The next day Rameses sent his black men with commands to Memphis, and
about midday came a great boat toward Sarah's house from the direction
of the city. The boat was filled with Greek soldiers in lofty helmets
and gleaming breastplates.
At command sixteen men armed with shields and short darts landed and
stood in two ranks. They were ready to march to the house, when a
second messenger from the prince detained them. He commanded the
soldiers to remain at the shore, and summoned only their leader,
Patrokles.
They halted and stood without movement, like two rows of columns
covered with glittering armor. After the messenger went Patrokles in
a helmet with plumes, wearing a purple tunic over which he had gilded
armor ornamented on the breast with the picture of a woman's head
bristling with serpents instead of hair.
The prince received the famous general at the garden gate. He did not
smile as usual, did not even answer the low bow of Patrokles, but said
coldly,--
"Worthiness, tell the Greek warriors that I will not review them until
their lord, his holiness, appoints me leader a second time. They have
lost that honor by uttering in dramshops shouts worthy of drunkards.
These shouts offend me. I call attention also to this, worthiness,
that the Greek regiments do not show sufficient discipline. In public
places the soldiers of this corps discuss politics and a certain
possible war. This looks like treason to the state. Only the pharaoh
and members of his supreme council may speak of such matters. But we,
soldiers and servants of our lord, whatever position we occupy, may
only execute the commands of our most gracious ruler, and be silent at
all times. I beg thee to communicate these considerations to my
regiments, and I wish all success to thee, worthiness."
"It will be as commanded, worthiness," answered the Greek.
He turned on his heel, and standing erect moved with a rattle toward
the boat. He knew about these discussions of the soldiers in the
dramshops, and understood straightway that something disagreeable had
happened to the heir, whom the troops worshipped. Therefore, when he
had reached the handful of armed men on the bank, he assumed a very
angry mien, and, waving his hands with rage, cried,--
"Valiant Greek soldiers! mangy dogs, may the leprosy consume you! If,
from this time on, any Greek mentions the name of the heir to the
throne in a dramshop, I will break a pitcher on his head, cram the
pieces down his throat, and then drive him out of the regiment! One
and another of you will herd swine for Egyptian earth-workers, and
hens will lay eggs in your helmets. Such is the fate waiting for
stupid soldiers who know not how to keep their tongues quiet. And
now--to the left! to the rear! turn! and march to the boat, may the
plague strike you! A soldier of his holiness should drink first of all
to the health of the pharaoh and the prosperity of the worthy minister
of war, Herhor,--may they live through eternity!"
"May they live through eternity!" repeated the soldiers.
All took their places in the boat, looking gloomy. But when near
Memphis Patrokles smoothed out his wrinkled forehead and commanded
them to sing the song of that priest's daughter who so loved soldiers
that she put a doll in her bed and passed the whole night in the booth
of the sentries. Keeping time to this song, they always marched best,
and moved the oars with most nimbleness.
In the evening another boat approached Sarah's dwelling, out of which
came the chief steward of the prince's property.
Rameses received this official at the garden gate also. Perhaps he did
this through sternness, or perhaps not to constrain the man to enter
the house of his mistress and a Jewess.
"I wished," said the heir, "to see thee and to say that among my
people certain improper conversations circulate concerning decrease of
rent, or something of that kind. I wish those people to know that I
will not decrease rents. But should any man in spite of warnings
persist in his folly and talk about rents, he will receive blows of
canes."
"Perhaps it would be better if he paid a line,--an uten or a drachma,
whatever is commanded, worthiness," said the chief steward.
"Yes; but the worst offender might be beaten."
"I make bold to offer a remark, worthiness," said the steward in a low
tone, inclining continually, "that the earth-workers, roused by some
unknown person, really did talk for a time about decrease of rent. But
some days ago they ceased on a sudden."
"In that case we might withhold the blows of canes," said Rameses.
"Unless as preventive means," put in the steward.
"Would it not be too bad to spoil the canes?"
"We shall never lack articles of that sort."
"But with moderation in every case. I do not wish it to go to his
holiness that I torture men without need. For rebellious conversation
we must beat and take fines in money, but when there is no cause for
punishment we may be magnanimous."
"I understand," answered the steward, looking into the eyes of
Rameses.
"Let them cry out as much as they like if they do not whisper
blasphemy."
These talks with Patrokles and the steward were reported throughout
Egypt.
After the steward's departure, the prince yawned and looking around
with a tired glance, he said to himself,--
"I have done all I could, but now, if I can, I will do nothing."
At that moment, from the direction of the outhouses, low groans and
the sound of frequent blows reached the prince. Rameses turned his
head, and saw that the overseer of the workmen, Ezechiel, son of
Reuben, was beating some subordinate with a cane, pacifying him
meanwhile,--
"Be quiet! be silent, low beast!"
The beaten workman, lying on the ground, closed his mouth with his
hand so as not to cry.
At first the prince rushed like a panther toward the outhouses.
Suddenly he halted.
"What am I to do?" whispered he. "This is Sarah's place, and the Jew
is her relative."
He bit his lips, and disappeared among the trees, the more readily
since the flogging was finished.
"Is this the management of the humble Jews?" thought Rameses. "Is this
the way? That man looks at me as a frightened dog might, but he beats
the workmen. Are the Hebrews all like him?"
And for the first time the thought was roused in the prince's soul,
that under the guise of kindness Sarah, too, might conceal falsehood.
Certain changes had indeed taken place in Sarah; above all, moral
changes.
From the moment when she met Rameses in the valley of the desert he
had pleased her, but that feeling grew silent immediately beneath the
influence of the stunning news that the shapely youth was a son of the
pharaoh and heir to the throne of Egypt. When Tutmosis bargained with
Gideon to take her to the prince's house, Sarah fell into a state of
bewilderment.
She would not renounce Rameses for any treasure, nor at the cost of
life, but one could not say that she loved him at that time. Love
demands freedom and time to give forth its most beautiful blossoms;
neither freedom nor time had been left to her. She made the
acquaintance of the prince on a certain day; the following day they
took her away almost without consulting her wishes, and bore her to
that villa opposite Memphis. In a couple of days she became the
prince's favorite, astonished, frightened, not understanding what had
taken place with her.
Moreover, before she could make herself used to the new impressions,
the Jewess was disturbed by ill-will from surrounding people; then the
visit of unknown ladies; finally, that attack on the villa.
Then, because Rameses took her part and wished to rush on the rioters,
she was still more terrified. She lost presence of mind at the thought
that she was in the hands of a man of such power and so violent, who,
if it suited him, had the right to shed blood, to slay people.
Sarah fell into despair for the moment: it seemed to her that she
would go mad. She heard the terrible commands of the prince who
summoned the servants to arms. But at that very moment a slight thing
took place, one little word was heard which sobered Sarah, and gave a
new turn to her feelings.
The prince, thinking that she was wounded, drew the bandage from her
head; but when he saw the bruise, he cried,--
"That is only a blue spot! How that blue spot changes the face!"
At these words Sarah forgot pain and fear. New alarm seized her: so
she had changed to such a degree that it astonished the prince, but he
was only astonished.
The blue spot disappeared in a couple of days, but feelings unknown up
to that time remained in Sarah's soul and increased there. She began
to be jealous of the prince, and to fear that he would reject her.
And still another anxiety tortured the Jewess. She felt herself a
servant, a slave in respect to Rameses. She was and wished to be his
faithful servant, his devoted slave, as inseparable as his shadow, but
at the same time she desired that he, at least when he fondled her,
should not treat her as though he were lord and master.
She was his indeed, but he was hers also. Why does he not show, then,
that he belonged to her, even in some degree? But with every word and
motion he makes her understand that a certain gulf is between them.
What kind of gulf? Has she not held him in her embraces? Has he not
kissed her lips and bosom?
A certain day the prince came to her with a dog. He stayed only a
couple of hours; but during that entire interval the dog lay at his
feet in Sarah's place, and when she wished to sit there the dog
growled. And the prince laughed and thrust his fingers into the hair
of that unclean creature, as he had into her hair. And the dog looked
into the prince's eyes just as she had,--with this difference,
perhaps, that he looked with more confidence.
She could not pacify herself, and she hated the clever beast which was
taking a part of the tenderness due to her, paying no attention
whatever to her, and bearing itself with an intimacy towards its lord
that she did not dare to claim. She would have been unable to have
such an indifferent mien, or to look in another direction if the
prince's hand had rested on her head.
Not long before this incident the prince mentioned dancers a second
time. Then Sarah burst out angrily,--
"How did he permit himself to be familiar with those naked, shameless
women? And Jehovah looking down from high heaven did not hurl His
thunders at those monstrous creatures!"
It is true that Rameses told her that she was dearer than all else to
him, but these words did not pacify Sarah; they only produced this
effect,--that she determined not to think of aught beyond her love.
What would come on the morrow? Never mind. And when at the feet of the
prince she sang that hymn about those sufferings which pursue mankind
from the cradle to the grave, she described in it the state of her own
soul, and her last hope, which was Jehovah.
That day Rameses was with her; hence she had enough, she had all the
happiness which life could give. But just there began for Sarah the
greatest bitterness.
The prince lived under one roof with her, he walked with her in the
garden, and sometimes went out on the Nile in a boat with her. But he
was not more accessible by the width of one hair than when he was on
the other side of the river, within the limits of the pharaoh's
palace.
He was with her, but his mind was in some other place, Sarah could not
even divine where. He embraced her, or toyed with her hair, but he
looked toward the city, at those immense many-colored pylons of the
pharaoh's palace, or at some unknown object.
At times he did not even answer her questions, or he looked at her
suddenly as if roused from sleep, or as if he wondered that he saw her
there beside him.