As the suite of the heir approached Memphis, the sun was near its
setting, while from countless canals and the distant sea came a wind
filled with cool moisture. The road descended again to the fertile
region, where on fields and among bushes continuous ranks of people
were working, a rosy gleam was falling on the desert, and the mountain
summits were in a blaze of sunlight.
Rameses halted and turned his horse. His suite surrounded him quickly,
the higher officers approached with some leisure, while the marching
regiments drew nearer slowly and with even tread. In the purple rays
of the setting sun, the prince had the seeming of a divinity, the
soldiers gazed at him with affection and pride, the chiefs looked
admiringly.
He raised his hand. All were silent.
"Worthy leaders," began he, "brave officers, obedient soldiers! To-day
the gods have given me the pleasure of commanding you. Delight has
filled my heart. And since it is my will that leaders, officers, and
soldiers should share my happiness at all times, I assign one drachma
to each soldier of those who have gone to the east, and to those who
return with us from the eastern boundary; also one drachma each to the
Greek soldiers who to-day, under my command, opened a passage out of
the ravine; and one drachma to each man in the regiments of the worthy
Nitager who wished to cut off the way to us."
There was a shout in the army.
"Be well, our leader! Be well, successor of the pharaoh, may he live
eternally!" cried the soldiers; and the Greeks cried the loudest.
The prince continued,--
"I assign five talents to be divided among the lower officers of my
army and that of the worthy Nitager. And finally I assign ten talents
to be divided between his worthiness the minister and the chief
leaders--"
"I yield my part for the benefit of the army," answered Herhor.
"Be well, O heir!--be well, O minister!" cried the officers and the
soldiers.
The ruddy circle of the sun had touched the sands of the western
desert. Rameses took farewell of the army and galloped towards
Memphis; but his worthiness Herhor, amid joyous shouts, took a seat in
his litter and commanded also to go in advance of the marching
divisions.
When they had gone so far that single voices were merged into one
immense murmur, like the sound of a cataract, the minister, bending
toward the secretary, asked of him,--
"Dost thou remember everything?"
"Yes, worthy lord."
"Thy memory is like granite on which we write history, and thy wisdom
like the Nile, which covers all the country and enriches it," said
Herhor. "Besides, the gods have granted thee the greatest of
virtues,--wise obedience."
The secretary was silent.
"Hence thou mayest estimate more accurately than others the acts and
reasons of the heir, may he live through eternity!"
The minister stopped awhile, and then added,--
"It has not been his custom to speak so much. Tell me then, Pentuer,
and record this: Is it proper that the heir to the throne should
express his will before the army? Only a pharaoh may act thus, or a
traitor, or--a frivolous stripling, who with the same heedlessness
will do hasty deeds or belch forth words of blasphemy."
The sun went down, and soon after a starry night appeared. Above the
countless canals of Lower Egypt a silvery mist began to thicken,--a
mist which, borne to the desert by a gentle wind, freshened the
wearied warriors, and revived vegetation which had been dying through
lack of moisture.
"Or tell me, Pentuer," continued the minister, "and inquire: whence
will the heir get his twenty talents to keep the promise which he made
this day to the army with such improvidence? Besides, it seems to me,
and certainly to thee, a dangerous step for an heir to make presents
to the army, especially now, when his holiness has nothing with which
to pay Nitager's regiments returning from the Orient. I do not ask
what thy opinions are, for I know them, as thou knowest my most secret
thoughts. I only ask thee to the end that thou remember what thou hast
seen, so as to tell it to the priests in council."
"Will they meet soon?" inquired Pentuer.
"There is no reason yet to summon them. I shall try first to calm this
wild young bull through the fatherly hand of his holiness. It would be
a pity to lose the boy, for he has much ability and the energy of a
southern whirlwind. But if the whirlwind, instead of blowing away
Egypt's enemies, blows down its wheat and tears up its palm-trees!--"
The minister stopped conversation, and his retinue vanished in the
dark alley of trees which led to Memphis.
Meanwhile Rameses reached the palace of the pharaoh.
This edifice stood on an elevation in a park outside the city.
Peculiar trees grew there: baobabs from the south; pines, oaks, and
cedars from the north. Thanks to the art of gardeners, these trees
lived some tens of years and reached a considerable height.
The shady alley led to a gate which was as high as a house of three
stories. From each side of the gate rose a solid building like a tower
in the form of a truncated pyramid, forty yards in width with the
height of five stories. In the night they seemed like two immense
tents made of sandstone. These peculiar buildings had on the ground
and the upper stories square windows, and the roofs were flat. From
the top of one of these pyramids without apex, a watch looked at the
country; from the other the priest on duty observed the stars.
At the right and left of these towers, called pylons, extended walls,
or rather long structures of one story, with narrow windows and flat
roofs, on which sentries paced back and forth. On both sides of the
main gate were two sitting statues fifteen feet in height. In front of
these statues moved other sentries.
When the prince, with a number of horsemen, approached the palace, the
sentry knew him in spite of the darkness. Soon an official of the
court ran out of the pylon. He was clothed in a white skirt and dark
mantle, and wore a wig as large as a headdress.
"Is the palace closed already?" inquired the prince.
"Thou art speaking truth, worthy lord," said the official. "His
holiness is preparing the god for sleep."
"What will he do after that?"
"He will be pleased to receive the war minister, Herhor."
"Well, and later?"
"Later his holiness will look at the ballet in the great hall, then he
will bathe and recite evening prayers."
"Has he not commanded to receive me?" inquired Rameses.
"To-morrow morning after the military council."
"What are the queens doing?"
"The first queen is praying in the chamber of her dead son, and thy
worthy mother is receiving the Phoenician ambassador, who has brought
her gifts from the women of Tyre."
"Did he bring maidens?"
"A number of them. Each has on her person treasures to the value of
ten talents."
"Who is moving about down there with torches?" asked the prince,
pointing to the lower park.
"They are taking thy brother, worthiness, from a tree where he has
been sitting since midday."
"Is he unwilling to come down?"
"He will come down now, for the first queen's jester has gone for him,
and has promised to take him to the inn where dissectors are
drinking."
"And hast thou heard anything of the manoeuvres of to-day?"
"They say that the staff was cut off from the corps."
"And what more?"
The official hesitated.
"Tell what thou hast heard."
"We heard, moreover, that because of this five hundred blows of a
stick were given to a certain officer at thy command, worthiness."
"It is all a lie!" said one of the adjutants of the heir in an
undertone.
"The soldiers, too, say among themselves that it must be a lie,"
returned the official, with growing confidence.
Rameses turned his horse and rode to the lower part of the park where
his small palace was situated. It had a ground and an upper story and
was built of wood. Its form was that of an immense hexagon with two
porticos, an upper and a lower one which surrounded the building and
rested on a multitude of pillars. Lamps were burning in the interior;
hence it was possible to see that the walls were formed of planks
perforated like lace, and that these walls were protected from the
wind by curtains of various colors. The roof of the building was flat,
surrounded by a balustrade; on this roof stood a number of tents.
Greeted heartily by half-naked servitors, some of whom ran out with
torches, while others prostrated themselves before him, the heir
entered his residence. On the ground floor he removed his dusty dress,
bathed in a stone basin, and put on a kind of great sheet which he
fastened at the neck and bound round his waist with a cord for a
girdle. On the first floor he ate a supper consisting of a wheaten
cake, dates, and a glass of light beer. Then he went to the terrace of
the building, and lying on a couch covered with a lion skin, commanded
the servants to withdraw and to bring up Tutmosis the moment he
appeared there.
About midnight a litter stopped before the residence, and out of it
stepped the adjutant. When he walked along the terrace heavily yawning
as he went, the prince sprang up from the couch and cried,--
"Art thou here? Well, what?"
"Then art thou not sleeping yet?" replied Tutmosis. "O gods, after so
many days of torture! I think that I should sleep until sunrise."
"What of Sarah?"
"She will be here the day after to-morrow, or thou wilt be with her in
the house beyond the river."
"Only after to-morrow!"
"Only? I beg thee, Rameses, to sleep. Thou hast taken too much bad
blood to thy heart, fire will strike to thy head."
"What about her father?"
"He is honorable and wise. They call him Gideon. When I told him that
thou hadst the wish to take his daughter, he fell on the ground and
tore his hair. Of course I waited till this outburst of fatherly
suffering was over; I ate a little, drank some wine, and at last
proceeded to bargaining. The weeping Gideon swore first of all that he
would rather see his daughter dead than the mistress of any man. Then
I told him that near Memphis, on the Nile, he would receive land which
gives two talents of yearly income and pays no taxes. He was
indignant. Then I stated that he might receive another talent yearly
in gold and silver. He sighed and declared that his daughter had spent
three years at school in Pi-Bailos; I added another talent. Then
Gideon, still disconsolate, remembered that he would lose his very
good position of manager for the lord Sesofris. I told him that he
need not lose that place, and added ten milch cows from thy stables.
His forehead cleared somewhat; then he confessed to me, as a profound
secret, that a certain very great lord, Chaires, who bears the fan of
the nomarch of Memphis, was turning attention toward Sarah. I promised
then to add a young bull, a medium chain of gold, and a large
bracelet. In this way thy Sarah will cost thee land, two talents
yearly in money, ten cows, a young bull, a chain and a gold bracelet,
immediately. These thou wilt give to her father, the honest Gideon; to
her thou wilt give whatever pleases thee."
"What did Sarah say to this?"
"While we were bargaining she walked among the trees. When we had
finished the matter and settled it by drinking good Hebrew wine, she
told her father--dost thou know what?--that if he had not given her to
thee, she would have gone up the cliff and thrown herself down head
foremost. Now thou mayst sleep quietly, I think," ended Tutmosis.
"I doubt it," answered Rameses, leaning on the balustrade and looking
into the emptiest side of the park. "Dost thou know that on the way
back we found a man hanging from a tree?"
"Oh! that is worse than the scarabs!"
"He hanged himself from despair because the warriors filled the canal
which he had been digging for ten years in the desert."
"Well, that man is sleeping now quietly. So it is time for us."
"That man was wronged," said the prince. "I must find his children,
ransom them, and rent a bit of land to them."
"But thou must do this with great secrecy," remarked Tutmosis, "or all
slaves will begin to hang themselves, and no Phoenician will lend us,
their lords, a copper uten."
"Jest not. Hadst thou seen that man's face, sleep would be absent
to-night from thy eyes as it is from mine."
Meanwhile from below, among the bushes, was heard a voice, not
over-powerful, but clear,--
"May the One, the All-Powerful, bless thee, Rameses,--He who has no
name in human speech, or statue in a temple."
Both young men bent forward in astonishment.
"Who art thou?" called out the prince.
"I am the injured people of Egypt," replied the voice, slowly and with
calmness.
Then all was silent. No motion, no rustle of branches betrayed human
presence in that place.
At command of Rameses servants rushed out with torches, the dogs were
unchained, and every bush around the house was searched. But they
found no one.
"Who could that have been, Tutmosis?" asked the prince, with emotion.
"Perhaps it was the ghost of that slave who hanged himself?"
"I have never heard ghosts talking, though I have been on guard at
temples and tombs more than once. I should think, rather, that he who
has just called to us is some friend of thine."
"Why should he hide?"
"But what harm is that to thee? Each one of us has tens, if not
hundreds, of invisible enemies. Thank the gods, then, that thou hast
even one invisible friend."
"I shall not sleep to-night," whispered the excited prince.
"Be calm. Instead of running along the terrace listen to me and lie
down. Thou wilt see Sleep--that is a deliberate divinity, and it does
not befit him to chase after those who run with the pace of a deer. If
thou wilt lie down on a comfortable couch, Sleep, who loves comfort,
will sit near thee and cover thee with his great mantle, which covers
not only men's eyes, but their memories."
Thus speaking, Tutmosis placed Rameses on a couch; then he brought an
ivory pillow shaped like a crescent, and arranging the prince, placed
his head on this pillow.
Then he let down the canvas walls of the tent, laid himself on the
floor, and both were asleep in some minutes.