the taxes and guard men from evil; hence I have officials who do what is proper, and render account of their action--"

"All this is true," interrupted the prince. "I know and understand what thou sayest. But I cannot comprehend why the income of his holiness decreases, though guarded well, as thou hast told me."

"Be pleased to remember," continued the nomarch, "that Set, though a full brother of the radiant Osiris, hates that god, wars with him, and deforms all his labors. He sends deadly diseases on beasts and on men; he causes the overflow of the Nile to be scant or over-violent, and he hurls clouds of sand in time of heat upon Egypt.

"When a year is good, the Nile reaches the desert; when it is bad, the desert comes down to the Nile, and then the royal income decreases.

"Look!" continued he, pointing at the meadow. "The flocks there are numerous, but in my youth they were greater in number. But who is the cause of this? No other than Set, whom human power cannot vanquish. This meadow, great to-day, was once greater, and from this spot they could not see the desert, which now is a terror.

"When the gods are battling, men can do nothing; where Set conquers Osiris, who can bar the way to him?"

The worthy Otoes finished; the prince hung his head. In school he had heard not a little about the love of Osiris and the malice of Set, and while still a child he was angry that no one had forced Set to a final reckoning.

"When I grow up," thought he at that time, "and carry a javelin, I will seek out Set and we will make a trial."

And he was looking now at that measureless sand space, that kingdom of the ominous godhead which was decreasing the income of Egypt; but he had no thought to do battle with Set. For how can man fight with the desert? Man can only avoid it or perish.

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Chapter XXII

His stay in Aa had so wearied Rameses that to seek rest and rally his thoughts he commanded to stop all solemnities in his honor, and directed that during his journey people should never come forth to greet him.

The prince's retinue were astonished, even somewhat offended; but they carried out the command, and Rameses again found some quiet. He had time to review his troops, which was his most agreeable occupation, and he could collect his scattered thoughts in some measure.

Shut up in the remotest corner of the palace, the prince began to consider how far he had carried out the commands of the pharaoh his father.

He had surveyed Aa with his own eyes,--its fields, towns, population, officials. He had verified the fact that the eastern edge of the province was yielding to the advance of the desert. He had observed that laborers were indifferent and stupid; that they did only what was commanded, and that with unwillingness. Finally, he had convinced himself that really faithful and loving subjects were to be found only among the aristocracy, for they were related to the family of the pharaohs, or were of the noble order, and were grandsons of the men who had fought under the great Rameses.

In every case those people rallied to the dynasty heartily, and were ready to serve it with genuine readiness; not like the low people, who when they had shouted a greeting ran back with all speed to their pigs and their oxen.

But the chief object of his mission was not explained yet. Rameses not only did not see clearly causes for the decrease of the royal income, but he did not know how to formulate this question: Why is there evil, and how can we correct it? He only felt that the legendary war of the god Set with Osiris furnished no true explanation, and gave no means of cure whatever.

But the prince, as the coming pharaoh, wished to have a great income, like that of former rulers in Egypt. He was boiling with anger at the very thought that when he had mounted the throne he would be as poor as his father and perhaps even poorer.

"Never!" cried the prince, balling his fists.

To increase the royal property he was ready to rush sword in hand against Set and hew that god into pieces, as Set had hewn his own brother Osiris. But instead of the cruel divinity and his legions he saw around him ignorance, the desert, and silence.

Under the influence of these struggles with his own thoughts, he seized once the high priest Mefres.

"Tell me, holy father, to whom all wisdom is familiar, why does the income of the state decrease, and in what manner can we add to it?"

Mefres raised his hands.

"May the spirit be blessed, worthy lord," cried the priest, "which whispered such thoughts to thee. Oh, mayest thou follow in the steps of mighty pharaohs who built temples in all parts of Egypt, and through canals and sluices increased the area of fertile land in this country."

The old man was so moved that he fell to weeping.

"First of all," said the prince, "answer what I ask; for how think of temples and canals when the treasury is empty? The greatest misfortune has befallen Egypt: its rulers are threatened with indigence. We must examine this, first of all, and cure it; after that the rest will come easily."

"This, prince, thou wilt learn only in temples, at the foot of the altar," said the high priest. "There alone can thy noble curiosity be pacified."

Rameses started up with impatience.

"Before thy eyes, worthy father, the temple hides the whole country, even the treasury of the pharaoh. I am, for that matter, a priestly pupil. I was reared in the shadow of a temple, I know the secret of the spectacles in which the malice of Set is represented, with the death and re-birth of Osiris, and what does that profit me? When my father asks how to replenish the treasury, I can give him no answer. Should I persuade him to pray longer and oftener than he does at the present?"

"Prince, thou art blaspheming, thou knowest not the high ceremonies of religion. If thou knew them thou couldst answer many questions which torment thee; and hadst thou seen that which I have, thou wouldst know that the highest interest of Egypt is to support priests and temples."

"Men in old age become children," thought Rameses; and he stopped the conversation.

Mefres had been very pious at all times, but he had then grown eccentric.

"I should end well," thought Rameses, "if I yielded to priests and assisted at puerile ceremonies. Perhaps Mefres would even command me to stand for whole hours at an altar, as he himself does, beyond doubt, while expecting a miracle."

In the month Pharmuthi (end of January and beginning of February) the prince took leave of Otoes, before starting for Hak, the next province. He thanked the nomarchs and lords for their splendid reception, but at heart he was sad, for he knew that he had not mastered the problem put forth by his father.

Escorted by the family and court of Otoes, the prince with his retinue crossed to the right bank of the river, where he was greeted by Ranuzer, the worthy nomarch, together with the lords and the priests of his province.

When the prince reached the land of Hak, the priests raised a statue of Atmu, patron god of the province, and the officials fell prostrate; then the nomarch brought a golden sickle to Rameses, and begged him to open the harvest as viceroy of the pharaoh, that being the time to gather in barley.

Rameses took the sickle, cut a couple of handfuls of ears, and burnt them with incense before the god the guardian of the boundaries. After him the nomarch and the great lords cut barley also, and at last harvesters fell to reaping. They cut only ears, which they packed into bags; the straw remained on the field behind them.

When he had heard a tedious service before the god, the prince mounted a two-wheeled car, a division of the army moved on, and the priests followed. Two lords led the horses of the heir by the bridles. After the heir, on a second car, rode the nomarch, and next an immense train of lords and court servitors. The people, agreeable to the will of Rameses, did not present themselves, but laborers in the fields, at sight of the procession, fell on their faces.

In this manner when he had passed a number of pontoon bridges thrown over arms of the Nile and canals, the prince reached toward evening the city of Anu, the capital.

For some days feasts of greeting continued; they rendered homage to the heir, and presented officials. At last Rameses begged to interrupt the festivities, and requested the nomarch to acquaint him with the wealth of the province.

Next morning the review began, and lasted a fortnight. Every day in the court of that palace where the heir had his residence appeared various guilds of craftsmen. These came under command of guild officers, to exhibit their productions. In turn came armorers and swordsmiths, makers of spears and axes, manufacturers of musical instruments,--fifes, trumpets, drums, harps. After these came the great guild of cabinetmakers, who exhibited armchairs, tables, couches, litters, and carriages, ornamented with rich drawings, made of various wood, mother-of-pearl, and ivory; then they brought kitchen utensils, things for the fire,--spits, two-eared pots, and flat pans with covers; jewellers rivalled one another with gold rings of wonderful beauty, amber bracelets and anklets, or chains made of gold mixed with silver. All these were carved with artistic skill, and inlaid with precious stones or enamel of various colors.

The procession was closed by potters who carried more than a hundred kinds of earthen vessels. They brought vases, pots, plates, pitchers, and jugs of the most varied forms and sizes, covered with paintings ornamented with beast and bird heads.

Each guild made an offering to the prince of its most beautiful productions. These filled a large hall, though among them no two things were similar.

At the end of the curious but interesting exhibition, his worthiness Ranuzer asked the prince if he was satisfied.

The heir thought awhile.

"More beautiful things I have not seen except in the temples or in the palaces of my father. But since only rich people can buy them, I do not see how the state treasury can have much profit from those objects."

The nomarch was astonished at the young lord's indifference, and was alarmed by his anxiety about income; but wishing to satisfy Rameses, he began then to conduct him through the royal factories.

One day they went to buildings where slaves were grinding flour in many hundred hand-mills and in mortars. They went to bakeries where men were baking bread and rusks to feed the army, and to places where preserved fish and meat were in course of preparation. They examined great tanneries, and shops where sandals were made, foundries where copper was cast into arms and utensils. After that, brickyards, guilds of weavers and tailors.

These establishments were situated in the eastern part of the city. Rameses at first looked at them with interest, but very soon he was disgusted with the sight of laborers who were timid, lean, sickly in complexion, and who had scars left by sticks on their shoulders. Thenceforth he stopped only briefly at factories. He preferred to look at the environs of the city of Anu. Far to the east he could see the desert where a year earlier the manœuvres had taken place between his corps and Nitager's. He saw, like a thing on the palm of his hand, the road by which his regiments had marched, the place where because of the beetles the military engines had to turn to the desert, and perhaps even the tree on which the canal digger had hanged himself.

From that elevation over there in company with Tutmosis he had looked at the blooming land of Goshen and cursed the priesthood. And there among the hills he had met Sarah, toward whom his heart had flamed up on a sudden.

To-day what changes! He had ceased to hate the priests from the hour that by the influence of Herhor he had received the army corps and the office of viceroy. He had become indifferent to Sarah, but that child whose mother she would be grew to him more and more important.

"What is she doing there?" thought the prince. "I have not had news from her this long time."

While he was looking on those eastern hills in this way, and thinking of the recent past, Ranuzer at the head of his escort felt certain that the prince had observed abuses in the factories and was meditating over means of punishment.

"I am curious to know what he discovered," thought the worthy nomarch. "Is it that half the bricks are sold to the Phœnicians, or that ten thousand sandals are lacking in the factory, or perhaps some low wretch has whispered to him about the foundries?"

And the nomarch's heart was anxious.

Suddenly the prince turned toward the escort and called Tutmosis, who was bound to be at all times near his person.

Tutmosis ran up. The heir went to one side with him.

"Hear me," said he, pointing toward the desert. "Dost thou see those hills?"

"We were there last year," sighed the courtier.

"I remember Sarah."

"I will burn incense to the gods at once," cried Tutmosis, "for I thought that your worthiness had forgotten faithful servants since becoming viceroy."

The prince looked at him and shrugged his shoulders.

"Select," said he, "from the gifts brought me, some of the most beautiful vessels, utensils, stuffs, and, above all, chains and bracelets, and take them to Sarah."

"Live through eternity, O Rameses!" exclaimed the exquisite, "for thou art high-minded."

"Tell her," continued the prince, "that for her my heart is always full of favor. Say that I wish her to care for her health. Tell Sarah that when the time of freedom comes and I have carried out the commands of my father, she will come to me and live in my house. I cannot endure that the mother of my child should be grieving in loneliness. Go, do as I have said, and return with pleasant tidings."

Tutmosis prostrated himself before the noble ruler, and took the road straightway. The retinue of Rameses, unable to divine the conversation, envied Tutmosis the favor of the viceroy, while the worthy Ranuzer felt alarm rising in his soul.

"Oh," said he, anxiously, "may I not need to raise hands on myself and leave my house in the bloom of my years! Why did I, the unfortunate, when taking the pharaoh's goods, not think of the hour of trial?"

His face became yellow, and his legs tottered under him. But the prince, mastered by a wave of reminiscences, took no note of this change in the nomarch.

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Chapter XXIII

In the city of Anu a series of feasts and amusements now followed. The worthy nomarch brought the choicest wines from his cellars; from the three neighboring provinces came the most beautiful dancers, the most famous musicians, the adroitest of jugglers. The prince's time was occupied thoroughly,--every morning reviews of troops and receptions; later feasts, spectacles, hunting, and feasts again.

But just when Ranuzer felt certain that the viceroy was tired of questions of administration and economy, the latter summoned him, and asked,--

"Thy province, worthiness, is among the richest in Egypt, is it not?"

"Yes, though we have had a number of hard years," replied Ranuzer; and again his heart sank and his legs began to tremble.

"But this astonishes me," said the prince, "that year after year the income of his holiness decreases. Canst thou not explain to me the cause of this?"

"Lord," said the nomarch, bending his head to the earth, "I see that my enemies have sown distrust in thy soul; whatever I might say, therefore, would not convince thee. Permit me not to speak. Better let scribes come with documents, which thou canst touch with thy hand and verify."

The prince was somewhat astonished at the unexpected outburst, but he accepted the offer; nay, he was glad of it. He thought, of course, that the report of these scribes would explain to him the secret of government.

The next day, therefore, came the chief scribe of Hak, and with him his assistants. They brought from ten to twenty rolls of papyrus written on both sides. When unwound, they formed a strip three spans of a great hand in width and in length sixty paces. For the first time the prince saw so gigantic a document, containing an inventory of one province only and that for one year.

The chief scribe sat on the floor with his legs doubled under him, and began,--

"In the thirty-third year of the reign of his holiness Mer-Amen-Rameses the Nile was late in its overflow. Earth-tillers, ascribing this misfortune to the black art of foreigners resident in the province of Hak, fell to wrecking the houses of Hittites, Jews, and Phœnicians, during which time a number of persons were slain by them. At command of his worthiness the nomarch, those guilty were brought to the court; twenty-five earth-tillers, two masons, and five sandal-makers were condemned to the quarries, one boatman was strangled--"

"What is that document?" interrupted the prince.

"It is the report of the court intended for the feet of his holiness."

"Put it aside, and read about the income of the treasury."

The assistants of the chief scribe folded the rejected document, and gave him others. Again the official began,--

"On the fifth day of the month Thoth six hundred measures of wheat were brought to the granaries of the pharaoh; for these a receipt was issued by the chief overseer.

"On the seventh day of Thoth the chief scribe discovered and verified a statement that from the supply of the previous year one hundred and forty-eight measures of wheat had vanished. During the verification two laborers stole a measure of grain and hid it among bricks. When this was proven they were brought to judgment and sent to the quarries for raising their hands to the property of his holiness."

"But the hundred and forty-eight measures?" asked the heir.

"The mice ate them," replied the scribe, and read on.

"On the eighth day of Thoth twenty cows and eighty-four sheep were sent to the slaughter; these, at command of the overseer of oxen, were issued to the Sparrow-Hawk regiment."

In this manner the viceroy learned day after day how much wheat, barley, beans, and lotus seed were weighed into the granaries, how much given out to the mills, how much stolen, and how many laborers were condemned to the quarries for stealing. The report was so wearisome and chaotic that in the middle of the month Paofi the prince gave command to stop reading.

"Tell me, chief scribe," said Rameses, "what dost thou understand from this? What dost thou learn from it?"

"Everything which thy worthiness commands."

And he began again at the beginning, but from memory,--

"On the fifth of the month Thoth they brought to the granaries of the pharaoh--"

"Enough!" cried the enraged prince; and he commanded the man to depart.

The scribes fell on their faces, gathered up their papyruses quickly, and bore them away in a twinkle.

The prince summoned the nomarch. He came with crossed hands, but with a calm face, for he had learned from the scribes that the viceroy could understand nothing from reports, and that he did not give ear to them.

"Tell me, worthiness," began the heir, "do they read reports to thee?"

"Every day."

"And dost thou understand them?"

"Pardon, most worthy lord, but--could I manage a province if I did not understand?"

The prince was confused and fell to thinking. Could it be really that he, Rameses, was the only incompetent? But in this case what would become of his power?

"Sit down," said he, after a while, indicating a chair to the nomarch. "Sit down and tell me how thou governest the province."

The dignitary grew pale, and the whites of his eyes turned upward. Rameses noticed this, and began explaining,--

"Do not think that I have not trust in thy wisdom. On the contrary, I know no man who could manage better. But I am young and curious to know the art of government, so I beg thee to deal out to me crumbs of thy knowledge. Thou art ruling the province--I know that. Now explain to me the process."

The nomarch drew breath and began,--

"I will relate, worthiness, the whole course of my life, so thou shalt know how weighty my work is.

"In the morning I bathe, then I give offerings to the god Amut; next I summon the treasurer, and ask him whether the taxes for his holiness are collected properly. When he answers yes, I praise him; when he says that these and those people have not paid, I issue an order to imprison the disobedient. Then I summon the overseers of the royal granaries, to learn how much grain has been delivered. If much, I praise them; if little, I issue an order to inflict stripes on the guilty.

"Later comes the chief scribe, and tells me which of the estates of his holiness needs troops, officials, and laborers, and I command to send them in return for a receipt. When he gives out less, I praise him; when more, I commence an investigation.

"In the afternoon come Phœnician merchants, to whom I sell wheat and bring money to the treasury of the pharaoh. Afterward I pray and confirm the sentences of the court; toward evening the police inform me of what has happened. No longer ago than the day before yesterday people from my province fell upon the territory Ka and desecrated a statue of the god Sebak. I was delighted in heart, for that god is not our patron; still I condemned some of the guilty to strangulation, some of them to the quarries, and all to receive stripes.

"Hence peace and good habits prevail in my province, and the taxes flow in daily."

"Though the income of the pharaoh has decreased here also," added Rameses.

"Thou speakest truth, lord," sighed the worthy nomarch. "The priests say that the gods are angry with Egypt because of the influx of foreigners; but I see that even the gods do not contemn gold and precious stones brought by Phœnicians."

At that moment the priest Mentezufis, preceded by an officer in waiting, entered the hall to beg the prince and the nomarch to a public devotion. Both dignitaries consented, and the nomarch exhibited so much piety that the prince was astonished. When Ranuzer left the company with obeisances, Rameses said to the priest,--

"Since with me, holy prophet, thou takest the place of the most venerable Herhor, I beg thee to explain one thing which fills my heart with anxiety--"

"Shall I be able to explain?" asked the prophet.

"Thou wilt answer me, for thou art filled with wisdom, of which thou art the servant. But consider what I say-- Thou knowest why his holiness sent me hither."

"He sent thee, prince, to become familiar with the wealth of the country and its institutions," said Mentezufis.

"I am obeying. I examine the nomarchs, I look at the country and the people. I listen to reports of scribes, but I understand nothing; this poisons my life and astounds me.

"When I have to do with the army, I know everything,--how many soldiers there are, how many horses, chariots, which officers drink or neglect their service, and which do their duty. I know, too, what to do with an army. When on a plain there is a hostile corps, I must take two corps to beat it. If the enemy is in a defensive position, I should not move without three corps. When the enemy is undisciplined and fights in unordered crowds against a thousand, I send five hundred of our soldiers and beat him. When the opposing side has a thousand men with axes, and I a thousand, I rush at them and finish those troops, if I have a hundred men with slings in addition.

"In the army, holy father," continued Rameses, "everything is as visible as the fingers on my hand, and to every question an answer is ready which my mind comprehends. Meanwhile in the management of a province I not only see nothing, but there is such confusion in my head that more than once I forget the object of my journey.

"Answer me, therefore, sincerely, as a priest and an officer: What does this mean? Are the nomarchs deceiving me, or am I incompetent?"

The holy prophet fell to thinking.

"Whether they attempt to deceive thee, worthiness," answered he, "I know not, for I have not examined their acts. It seems to me, however, that they explain nothing, because they themselves comprehend nothing. The nomarchs and their scribes," continued the priest, "are like decurions in an army; each one knows his ten men and reports on them. Each commands those under him. But the decurion knows not the general plan made by leaders of the army. The nomarchs and the scribes write down everything that happens in their province, and lay those reports at the feet of the pharaoh. But only the supreme council extracts from them the honey of wisdom."

"But that honey is just what I need," said the prince. "Why do I not get it?"

Mentezufis shook his head.

"Wisdom of the state," said he, "belongs to the priesthood; therefore only the man who is devoted to the gods can obtain it. Meanwhile, worthiness, though reared by priests, thou pushest thyself away from the temples decisively."

"How is that? Then, if I do not become a priest, will ye not explain to me?"

"There are things, worthiness, which thou mayest know even now, as erpatr, there are others which thou wilt know when thou art the pharaoh. There are still others which only a high priest may know."

"Every pharaoh is a high priest," interrupted the prince.

"Not every pharaoh. Besides, even among high priests there are grades of difference."

"Then," cried the enraged heir, "ye hide the order of the state from me, and I shall not be able to carry out the commands of my father?"

"What the prince needs may be known," answered Mentezufis, quietly, "for thou hast the inferior priestly consecration. Those things, however, are hidden behind the veil in temples, which no one will dare to draw aside without due preparation."

"I will draw it."

"May the gods defend Egypt from such a misfortune!" replied the priest, as he raised both his hands. "Dost thou not know, worthiness, that a thunderbolt would kill any man who without the needed ceremonies should touch the veil? Were the prince to take to the temple any slave or condemned criminal and let him stretch out his hand, the man would die that same instant."

"For ye would kill him."

"Each one of us would die just like an ordinary criminal were he to approach the altar sacrilegiously. In presence of the gods, my prince, a pharaoh or a priest means as little as a slave."

"What am I to do, then?" asked Rameses.

"Seek an answer to thy trouble in the temple, after thou hast purified thyself by prayers and fasting," answered the priest. "While Egypt is Egypt, no ruler has gained wisdom of state in another way."

"I will meditate over this," said the prince. "Though I see from thy words that the most venerable Mefres, and thou, holy prophet, wish to involve me in ceremonies as ye have involved my father."

"Not at all. Worthiness, if thou as pharaoh would limit thyself to commanding the army, thou mightst take part in ceremonies a few times a year merely, for on other occasions the high priest would be thy substitute. But if thou wish to learn the secrets of temples, thou must honor the gods, for they are the fountain of wisdom."

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Chapter XXIV

Rameses saw now that either he would not carry out the commands of the pharaoh or that he must yield to the will of the priesthood; this filled him with dislike and anger. Hence he did not hurry toward the secrets hidden in temples. He had time yet for fasting and devotional exercises; so he took part all the more zealously in feasts which were given in his honor.

Tutmosis, a master in every amusement, had just returned, and brought the prince pleasant news from Sarah. She was in good health and looked well, which concerned Rameses less at that time. But the priests gave such a horoscope to the coming child that the prince was delighted.

They assured him that the child would be a son, greatly gifted by the gods, and if his father loved him he would during life obtain high honor.

The prince laughed at the second part of this prediction. "Their wisdom is wonderful," said he to Tutmosis. "They know that it will be a son, while I, its father, do not know; and they doubt whether I shall love it, though it is easy to divine that I shall love the child even should it be a daughter. And as to honor for it, let them be at rest; I will occupy myself with that question."

In the month Pachons (January, February) the heir passed through the province of Ka, where he was received by the nomarch Sofra. The city of Anu lay about seven hours of a foot journey from Atribis, but the prince was three days on this journey. At thought of the fasts and prayers which were awaiting him during initiation into temple secrets, Rameses felt a growing wish for amusements. His retinue divined this; hence pleasure followed pleasure.

Again, on the road over which he travelled to Atribis, appeared throngs of people with shouts, flowers, and music. The enthusiasm reached its height at the city. It even happened that a certain gigantic laborer threw himself under the chariot of the viceroy. But when Rameses held in the horses, a number of young women stepped forth from the crowd and wreathed the whole chariot with flowers.

"Still they love me!" thought the prince.

In the province of Ka he did not ask the nomarch about the income of the pharaoh, he did not visit factories, he did not command to read reports to him; he knew that he would understand nothing, so he deferred those occupations till the time of his initiation. But once, when he saw that the temple of the god Sebak stood on a lofty eminence, he desired to ascend the pylon and examine the surrounding country.

The worthy Sofra accomplished at once the will of the heir, who, when he found himself on the summit of the pylon, passed a couple of hours with great delight there.

The province of Ka was a fertile plain. A number of canals and branches of the Nile passed through it in every direction, like a network of silver and lapis lazuli. Melons and wheat sown in November were ripening. On the fields were crowds of naked people who were gathering cucumbers or planting cotton. The land was covered with small buildings which at points were close together and formed villages.

Most of the dwellings, especially those in the fields, were mud huts covered with straw and palm leaves. In the towns the houses were walled, had flat roofs, and looked like white cubes with holes in places where there were doors and windows. Very often on such a cube was another somewhat smaller, and on that a third still smaller, and each story was painted a different color. Under the fiery sun of Egypt those houses looked like great pearls, sapphires, and rubies, scattered about on the green of the fields, and surrounded by palms and acacias.

From that place Rameses saw a phenomenon which arrested his attention. Near the temples the houses were more beautiful, and more people were moving in the fields about them.

"The lands of the priests are the most valuable," thought he; and once again he ran over with his eyes the temples great and small, of which he saw between ten and twenty from the pylon.

But since he had agreed with Herhor, and needed the services of the priesthood, he did not care to occupy himself longer with that problem.

In the course of the following days the worthy Sofra arranged a series of hunts for Rameses, setting out toward the east from Atribis. Around the canals they shot birds with arrows; some they snared in an immense net trap which took in a number of tens of them, or they let out falcons against those which were flying at freedom. When the prince's retinue entered the eastern desert, great hunts began with dogs and panthers against wild beasts. Of these they killed and seized, in the course of some days, a couple of hundred.

When the worthy Sofra noticed that the prince had had enough of amusement in the open air and of company intents, he ceased hunting and brought his guest by the shortest road to Atribis.

They arrived about four hours after midday, and the nomarch invited all to a feast in his palace.

He conducted the prince to a bath, he assisted at the bathing, and brought out from his own chest perfumes wherewith to anoint Rameses. Then he oversaw the barber who arranged the viceroy's hair; next he kneeled down on the pavement and implored the prince to accept new robes from him.

These were a newly woven tunic covered with embroidery, a skirt worked with pearls, and a mantle interwoven with gold very thickly, but so delicate that it could be held between a man's ten fingers.

The heir accepted this graciously, declaring that he had never received a gift of such beauty.

The sun set, and the nomarch conducted the prince to the hall of entertainment.

It was a large court surrounded by columns and paved with mosaic. All the walls were covered with paintings representing scenes in the lives of the ancestors of Sofra; hence expeditions by sea, hunts, and battles. Over the space, instead of a roof, was a giant butterfly with many-colored wings which were moved by hidden slaves to freshen the atmosphere. In bronze holders fastened to the columns blazed bright tapers which gave out smoke with fragrance.

The hall was divided into two parts: one was empty, the other filled with chairs and small tables for guests. Aside in the second part rose a platform on which, under a costly tent with raised sides, was a table and a couch for Rameses.

At each small table were great vases with palms, acacias, and fig-trees. The table of the heir was surrounded with plants having needle-like leaves; these filled the space round about with the odor of balsam.

The assembled guests greeted the prince with a joyful shout, and when Rameses occupied his place beneath a baldachin whence there was a view of the court, his retinue sat down at the tables.

Harps sounded, and ladies entered in rich, muslin robes with open bosoms; precious stones were glittering upon their persons. Four of the most beautiful surrounded Rameses; the others sat near the dignitaries of his retinue.

In the air was the fragrance of roses, lilies of the valley, and violets; the prince felt the throbbing of his temples.

Slaves, male and female, in white, rose-colored, and blue tunics, brought in cakes, roasted birds, and game, fish, wine, fruits, also garlands of flowers with which the guests crowned themselves. The immense butterfly moved its wings more and more quickly, and in the unoccupied part of the court was a spectacle. In turn appeared dancers, gymnasts, buffoons, performers of tricks, swordsmen; when any one gave an unusual proof of dexterity, the spectators threw to him gold rings or flowers from their garlands.

The feast lasted some hours, interspersed with shouts of guests wishing happiness to the prince, and to the nomarch and his family.

Rameses, who was in a reclining position on a couch covered with a lion's skin which had golden claws, was served by four ladies. One fanned him; another changed the garland on his head; the other two offered food to him. Toward the end of the feast the one with whom the prince talked with most willingness brought a goblet of wine. Rameses drank half, and gave the remainder to the woman; when she had drunk that half, he kissed her lips.

Slaves quenched the torches then quickly, the butterfly ceased to move its wings, there was night in the court, and silence interrupted by the nervous laughter of women.

All on a sudden the quick tramping of people was heard and a terrible shouting.

"Let me in!" cried a hoarse voice. "Where is the heir? Where is the viceroy?"

There was a dreadful disturbance in the hall. Women were terrified; men called out,--

"What is it?--An attack on the heir! Hei, guards!"

The sound of broken dishes was heard, and the rattle of chairs.

"Where is the heir?" bellowed the stranger.

"Guards! Defend the life of the heir!" shouted men in the courtyard.

"Light the torches!" called the youthful voice of the heir. "Who is looking for me? Here I am!"

Torches were brought. In the hall were piles of overturned and broken furniture behind which guests were in hiding. On the platform the prince tore away from the women, who screamed while they held to his legs and arms firmly. Near the prince was Tutmosis, his wig torn, a bronze pitcher in his hand with which he was ready to open the head of any one who dared to go nearer the viceroy. At the door of the hall appeared warriors with swords drawn for action.

"What is this? Who is here?" cried the terrified nomarch.

At last they beheld the author of the disturbance, a gigantic man, naked, and mud-covered. He had bloody stripes on his shoulders; he was kneeling on the steps of the platform and stretching his hands toward Rameses.

"This is the murderer," shouted the nomarch. "Seize him!"

Tutmosis raised his pitcher; soldiers rushed up from the door. The wounded man fell with his face to the steps, crying,--

"Have mercy, sun of Egypt!"

The soldiers were ready to seize him when Rameses pulled himself free of the women and approached the unfortunate giant.

"Touch him not!" cried Rameses to the warriors. "What dost thou wish, man?"

"I wish, lord, to tell thee of the wrongs which we suffer."

At that moment the nomarch stepped up to the viceroy and whispered,--

"This is a Hyksos. Look, worthiness, at his shaggy hair and his beard. But the insolence with which he burst in proves that the criminal is not a genuine Egyptian."

"Who art thou?" asked Rameses.

"I am Bakura, a laborer in the regiment of diggers in Sochem. We have no work now, so the nomarch Otoes commanded us--"

"He is a drunkard and a madman!" whispered the excited Sofra. "How dares he speak to thee, lord--"

The prince gave such a look to the nomarch that he bent double and moved backward.

"What did the worthy Otoes command you the workers?" asked the viceroy of Bakura.

"He commanded us, lord, to go along the bank of the Nile, swim in the river, stand at the roads, make an uproar in thy honor, and he promised to give us what was proper for doing so. For two months before that, we, O lord, received nothing,--neither barley cakes, nor fish, nor olive oil for our bodies."

"What is thy answer to this, worthy lord?" asked the prince of the nomarch.

"He is a dangerous drunkard, a foul liar," answered Sofra.

"What noise didst thou make in my honor?"

"That which was commanded," said the giant. "My wife and daughter cried with the others, 'May he live through eternity!' I sprang into the water and threw a garland at thy barge, worthiness; for this they promised an uten. When thou wert pleased graciously to enter the city of Atribis, I approached to throw myself under the horses and stop thy chariot--"

The prince laughed.

"As I live," said he, "I did not think that we should end the feast with such joyousness. But how much did they pay thee for falling under the chariot?"

"They promised three utens, but have paid nothing to me or my wife or my daughter. Nothing has been given to the whole regiment of diggers to eat for two months past."

"On what do ye live then?"

"On begging, or on that which we earn from some earth-worker. In this sore distress we revolted three times, and desired to go home. But the officers and scribes either promised to give something or commanded to beat us."

"For the noise made in my honor?" put in the prince, laughing.

"Thy worthiness speaks truth. Yesterday the revolt was greatest, for which the worthy nomarch Sofra gave command to take the tenth man. Every tenth man was clubbed, and I got the most, for I am big and have three mouths to feed,--my own, my wife's, and my daughter's. When I was clubbed I broke away from them to fall down, O lord, in thy presence, and tell thee our sorrows. Beat us if we are guilty, but let the scribes give us that which is due, for we are dying of hunger,--we, our wives, and our children."

"This man is possessed!" exclaimed Sofra. "Be pleased, lord, to see the damage he has wrought here. I would not take ten talents for those dishes, pitchers, and tables."

Among the guests, who now were recovering their senses, a muttering began.

"This is a bandit!" said they. "Look at him, really a Hyksos. Boiling up in him is the cursed blood of his ancestors, the men who invaded and ruined Egypt. Such costly furniture, such splendid vessels, broken into fragments!"

"The loss caused the state by one rebellion of unpaid laborers is greater than the value of these vessels," said Rameses.

"Sacred words! They should be written on monuments," said some among the guests. "Rebellion takes people from their labor and grieves the heart of his holiness. It is not proper that laborers should be unpaid for two months in succession."

The prince looked with contempt on those courtiers, changeable as clouds; he turned then to the nomarch.

"I give thee," said he, threateningly, "this punished man. I am certain that a hair of his head will not fall from him. To-morrow morning I wish to see the regiment to which he belongs and learn whether he speaks truth or falsehood."

After these words Rameses went out, leaving the nomarch and the guests in vexation.

Next morning the prince, while dressing with the aid of Tutmosis, asked him,--

"Have the laborers come?"

"They have, lord; they have been waiting for thy commands since daybreak."

"And is that man Bakura among them?"

Tutmosis made a wry face and answered,--

"A marvellous thing has happened. The worthy Sofra gave command to shut the fellow up in an empty cellar of the palace. Well, the disorderly rascal, a very strong man, broke the door to another place where there is wine; he overturned a number of pots of very costly wine, and got so drunk that--"

"That what?" asked the prince.

"That he perished."

The prince sprang up from his chair.

"And dost thou believe that he drank himself to death?"

"I must believe, for I have no proof that they killed him."

"But if I look for proof?" burst out the prince.

He ran through the room, and snorted like an angry lion. When he was somewhat quieted, Tutmosis added,--

"Seek not for proof where it is not to be discovered, for thou wilt not find even witnesses. If any man strangled that laborer at command of the nomarch, he will not confess; the laborer himself is dead, and will not say anything; besides, what would his complaint against the nomarch amount to? In these conditions no court would begin to investigate."

"But if I command?" asked the viceroy.

"In that case they will investigate and prove the innocence of Sofra. Then thou wilt be put to shame, and all the nomarchs with their relatives and servants will become thy enemies."

The prince stood in the middle of the chamber and pondered.

"Finally," said Tutmosis, "everything seems to show this, that the unfortunate Bakura was a drunkard or a maniac, and, above all, a man of foreign blood. If a genuine Egyptian in his senses were to go without pay for a year, and be clubbed twice as much as this man, would he dare to break into the palace of the nomarch and appeal to thee with such an outcry?"

Rameses bent his head, and seeing that there were nobles in the next chamber, he said in a voice somewhat lowered,--

"Knowest thou, Tutmosis, since I set out on this journey Egypt begins to appear somehow strange to me? At times I ask my own self if I am not in some foreign region. Then again my heart is disturbed, as if I had a curtain before me, behind which all kinds of villany are practised, but which I myself cannot see with my own eyes."

"Then do not look at them; for if thou do, it will seem at last to thee that we should all be sent to the quarries," said Tutmosis, smiling. "Remember that the nomarchs and officials are the shepherds of thy flock. If one of them takes a measure of milk for himself, or kills a little sheep, of course thou wilt not kill him or drive the man away. Thou hast many sheep, and it is not easy to find shepherds."

The viceroy, now dressed, passed into the hall of waiting, where his suite stood assembled,--priests, officers, and officials. Then he left the palace with them, and went to the outer courtyard.

That was a broad space, planted with acacias, under the shade of which the laborers were waiting for the viceroy. At the sound of a trumpet the whole crowd sprang up, and stood in five ranks before him.

Rameses, attended by a glittering retinue of dignitaries, halted suddenly, wishing, first of all, to look at the regiment from a distance. The men were naked, each with a white cap on his head, and girt about the hips with stuff like that of which the cap was made. In the ranks Rameses could distinguish easily the brown Egyptian, the negro, the yellow Asiatic, the white inhabitants of Libya, and also the Mediterranean islands.

In the first rank stood workers with pickaxes, in the second those with mattocks, in the third those with shovels. The fourth rank was composed of carriers, of whom each had a pole and two buckets; the fifth was also of carriers, but with large boxes borne by two men. These last carried earth freshly dug.

In front of the ranks, some yards distant, stood the overseers; each held a long stick in his hand, and either a large wooden circle or a square measure.

When the prince approached them, they cried in a chorus,--

"Live thou through eternity!" and kneeling, they struck the earth with their foreheads. The heir commanded them to rise, and surveyed them again with attention.

They were healthy, strong persons, not looking in the least like men who had lived two months on begging.

Sofra with his retinue approached the prince. But Rameses, feigning not to see him, turned to one of the overseers,--

"Are ye earth-tillers from Sochem?" inquired he.

The overseer fell at full length with his face to the earth.

The prince shrugged his shoulders, and called out to the laborers,--

"Are ye from Sochem?"

"We are earth-workers from Sochem," answered they, in chorus.

"Have ye received pay?"

"We have received pay; we are sated and happy servants of his holiness," answered the chorus, giving out each word with emphasis.

"Turn around!" commanded the prince.

They turned. It is true that each had frequent and deep scars from the club, but no fresh stripes on their bodies.

"They are deceiving me," thought the heir.

He commanded the laborers to go to their barracks, and, without greeting the nomarch or taking leave of him, he returned to the palace.

"Wilt thou, too, tell me," said he to Tutmosis on the road, "that those men are laborers from Sochem?"

"But they say that they are, they themselves give answer," replied the courtier.

Rameses gave command to bring his horse, and he rode to the army encamped beyond the city. He reviewed the regiments all day. About noon, on the field of exercise, appeared, at command of the nomarch, some tens of carriers with food and wine, tents and furniture. But the prince sent them back to Atribis; and when the hour came for army food, he commanded to serve that to him; so he ate dried meat with oat cakes.

These were the mercenary regiments of Libya. When the prince ordered them to lay aside arms in the evening, and took farewell of the men, it seemed as though the soldiers and officers had yielded to madness. Shouting "May he live through eternity!" they kissed his hands and feet, made a litter of their spears and mantles, and bore him to the city, disputing on the way with one another for the honor of carrying the heir on their shoulders.

The nomarch and the officials of the province were frightened, when they saw the enthusiasm of the Libyans, and the favor which the heir showed barbarians.

"Here is a ruler!" whispered the chief secretary to Sofra. "If he wished, those people would kill us and our children."

The troubled nomarch sighed to the gods, and commended himself to their gracious protection.

Late at night Rameses found himself in his own palace, and there the servants told him that another bedchamber had been given him.

"Why is this?"

"Because in the first chamber people saw a poisonous serpent, which hid, and no one could find it."

In a wing near the house of the nomarch was a new sleeping chamber,--a four-cornered room surrounded by columns on all sides. Its walls were of alabaster, covered with painted bas-reliefs; below were plants in vases; higher up garlands of olive and laurel.

Almost in the centre of the room stood a great bed inlaid with ebony, gold, and ivory. The chamber was lighted by two fragrant tapers; under the colonnade were small tables with wine, food, and garlands of roses. In the ceiling was a large quadrangular opening covered with linen.

The prince bathed and lay on the soft bed; his servants went to remote chambers. The tapers were burning out; cool air filled with the odor of flowers moved in the chamber. At the same time low music from harps was heard above him.

Rameses raised his head. The linen canopy of the chamber slipped to one side, and through the opening he saw the constellation Leo, and in it the brilliant star Regulus. The music of harps became louder.

"Are the gods preparing to make me a visit?" thought the viceroy, with a smile.

In the opening of the ceiling shone a broad streak of light; it was powerful but tempered. A moment later a litter appeared in the form of a golden boat, bearing a small arbor with flowers in it; the pillars of the arbor were entwined with garlands of roses, the top of it covered with lotuses and violets.

On ropes, entwined with green, the golden boat descended to the chamber in silence. It stopped on the pavement, and from beneath the flowers came forth a naked maiden of unparalleled beauty. Her body had the smoothness of marble; from her amber-like waves of hair came an intoxicating odor.

The maiden stepped from the litter and knelt before Rameses.

"Art thou the daughter of Sofra?" asked he.

"Thou speakest truth, Lord Rameses."

"And still thou hast come to me!"

"To implore thee to pardon my father. He is unhappy; since midday he has been shedding tears and covering his head with ashes."

"And if I would not forgive him, wouldst thou leave me?"

"No," whispered she.

Rameses drew her toward him and kissed her with passion. His eyes flashed.

"For this I forgive him."

"Oh, how good thou art!" cried she, nestling up to Rameses; then she added with sweetness,--

"Wilt thou command a reward for the damages done by that mad laborer?"

"I will command."

"And wilt thou take me to thy household?"

Rameses looked at her.

"I will take thee, for thou art a beauty."

"Really?" asked she, putting her arm around his neck. "Look at me better. Among the beauties of Egypt I hold only the fourth place."

"What does that mean?"

"In Memphis, or near there, dwells thy first; happily she is only a Jewess! In Sochem is the second--"

"I know nothing of that one," interrupted Rameses.

"Oh, thou dove! Then surely thou knowest nothing of the third one in Anu."

"Does she too belong to my household?"

"Ungrateful!" cried the girl, striking him with a lotus flower. "Thou wouldst be ready to say the same of me a month hence. But I will not let myself be injured."

"Like thy father."

"Hast thou not forgotten him yet? Remember that I will go--"

"Stay, stay!"

Next day the viceroy was pleased to receive homage and a feast from Sofra. He praised in public the nomarch's government of the province, and to reward him for the damages caused by the drunken laborer, Rameses presented him with one-half of the furniture and vessels presented in Anu.

The second half of those gifts was taken by the beautiful Abeb, daughter of the nomarch, as lady of the court. Besides, she commanded that five talents be given her from the treasury of the viceroy, for clothes, slaves, and horses.

In the evening the prince, while yawning, spoke thus to Tutmosis,--

"His holiness my father gave me a great lesson when he said that women are very costly."

"The position is worse when there are no women," replied the exquisite.

"But I have four, and I do not even know clearly how. I might give thee two of them."

"And Sarah?"

"Not her, especially if she has a son."

"If thou wilt assign a good dowry, husbands will be found for those charmers most easily."

The prince yawned a second time.

"I do not like to hear of dowries," said he. "Aaa! What luck, that I shall tear away from thee and settle among the priests!"

"Wilt thou indeed?"

"I must. At last I shall learn of them why the pharaohs are growing poorer. Well, I shall sleep."

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