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But when Istubar interpreted the words of the Egyptian viceroy, the ambassador felt such delight that he beat his head against the couch, repeating the names Ramses and Assar. When he had calmed himself, and made excuses for the wretched state in which so worthy and famous a guest had found him, he added,
Finally, whom do we strengthen by the treasures of the gods and of Egypt? This young man who despises religion, belittles priests, and disturbs the people. Is he not worse than Assar? Assar is a barbarian, but he does not harm us." "It is improper for the pharaoh to pay court to his favorite's wife so openly on the very day of the marriage," said the judge, thoughtfully.
The men who fall on their faces before the envoys of Assar may not say to me, 'Sign and Thou wilt get! Stupid Phoenician rats, who steal into the pharaoh's palace and look on it as their own den a moment later!" The longer he thought over it the more precisely he recalled the bearing of Hiram and Dagon, the greater the auger that seized him,
According to our laws a priestess may, in very exceptional cases, become a wife, but only if the man is of kingly origin. Sargon is a relative of King Assar." "And wilt Thou marry him?" "If the supreme council of Tyrian priests command me, what can I do?" replied she, bursting into tears again. "And what is Sargon to that council?" asked the prince. "Very much, perhaps," said Kama, with a sigh.
"I knew not," said he, "that I, a relative and an ambassador of the great Assar, should be forced to wipe with my garments dust from the pavement of an Egyptian viceroy." Mentezufis knew Assyrian, and commanded, without asking Ramses, to bring immediately two benches covered with cushions, on which sat at once the panting Sargon and the calm Istubar.
The prince was polite and bountiful, but his face was still clouded. And when Tutmosis asked him if King Assar had not a beautiful palace, the prince answered, "Its ruins on the ashes of Nineveh would be more beautiful to my eyes." At that feast the Assyrians were very abstemious. Notwithstanding the abundance of wine, they drank little, and did not shout greatly.
"What does a treaty mean when there is no army behind it: Today one half of the troops which King Assar commands would crush us." "Deign to be at rest, holy lord. At the first news of Assyrian treason we should have half a million of warriors." The pharaoh laughed in his face. "What? How? Thou art mad, priest!
"Ye must know," continued Hiram, "that Chaldean priests consider the priests in Egypt as their brothers, and that Beroes enjoys great esteem in the Court of King Assar, so reports concerning that treaty may be very truthful." "Why does Assyria want Phoenicia?" inquired Dagon, as he bit his finger-nails. "Why does a thief want another man's granary?" replied Hiram.
At the corner of each street the trumpeters sounded a signal, and the herald called in a loud voice: "Behold, Sargon is approaching; the ambassador of the mighty Assar, a relative of the king, a lord of immense wealth, a conqueror in battles, a ruler of provinces. Give him, O people, due homage as a friend of the ruler of Egypt!"
Not to fill the treasury of the pharaoh has the council of priests disbanded twenty thousand troops and opened the gates of Egypt to bandits." "But why?" "This is why: to please King Assar. And since his holiness would not agree to give Phoenicia to Assyria, ye wish to weaken the state in another way, by disbanding hired troops and rousing war on our western boundary."
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