THE HEIR INTERVENES
At Tanis, the next day after the arrival of Meneptah, there came a
messenger from Thebes to Hotep, and the royal scribe retired to his
apartments to read the letter.
And after he had read he was glad that he had secluded himself, for his
demonstrations of relief at the news the message imparted were most
extravagant and unrestrained. For the moment he permitted no reminder
of Kenkenes' present plight to subdue his joy in the realization that
his friend was not dead.
Having exulted, he read the letter again, and then he summoned all his
shrewdness to his aid.
He would wait till the confusion of the court's settling itself had
subsided before he presented the petition to Meneptah. Furthermore, he
would relieve his underlings and write the king's communications with
his own hand till he knew that the reply to Kenkenes had been sent.
Har-hat should be watched vigilantly.
But order and routine were not restored in the palace of Meneptah. The
unrest that precedes a national crisis had developed into irritability
and pugnacity.
Tanis was within hearing of the plaints of Israel, and the atmosphere
quivered with omen and portent. Moses appeared in this place and that,
each time nearer the temporary capital, and wherever he came he left
rejoicing or shuddering behind him.
Meanwhile the fan-bearer laughed his way into the throne. Meneptah's
weakness for him grew into stubborn worship. The old and trusted
ministers of the monarch took offense and sealed their lips; the new
held their peace for trepidation. The queen, heretofore meek and
self-effacing, laid aside her spindle one day and, meeting her lord at
the door of the council chamber; protested in the name of his dynasty
and his realm.
But the king was beyond help, and the queen, angry and hurt, bade him
keep Har-hat out of her sight, and returned to her women. Thereafter
even Meneptah saw her rarely.
The rise of the fan-bearer was achieved in an incredibly short time.
It proved conclusively that until this period an influence against
Har-hat had been at work upon Meneptah, and seeing that Rameses had
subsided, having cause to propitiate the father of the woman he would
wed, the courtiers began to blame the prince and talk of him to one
another.
He seemed lost in a dream. In the council chamber he lounged in his
chair with his eyes upon nothing and apparently hearing nothing. But
the slow shifting of the spark in his sleepy eyes indicated to those
who observed closely that he heard but kept his own counsel. If
Meneptah spoke to him he but seconded Har-hat's suggestions. But once
again the observant ones noted that the fan-bearer did not advise at
wide variance with any of the prince's known ideas. Thus far the most
caviling could not see that Har-hat's favoritism had led to any
misrule, but the field of possibilities opened by his complete
dominance over the Pharaoh was crowded with disaster, individual and
national.
The betrothal of Rameses to Har-hat's daughter gave further material
for contention. It seemed to indicate that the fan-bearer had builded
for himself for two reigns.
Hotep's situation was most poignantly unhappy. He was fixed under the
same roof with the man that had taken his love by piracy; he must greet
him affably and reverently every day; he must live in daily
contemplation of the time when he must meet Masanath also as his
sovereign--the wife of the prince, whom he must serve till death.
Hardest of all, he must wear a serene countenance and cover his sorrow
most surely, for his own sake and for Masanath's.
Ta-user still remained at court. Seti, in a fume of boyish indignation
at Rameses, attended her like a shadow. Among the courtiers there were
others who were not alive to the true nature of the princess and who
joined Seti in his resentment against the heir.
Amon-meses and Siptah, snarling and malevolent, had left the court
abruptly on the morning of its departure for Tanis. The Hak-heb
received them once again, and an ominous calm settled over that little
pocket of fertility in the desert--Nehapehu.
Thus the court was torn with factions; old internal dissensions made
themselves evident again, but the vast murmur in Goshen was heard above
the strife.
All this had come to pass in the short space of a month. When half of
that time had elapsed, Hotep, fearing to delay the petition of Kenkenes
longer, lest conditions should become worse rather than better, met the
Pharaoh in the hall one day and gave him the writing. Earnestly the
scribe impressed Meneptah with the importance of the petition and
begged him to acquaint himself in an hour of solitude with its contents
and the identity of the supplicant.
Meneptah promised and continued to his apartments. There Har-hat came
in a few moments, and Meneptah, after his custom, gave over to him the
state communications of the day, and after some little hesitation,
tossed the petition of Kenkenes among them.
"Thou canst attend to this matter as well, good Har-hat. Why should I
take up the private concerns of my subjects when I am already burdened
with heavy cares? But do thou look to this petition faithfully. It
may be important, and I know not from whom it is. I promised Hotep it
should be given honest attention."
For seven days thereafter every letter sent by the king was written by
Hotep. At the end of that time he met Meneptah again, and bending low
before him, asked pardon for his insistence, and begged to know what
disposition the Son of Ptah had made of the petition of his friend. He
was irritably informed that the matter had been given over to the
fan-bearer for attention, since the Pharaoh had been too oppressed with
heavier matters to read the letter.
The state of the scribe's mind, after receiving the information, was
indescribable.
He controlled himself before Meneptah, but he suffered no curb upon his
feelings when he had returned to his own apartments. After a long time
he succeeded in choking his anger, disgust and grief, realizing that
each moment must be turned to account rather than wasted in railing.
He viewed the situation with enforced calm. Har-hat was in full
possession of the facts. He had the signet and was absolute master of
Meneptah. The Hathors had surrendered Kenkenes wholly into the hands
of his enemy. Furthermore, the fate of the Israelite seemed to be
sealed. At the thought Hotep gnashed his teeth.
In his sympathy for his friend's strait, the scribe gave over his
objections to Rachel. Kenkenes had suffered for her, and, if he would,
he should have her.
Between the king and persuasion was Har-hat, vitally interested in the
defeat of any movement toward the aid of Kenkenes. The one hope for
the sculptor was the winning over of the Pharaoh, and only one could do
it. And that was Rameses, who was betrothed to the love of Hotep, and
against her will.
Nothing could have appeared more distasteful to the scribe than the
necessity of prayer to the man for whom he cherished a hate that
threatened to make a cinder of his vitals. But the more he rebelled
the more his conscience urged him.
He flung himself on his couch and writhed; he reviled the Hathors,
abused Kenkenes for the folly of sacrilege which had brought on him
such misfortune; he execrated Meneptah, anathematized Har-hat and
called down the fiercest maledictions on the head of Rameses. Having
relieved himself, he arose and, summoning his servant, had his
disordered hair dressed, fresh robes brought for him, and a glass of
wine for refreshment. On the way to the palace-top he met Ta-user,
walking slowly away from the staircase. Rameses, solitary and
luxurious, was stretched upon a cushioned divan in the shadow of a
canopy over the hypostyle.
"The gods keep thee, Son of the Sun," Hotep said.
"So it is thou, Hotep. Nay, but I am glad to see thee. Methought
Ta-user meant to visit me just now. Is there a taboret near?"
"Aye, but I shall not sit, my Prince."
"Go to! It makes me weary to see thee stand. Sit, I tell thee!"
Hotep drew up the taboret and sat.
"I come to thee with news and a petition," he began. "It is more
fitting that I should kneel."
"Perchance. But exertion offends mine eyes in such delicious hours as
these, and I will forego the homage for the sake of mine own sinews.
Out with thy tidings."
"Thou dost remember thy friend and mine, that gentle genius, Kenkenes."
"I am not like to forget him so long as a bird sings or the Nile
ripples make music. Osiris pillow him most softly."
"He is not dead, my Prince."
"Nay!" Rameses cried, sitting up. "The knave should be bastinadoed for
the tears he wrung from us!"
"Thou wouldst deny my petition. I am come to implore thee to intercede
for him."
Rameses bade him proceed.
"Thou art acquainted with the nature of Kenkenes, O Prince. He is a
visionary--an idealist, and so firmly rooted are his beliefs that they
are to his life as natural as the color of his eyes. He is a
beauty-worshiper. Athor possesses him utterly, and her loveliness
blinds him to all other things, particularly to his own welfare and
safety.
"In the beginning he fell in love, and a soul like his in love is most
unreasoning, immoderate and terribly faithful. The maiden is
beautiful--I saw her--most divinely beautiful. She is wise, for I saw
that also. She is good, for I felt it, unreasoning, and when a man
hath a woman intuition, a god hath spoken the truth to his heart. But
she is a slave--an Israelite."
"An Israelite!"
Hotep bowed his head.
"By the gods of my fathers, I ought not to marvel! Nay, now, is that
not like the boy? An Israelite! And half the noble maids of Memphis
mad for him!"
"He is not for thee and me to judge, O Rameses," Hotep interrupted.
"The gods blew another breath in him than animates our souls. For thee
and me such conduct would be the fancies of madmen; for Kenkenes it is
but living up to the alien spirit with which the gods endowed him. It
might be torture for him to wed according to our lights."
"Perchance thou art right. Go on."
"It seems that Har-hat looked upon the girl, and taken by her beauty,
asked her at the Pharaoh's hands for his harem."
"Ah, the--! Why does he not marry honorably?"
"It is not for me to divine," Hotep went on calmly. "The fan-bearer
sent his men to take her, but she fled from them to Kenkenes, and he
protected her--hid her away--where, none but Kenkenes and the maiden
know. Har-hat is most desirous of owning her, but Kenkenes keeps his
counsel. Therefore, Har-hat overtook him in Tape, where he went to get
a signet belonging to his father, and imprisoned him till what time he
should divulge the hiding-place of the Israelite."
"Never was there a true villain till Har-hat was born! What poor
feeble shadows have trodden the world for knaves before the fan-bearer
came. Go on. Hath he put him to torture yet?"
"Aye, from the beginning, though not by the bastinado. He rends him
with suspense and all the doubts and fears for his love that can haunt
him in his cell. But I have more to tell. There was a signet, an
all-potent signet, which belonged to the noble Mentu--"
"Aye, I remember," Rameses broke in. "My grandsire gave it to the
murket in recognition of his great work, Ipsambul. It commands royal
favor in the name of Osiris. That should help the dreamer out of his
difficulty."
"Aye, it should, my Prince, but it did not. Kenkenes sent it to the
Pharaoh, with a petition for his own freedom, but the cares of state
were so pressing that the Son of Ptah gave the letter, unopened, to
Har-hat for attention."
Rameses laughed harshly.
"Kenkenes would better content himself. The Hathors are against him,"
he cried. "Was there ever such consummate misfortune? What more?"
"Is it not enough, O Rameses?" Hotep answered sternly. "He hath
suffered sufficiently. Now is it time for them, who profess to love
him, to bestir themselves in his behalf. Thou knowest how near the
fan-bearer is to the Pharaoh. Persuasion can not reach the king that
worketh against Har-hat. Thou alone art as potent with the Son of
Ptah. Wilt thou not prove thy love for Kenkenes and aid him?"
Rameses did not answer immediately. Thoughtfully he leaned his elbow
on his knee and stroked his forehead with his hand. His black brows
knitted finally.
"My hands are tied, Hotep," he began bluntly. "I permit the sway of
this knave over my father because I am constrained. Till he begins to
achieve confusion or bring about bad government I must let him alone.
There is no love between us. We have no quarrel, but I despise him for
that very spirit in him which makes him do such things as thou hast
even told me. If his offense had been against Egypt or the king or
myself, I could balk him. But this is a matter of personal interest to
him, which would be open and flagrant interference--"
Hotep broke in earnestly.
"Surely so small a matter of courtesy--if such it may be called--should
not stand between thee and this most pressing need."
"Aye, thou hast said--if it were only a small matter of courtesy. But
the breach of that same small courtesy entails great disaster for me.
Thou knowest, O my Hotep, that I am betrothed to the daughter of
Har-hat."
With great effort Hotep kept a placid face.
"The Lady Masanath would abet him who would aid Kenkenes," he said.
"Even so. But hear me, I pray thee, Hotep. This most rapacious
miscreant would hold his favor with the king. He knew I loved
Masanath, and he held her out of my reach till I should consent to
countenance his advisership to my father. I consented--and should I
lapse, I lose Masanath."
Hotep was on his feet by this time, his face turned away. Rameses
could not guess what a tempest raged in his heart.
"But be thou assured," the prince continued grimly, "that only so long
as Masanath is not yet mine, shall I endure him. After that he shall
fall as never knave fell or so deserved to fall before. Aye,--but
stay, Hotep. I have not done. I have some small grain of hope for
this unfortunate friend of ours. The marriage hath been delayed. I
shall press my suit, and wed Masanath sooner, if she will, and Kenkenes
need not decay in prison--"
Hotep did not stay longer. He bowed and departed without a word.
"Out upon the man, I offered all I could," Rameses muttered, but
immediately he arose and hurried to the well of the stairway.
"Hotep!" he called. The scribe, half-way down, turned and looked up.
"Return to me in an hour. Give me time to ponder and I may more
profitably help thee," the prince commanded. Hotep bowed and went on.
The hour was barely long enough for the smarting soul of the scribe to
soothe itself. Deep, indeed, his love for Kenkenes that he returned at
all. Masanath's name, spoken so familiarly, so boastingly, by the
prince was fresh outrage to his already affronted heart. It mattered
not that Rameses did not know. His talk of marriage with Masanath was
exultation, nevertheless. Once again, Hotep flung himself on his couch
and wrestled with his spirit.
At the end of the hour, he went once again to Rameses. He was calm and
composed, but he made no apology for his abrupt departure, when last he
was there. Perhaps, however, he gained in the respect of Rameses by
that lapse. The blunt prince was more patient with the sincere than
with the diplomatic.
"Thou hast said," the prince began immediately, "that Har-hat hath
imprisoned Kenkenes till what time he shall divulge the hiding-place of
the Israelite?"
Hotep bowed.
"The fan-bearer charges him with slave-stealing?"
"And sacrilege," the scribe added. The prince opened his eyes. "Aye,
Kenkenes carried his beauty-love into blasphemy. He executed a statue
of Athor in defiance of the sculptor's ritual. For this also, Har-hat
holds a heavy hand over him."
"A murrain on the lawless dreamer!" Rameses muttered. "Is there
anything more?"
Hotep shook his head.
"He deserves his ill-luck. Mark me, now. He will not go mad with a
year's imprisonment, and he will profit by it. Furthermore, he can not
be persuaded into betraying the Israelite, if he knows how long and how
much he will have to endure. Once sentenced, Har-hat can add nothing
more thereto. Has he confessed?"
"To me, he did. I know not what he said to the Pharaoh. But the
Goddess Ma broodeth on the lips of Kenkenes."
Rameses nodded, and clapped his hands. The attendant that appeared he
ordered to bring the scribe's writing-case and implements. When the
servant returned, Hotep, at a sign from Rameses, prepared to write.
"Write thus to the jailer at Tape:
"'By order of the crown prince, Rameses, the prisoner, Kenkenes, held
for slave-stealing and sacrilege, is sentenced to imprisonment for one
year--'"
Hotep lifted his pen, and looked his rebellion.
"Write!" the prince exclaimed. "I do him a kindness, with a lesson
added. Were it in my power to free him I would not--till he had
learned that the law is inexorable and the power of its ministers
supreme. Go on--'at such labor as the prisoner may elect. No further
punishment may be added thereto.' Affix my seal and send this without
fail. Thou canst write whatever thou wilt to Kenkenes. For the
Israelite, I shall not concern myself. The nearer friends to Kenkenes
may look to her. Mine shall be the care only to see that they are not
harassed by the fan-bearer. In this, I fulfil the law. Let Har-hat
help himself."
He dropped back on his divan and Hotep slowly collected his writing
materials and made ready to depart. Having finished, he lingered a
little.
"A word further, O Rameses. Kenkenes is proud. He would liefer die
than suffer the humiliation of public shame. Memphis believes him
dead. None but thyself, Har-hat, the noble Mentu and I know of his
plight. Har-hat hath no call to tell it. Mentu will not; I shall not.
Wilt thou keep his secret also, my Prince?"
"Far be it from me to humiliate him publicly. Let him have a care,
hereafter, that he does not humiliate himself."
"I thank thee, O Rameses."
Saluting the prince, Hotep departed.
That night he wrote to Kenkenes and to Mentu, and the two messengers
departed ere midnight.