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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.
He hesitated, meditated, but at last answered with decision, "No, queen, that was not the pharaoh. That was Lykon, and this is a crime of the priests which I must report to his holiness straightway." "But if that were Ramses?" inquired the lady again, though in her eyes a spark of hope was now evident. Tutmosis was troubled.
Thou art as quick as lightning." The prince placed his hand on the courtier's shoulder. "Be at rest," said he, looking him in the eyes. "If ye will only be loyal to me, ye, the nobles, and the army, ye will see wonderful things, and, as regards you, evil times will be ended." "Thou knowest that we are ready to die at thy command," said Tutmosis, placing his hand on his breast.
Meanwhile the holy fathers were silent and did not even show themselves. "What does this mean?" asked the prince one day of Tutmosis; "the priests do not reproach us? We have never indulged in such excesses before. Music is sounding from morning till evening; we drink, beginning with sunrise, and we fall asleep with women in our arms or pitchers at our heads."
See what wings are growing out on me! He stretched his hands toward me, and I, unconscious from sorrow, touched his hands through the window and his face, covered with cold perspiration. At last he slipped down the tree and vanished." Tutmosis listened in terror. All at once he struck his forehead. "That was not Ramses," said he with decision.
No one doubted now that the high priest spoke the pure truth; for no Egyptian would expose his body to burning and his soul to destruction. Tutmosis spent a few days after the wedding in company with Hebron, in the palace given him by his holiness. But every evening he went to the barracks of the guard, where with officers and dancers he passed the nights very pleasantly.
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."
"Look," cried the heir to Tutmosis, stretching out his hand, "those are to be my lands, and here is my army. Over there the loftiest edifices are palaces of priests, and here the supreme chief of the troops is a priest! Can anything like this be suffered?" "It has always been so," replied Tutmosis, glancing around with timidity. "That is not true!
"Be not angry, and I will explain." "Sit down." Tutmosis took a seat. "Dost Thou know," asked he, "that for a month past I have eaten food from thy kitchen, drunk wine from thy pitchers, and dressed from thy wardrobe?" "Thou hast a right to that privilege." "But I have never acted thus hitherto. I have lived, dressed, and amused myself at my own expense, so as not to burden thy treasury.
"Some one has spread the report, worthiness, that when Thou shalt mount the throne all Phoenicians will be expelled and their property confiscated." "Well, they have time enough before that," laughed Ramses. Tutmosis hesitated further. "They say," continued he, in a lowered voice, "that in recent days the health of his holiness may he live through eternity! has failed notably."
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