XV

The King passed into another hall to receive Mosche, and sat down on a

throne, the arms of which were formed of lions, hung a broad pectoral

ornament on his breast, and assumed a pose of supreme indifference.

Mosche appeared, accompanied by another Hebrew, called Aharon. August

though the Pharaoh was, as he sat on his golden throne, surrounded by

his officers and his fan-bearers, within that high hall with its huge

columns, against that background of paintings which depicted the deeds

of his ancestors or his own, Mosche was no less imposing. In him the

majesty of age equalled the majesty of sovereignty. Although he was

seventy years old, he seemed endowed with manly vigour, and nothing in

him showed decadence into senility. The wrinkles on his brow and his

cheeks, like the marks of the chisel on the granite, made him venerable

without telling his age. His brown and wrinkled neck was joined to his

powerful shoulders by gaunt but still powerful muscles, and a network of

sinewy veins showed upon his hands, which did not tremble as old men's

hands generally do. A soul more energetic than a human soul vivified his

body, and on his face shone in the shadow a strange light. It seemed

like the reflection of an invisible sun.

Without prostrating himself, as was the custom when men approached the

King, Mosche drew near the throne of the Pharaoh and said to him: "Thus

saith the Lord God of Israel: 'Let my people go, that they may hold a

feast unto me in the wilderness.'"

The Pharaoh replied, "Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice to

let Israel go? I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go."

Without being intimidated by the King's words, the tall old man replied

unhesitatingly, for the stuttering which had formerly affected him had

disappeared,--

"The God of the Hebrews hath met with us. Let us go, we pray thee, three

days' journey into the desert, and sacrifice unto the Lord our God; lest

he fall upon us with pestilence, or with the sword."

Aharon confirmed by a nod the demand of Mosche.

"Wherefore do ye, Mosche and Aharon, let the people from their works?"

replied the Pharaoh. "Happily for you I am to-day in a clement humour,

for I might have had you beaten with rods, had your tongues and ears

cut off, or thrown you living to the crocodiles. Know, for I tell you

so, there is no other god than Ammon Ra, the supreme and primeval being,

at once male and female; who is his own father and his own mother, whose

husband he is also; from whom come all the other gods which unite heaven

to earth and which are but forms of those two obscure principles. The

wise know it, and the priests, who have long studied mysteries in the

colleges and in the temples consecrated to his diverse representations.

Do not, therefore, allege another god of your own invention to move the

Hebrews to revolt, and to prevent them from doing their appointed work.

Your pretext of sacrifice is plain,--you wish to flee. Withdraw from

before me, and continue to mould clay for my royal and priestly

buildings, for my pyramids, my palaces, and my walls. Go! I have

spoken."

Mosche, seeing that he could not move the Pharaoh's heart, and that if

he insisted he would excite his wrath, withdrew in silence, followed by

Aharon in dismay.

"I have obeyed the Lord God," said Mosche to his companion when they had

crossed the pylon, "but the Pharaoh remains as insensible as if I had

been speaking to those granite figures seated upon thrones at the

palace gates, or to those idols with heads of dogs, monkeys, or hawks to

which the priests burn incense within the depths of the sanctuaries.

What shall we reply to the people when they question us on the result of

our mission?"

The Pharaoh, fearing lest the Hebrews should bethink themselves of

throwing off their yoke in accordance with the suggestions of Mosche,

made them work more severely than before, and refused them straw to make

their bricks. Thenceforth the children of Israel spread throughout

Egypt, plucking the stubble and cursing their tyrants; for they were

very unhappy, and they said that the advice of Mosche had increased

their misery.

One day Mosche and Aharon reappeared in the palace, and once again

called upon the King to let the Hebrews go to sacrifice unto the Lord in

the wilderness.

"What proof have I," replied the Pharaoh, "that it is the Lord who sends

you to me to tell me these things, and that you are not, as I fancy,

vile impostors?"

Aharon threw down his wand before the King, and the wood began to twist,

to curl, to grow scales, to move its head and tail, to rise up, and to

utter horrible hissings: the wand had been changed into a serpent. Its

rings grated over the flags, it swelled its hood, it whipped out its

forked tongue, and rolling its red eyes, seemed to select the victim

which it was about to bite.

The officers and servants ranged around the throne remained motionless

and mute with terror at the sight of this prodigy; the bravest half drew

their swords.

But the Pharaoh was in no wise moved. A disdainful smile flitted over

his lips, and he said,--

"Is that all you can do? The miracle is slight, and the prodigy poor.

Send for my wise men, my sorcerers and my magicians."

They came. They were men of venerable and mystic appearance, with shaven

heads, wearing sandals of byblos, dressed in long linen robes, holding

in their hands wands on which were engraved hieroglyphs. They were

yellow and dried up like mummies by night watches, study, and austerity;

the fatigue entailed by successive initiations could be read upon their

faces, in which their eyes alone seemed to retain life.

They drew up in a line before the throne of the Pharaoh without paying

the least attention to the serpent, which wriggled, crawled, and

hissed.

"Can you," said the King, "change your wands into reptiles as Aharon has

done?"

"O King, is it for such child's play," said the oldest of the band,

"that you have sent for us from the recesses of the secret chambers

where under the starry ceilings, by the light of the lamps, we are

meditating, bending over undecipherable papyri, kneeling before the

hieroglyphic stelae with their mysterious, deep meanings, forcing the

secrets of nature, calculating the power of numbers, bearing our

trembling hand to the border of the veil of the great Isis? Let us go

back, for life is short, and the wise man has scarce time to tell to

another the word which he has learned. Let us go back to our

laboratories. The merest juggler, the first charmer of serpents who

plays the flute on the public squares, will suffice to satisfy you."

"Ennana, do what I wish," said the Pharaoh to the chief of the wise men

and the magicians.

Old Ennana turned towards the band of sages, who remained standing

motionless, their minds already lost again in deep meditations.

"Cast down every man your rod as you whisper the magic word."

The rods fell together with a sharp sound upon the stone slabs, and the

wise men resumed their perpendicular attitude like the statues placed

against the pillars of the tombs. They did not even deign to look at

their feet to see if the miracle were being wrought, so sure were they

of the power of their formula.

And then was seen a strange and horrible sight. The rods twisted like

branches of green wood in the fire, the ends flattened out into the

shape of heads, thinned out into the shape of tails. Some remained

smooth, others became scaly, according to the kind of serpent. All these

swarmed and crawled and hissed, interlaced and knotted into hideous

knots. There were vipers bearing the mark of the spearhead upon their

low brows, horned snakes with menacing protuberances, greenish, viscous

hydras, asps with movable fangs, yellow trigonocephalae, orvets or blind

serpents, crotalidae with short heads, black skins, and rattles on their

tails, amphisbena, which can glide forward or backward, boas opening

mouths wide enough to swallow an ox, serpents with eyes surrounded with

discs like those of owls;--the pavement of the hall was covered with

them.

Tahoser, who shared the throne of the Pharaoh, raised her beautiful bare

feet and pulled them back under her, pale with terror.

"Well," said the Pharaoh to Mosche, "you see that the skill of my

magicians equals, and even surpasses yours; their rods have turned into

serpents like that of Aharon. Invent another prodigy if you seek to

convince me."

Mosche stretched forth his hand, and Aharon's serpent glided towards the

twenty-four reptiles. The struggle was not long; it soon had swallowed

the hideous things, real or seeming creations of the wise men of Egypt.

Then it resumed its former wand shape.

This result seemed to amaze Ennana. He bent his head, thought for a

moment, and said, like a man who perceives something: "I shall find the

word and the sign. I have interpreted wrongly the fourth hieroglyph of

the fifth perpendicular line in which is the spell of serpents. O King,

do you still need us?" said the chief of the wise men aloud. "I long to

resume the reading of Hermes Trismegistus, which contains more important

secrets than these sleight-of-hand tricks."

The Pharaoh signed to the old man that he might withdraw, and the silent

procession returned to the depths of the palace.

The King re-entered the harem with Tahoser. The priest's daughter,

terrified and still trembling at these prodigies, knelt down before him

and said: "O Pharaoh, do you not fear to anger by your resistance the

unknown god who has ordered these Israelites to go a three days' journey

into the desert to sacrifice unto him? Let Mosche and his Hebrews depart

to fulfil their rites, for perhaps the Lord, as they call him, will

afflict the land of Egypt and bring death upon us."

"What! does that reptile jugglery frighten you?" replied the Pharaoh.

"Did you not see that my wise men produced serpents with their wands?"

"Yes, but Aharon's devoured them, and that is an ill omen."

"What matters it? Am I not the favourite of Phre, the preferred of Ammon

Ra? Have I not under my sandals the effigies of conquered nations? With

one breath I shall sweep away when I please the whole of that Hebrew

race, and I shall see if their god can protect them."

"Beware, Pharaoh," said Tahoser, who remembered Poeri's words about the

power of Jehovah. "Do not allow pride to harden your heart. Mosche and

Aharon terrify me; they must be supported by a more powerful god, for

they braved your wrath."

"If their god is so powerful," said the Pharaoh, answering the fear

expressed by Tahoser, "would he leave them thus captives, humiliated and

bowing like beasts of burden under the harvest labour? Let us forget

these vain prodigies and live in peace. Think rather of the love I bear

you, and remember that the Pharaoh is more powerful than the Lord, the

fanciful god of the Hebrews."

"Yes, you are the destroyer of the nations and the ruler of thrones, and

men are before you like grains of sand blown by the southern wind. I

know it," replied Tahoser.

"And yet I cannot make you love me," said the Pharaoh, with a smile.

"The ibex fears the lion, the dove dreads the hawk, the eye shrinks from

the sun, and I can see you yet only through terror and blazing light. It

takes human weakness a long time to become familiar with royal majesty;

a god always terrifies a mortal."

"You fill me with regret, Tahoser, that I am not the first-comer, an

officer, a nomarch, a priest, a labourer, or even less. But since I

cannot make the King into a man, I can make a queen out of the woman and

bind the golden uraeus upon your lovely brow. The Queen will no longer

dread the King."

"Even when you make me sit by you on your throne, my thoughts remain

kneeling at your feet. But you are so good in spite of your superhuman

beauty, your power so boundless and your splendour so dazzling, that

perhaps my heart will grow bold and will dare to beat against yours."

Thus talked the Pharaoh and Tahoser. The priest's daughter could not

forget Poeri, and sought to gain time by flattering the passion of the

King. To escape from the palace, to find the young Hebrew again, was

impossible. Besides, Poeri had accepted her love rather than shared it.

Ra'hel, in spite of her generosity, was a dangerous rival; and then, the

love of the Pharaoh touched the priest's daughter,--she desired to love

him, and perhaps she was not so far from doing so as she believed.