After his reception by the viceroy, Sargon delayed at Pi-Bast, waiting
for letters from the pharaoh at Memphis. Meanwhile strange reports
began to circulate among officers and nobles.
The Phoenicians told, of course as the greatest secret, that the
priests, it was unknown for what reason, not only forgave the
Assyrians the unpaid tribute, not only freed them once and for all
time from paying it, but, besides, to facilitate some northern war for
the Assyrians, had concluded a treaty of peace for many years with
them.
"The pharaoh," said the Phoenicians, "on learning of these concessions
to Assyria fell very ill. Prince Rameses is troubled, and goes around
grief-stricken. But both must give way to the priests, for they are
not sure of the nobles and the army."
This enraged the Egyptian aristocracy.
"Is it possible?" whispered magnates who were in debt. "Does the
dynasty not trust us? Have the priests undertaken to disgrace and ruin
Egypt? For it is clear that if Assyria has a war in the distant north
somewhere, now is just the time to attack her and fill the reduced
treasury of the pharaoh and the aristocracy with plunder."
One and another of the young lords made bold to ask the prince what he
thought of Assyrians. Rameses was silent, but the gleam in his eyes
and his fixed lips expressed his feelings sufficiently.
"It is clear," whispered the lords, later on, "that this dynasty is
bound by the priesthood. It yields not its confidence to nobles; great
misfortunes are threatening Egypt."
Silent anger was soon turned into secret councils, which had even the
semblance of conspiracy. Though many persons took part in this action,
the priests were self-confident, or knew nothing of this in their
blindness; and Sargon, though he felt the existing hatred, did not
attach to it importance. He learned that Prince Rameses disliked him,
but that he attributed to the event in the arena, and to his jealousy
in the affair of the priestess. Confident, however, in his position as
ambassador, he drank, feasted, and slipped away almost every evening
to Kama, who received with increasing favor his courting and his
presents.
Such was the condition of mind in the higher circles, when on a
certain night the holy Mentezufis rushed to the prince's dwelling, and
declared that he must see the viceroy immediately.
The courtiers answered that one of his women was visiting their lord,
and that they would not disturb him. But when Mentezufis insisted with
increasing emphasis, they called out Rameses.
The prince appeared after a time, and was not even angry.
"What is this?" asked he of the priest. "Are we at war, that thou
takest the trouble to visit me at an hour like the present?"
Mentezufis looked diligently at the prince, and sighed deeply.
"Has the prince not gone out all the evening?" inquired he.
"Not a step."
"Can I give a priest's word for this?"
The heir was astonished.
"It seems to me," answered he, haughtily, "that thy word is not
needed, since I have given mine. What does this mean?"
They withdrew to a special chamber.
"Dost thou know, lord," asked the excited priest, "what has happened,
perhaps an hour since? Some young men attacked the worthy Sargon and
clubbed him."
"Who were they? Where did this happen?"
"At the villa of a Phoenician priestess named Kama," answered
Mentezufis, watching the face of the heir sharply.
"Daring fellows," said the prince, shrugging his shoulders, "to attack
such a stalwart man! I suppose that more than one bone was broken in
that struggle."
"But to attack an ambassador! Consider, worthy lord,--an ambassador
protected by the majesty of Assyria and Egypt," said the priest.
"Ho! ho!" laughed the prince. "Then King Assar sends ambassadors even
to Phoenician dancers?"
Mentezufis was confused. All at once he tapped his forehead, and cried
out also, with laughter,--
"See, prince, what a simple man I am, unfamiliar with ceremonies. I
forgot that Sargon, strolling about in the night near the house of a
suspected woman, is not an ambassador, but an ordinary person."
After a while he added,--
"In every case something evil has happened. Sargon may conceive a
dislike for us."
"Priest! O priest!" cried Rameses, shaking his head. "Thou hast
forgotten this,--a thing of much more importance,--that Egypt has no
need to fear or even care for the good or bad feeling toward her, not
merely of Sargon, but King Assar."
Mentezufis was so confused by the appositeness of the remark, that,
instead of an answer, he bowed, muttering,--
"Prince, the gods have given thee the wisdom of high priests,--may
their names be blessed! I wanted to issue an order to search for
these insolents, but now I prefer to follow thy advice, for thou art a
sage above sages. Tell me, therefore, lord, what I am to do with
Sargon and those turbulent young people."
"First of all, wait till morning. As a priest, thou knowest best that
divine sleep often brings good counsel."
"But if before morning I think out nothing?"
"I will visit Sargon in every case, and try to efface that little
accident from his memory."
The priest took farewell of Rameses with marks of respect. On the way
home, he pondered.
"I will let the heart be torn out of my breast," thought he, "if the
prince had to do with that business. He neither beat Sargon, nor
persuaded another to beat him; he did not even know of the incident.
Whoso judges an affair with such coolness and so pointedly cannot be a
confederate. In that case I can begin an investigation, and if we do
not mollify the shaggy barbarian I will deliver the disturbers to
justice. Beautiful treaty of friendship between two states, which
begins by insulting the ambassador!"
Next morning the lordly Sargon lay on his felt couch till midday. He
lay thus rather frequently, however, that is, after each
drinking-feast. Near him, on a low divan, sat the devout Istubar, with
eyes fixed on the ceiling, while muttering a prayer.
"Istubar," sighed the dignitary, "art thou sure that no man of our
court knows of my misfortune?"
"Who could know, if thou hast seen no one?"
"But the Egyptians!" groaned Sargon.
"Of the Egyptians Mentezufis and the prince know, yes, and those
madmen who surely will remember thy fists for a long time."
"They may--they may; but it seems to me that the heir was among them,
and that his nose is crushed, if not broken."
"The heir has a sound nose, and he was not there, I assure thee."
"In that case," sighed Sargon, "the prince should impale a good number
of those rioters on stakes. I am an ambassador; my person is sacred."
"But I tell thee," counselled Istubar, "to cast anger from thy heart,
and not to complain even; for if those rioters are arraigned before a
court, the whole world will learn that the ambassador of the most
worthy King Assar goes about among Phoenicians, and, what is worse,
visits them alone during night hours. What wilt thou answer if thy
mortal enemy, the chancellor Lik-Bagus, asks thee, 'Sargon, what
Phoenicians didst thou see, and of what was thy discourse with them at
night, outside their temple?'"
Sargon sighed, if sounds like the growling of a lion are to be called
sighs.
That moment one of the Assyrian officers rushed in. He knelt down,
struck the pavement with his forehead, and said to Sargon,--
"Light of our lord's eyes! There is a crowd of magnates and
dignitaries of Egypt before the entrance, and at the head of them the
heir himself, with the evident intention of giving thee homage."
But before Sargon could utter a command, the prince was in the door of
the chamber. He pushed the gigantic watch aside, and approached the
felts quickly, while the confused ambassador, with widely opened eyes,
knew not what to do,--to flee naked to another chamber, or hide
beneath the covers.
On the threshold stood a number of Assyrian officers, astonished at
the invasion of the heir in opposition to every etiquette. But Istubar
made a sign to them, and they vanished.
The prince was alone; he had left his suite in the courtyard.
"Be greeted, O ambassador of a great king, and guest of the pharaoh. I
have come to visit thee and inquire if thou hast need of anything,
also to learn if time and desire will permit thee to ride in my
company on a horse from my father's stables, surrounded by our suites
in a manner becoming an ambassador of the mighty Assar,--may he live
through eternity!"
Sargon listened as he lay there, without understanding a syllable. But
when Istubar interpreted the words of the Egyptian viceroy, the
ambassador felt such delight that he beat his head against the couch,
repeating the names Rameses and Assar.
When he had calmed himself, and made excuses for the wretched state in
which so worthy and famous a guest had found him, he added,--
"Do not take it ill, O lord, that an earthworm and a support of the
throne, as I am, show delight in a manner so unusual. But I am doubly
pleased at thy coming; first, because such a superterrestrial honor
has come to me; second, because in my dull and worthless heart I
thought that thou, O lord, wert the author of my misfortune. It seemed
to me that among the sticks which fell on my shoulders I felt thine,
which struck, indeed, vigorously."
The calm Istubar interpreted phrase after phrase to the prince. To
this the heir, with genuine kingly dignity, answered,--
"Thou wert mistaken, O Sargon. If thou thyself hadst not confessed the
error, I should command to count out fifty blows of a stick to thee,
so that thou shouldst remember that persons like me do not attack one
man with a crowd, or in the night-time."
Before the serene Istubar could finish the interpretation of this
speech, Sargon had crawled up to the prince and embraced his legs
earnestly.
"A great lord! a great king!" cried he. "Glory to Egypt, that has such
a ruler."
To this the prince answered,--
"I will say more, Sargon. If an attack was made on thee yesterday, I
assure thee that no one of my courtiers made it. For I judge that a
man of such strength as thou art must have broken more than one skull.
But my attendants are unharmed, every man of them."
"He has told truth, and spoken wisely," whispered Sargon to Istubar.
"But though," continued the prince, "this evil deed has happened, not
through my fault, or through that of my attendants, I feel bound to
decrease thy dissatisfaction with a city in which thou wert met so
unworthily; hence I have visited thy bedchamber; hence I open to thee
my house at all times, as often as thou mayst wish to visit it, and I
beg thee to accept this small gift from me."
The prince drew forth from his tunic a chain set with rubies and
sapphires.
The gigantic Sargon shed tears; this moved the prince but did not
affect the indifference of Istubar. The priest saw that Sargon had
tears, joy, or anger, at call, as befitted the ambassador of a king
full of wisdom.
The viceroy sat a moment longer, and then took farewell of Sargon.
While going out, he thought that the Assyrians, though barbarians,
were not evil minded, since they knew how to respond to magnanimity.
Sargon was so touched that he gave order immediately to bring wine,
and he drank from midday till evening.
Some time after sunset the priest, Istubar, left Sargon's chamber for
a while; he returned soon, but through a concealed doorway. Behind him
appeared two men in dark mantles. When they had pushed their cowls
aside, Sargon recognized in one the high priest Mefres, in the other
Mentezufis the prophet.
"We bring thee, worthy ambassador, good news," said Mefres.
"May I be able to give you the like," cried the ambassador. "Be
seated, holy and worthy fathers. And though I have reddened eyes,
speak to me as if I were in perfect soberness; for when I am drunk my
mind is improved even. Is this not true, Istubar?"
"Speak on," said the Chaldean.
"To-day," began Mentezufis, "I have received a letter from the most
worthy minister Herhor. He writes that his holiness--may he live
through eternity!--awaits thy embassy at Memphis in his wonderful
palace, and that his holiness--may he live through eternity!--is well
disposed to make a treaty with Assyria."
Sargon tottered on his feet, but his eyes showed clear mental action.
"I will go," said he, "to his holiness the pharaoh,--may he live
through eternity! In the name of my lord I will put my seal on the
treaty, if it be written on bricks in cuneiform letters, for I do not
understand your writing. I will lie even all day on my belly before
his holiness, and will sign the treaty. But how will ye carry it
out,--ha! ha! ha! that I know not," concluded he, with rude laughter.
"How darest thou, O servant of the great Assar, doubt the good-will
and faith of our ruler?" inquired Mentezufis.
Sargon grew a little sobered.
"I do not speak of his holiness," replied he, "but of the heir to the
throne of Egypt."
"He is a young man full of wisdom, who will carry out the will of his
father and the supreme council without hesitation," answered Mefres.
"Ha! ha! ha!" laughed the drunken barbarian again. "Your prince-- O
gods, put my joints out if I speak an untruth, when I say that I
should wish Assyria to have such an heir as he is. Our Assyrian heir
is a sage, a priest. He, before going to war, looks first at the stars
in the sky; afterward he looks under hens' tails. But yours would
examine to see how many troops he had; he would learn where the enemy
was camping, and fall on him as an eagle on a lamb. He is a leader, he
is a king! He is not of those who obey priestly counsels. He will take
counsel with his own sword, and ye will have to carry out what he
orders. Therefore, though I sign a treaty, I shall tell my lord that
behind the sick pharaoh and the wise priests there is in Egypt a young
heir to the throne who is a lion and a bull in one person,--a man on
whose lips there is honey, but in whose heart lies a thunderbolt."
"And thou wilt tell an untruth," interrupted Mentezufis. "For our
prince, though impulsive and riotous somewhat, as is usual with young
people, knows how to respect both the counsel of sages and the highest
institutions of the country."
"O ye sages learned in letters, ye who know the circuits of the
stars!" said Sargon, jeering. "I am a simple commander of troops, who
without my seal would not always be able to scratch off my signature.
Ye are sages, I am unlearned; but by the beard of my king, I would not
change what I know for your wisdom. Ye are men to whom the world of
papyrus and brick is laid bare; but the real world in which men live
is closed to you. I am unlearned, but I have the sniff of a dog; and,
as a dog sniffs a bear from a distance; so I with reddened nose sniff
a hero.
"Ye will give counsel to the prince! But ye are charmed by him
already, as a dove is by a serpent. I, at least, do not deceive
myself; and, though the prince is as kind to me as my own father, I
feel through my skin that he hates me and my Assyrians as a tiger
hates an elephant. Ha! ha! Only give him an army, and in three months
he would be at Nineveh, if soldiers would rise up to him in the desert
instead of falling down and dying--"
"Even though thou wert speaking truth," interrupted Mentezufis, "even
if the prince wished to go to Nineveh, he will not go."
"But who will detain him when he is the pharaoh?"
"We."
"Ye? ye? Ha! ha! ha!" laughed Sargon. "Ye think always that that young
man does not feel this treaty. But I--but I--ha! ha! ha! I will let
the skin be torn from me, and my body be impaled if he does not know
everything."
"Would the Phoenicians be so quiet if they possessed not the certainty
that your young lion of Egypt would shield them before the bull of
Assyria?"
Mentezufis and Mefres looked at each other stealthily. The genius of
the barbarian almost terrified them; he had given bold utterance to
that which they had not thought of. What would the result be, indeed,
if the heir had divined their plans and wished to cross them?
But Istubar, silent thus far, rescued them from momentary trouble.
"Sargon," said he, "thou art interfering in affairs not thy own. Thy
duty is to conclude with Egypt a treaty of the kind that our lord
wishes. But what the heir knows or does not know, what he will do or
will not do, is not thy affair, since the supreme, eternally existent
priestly council assures us that the treaty will be executed. In what
way it will be executed is not a question for our heads."
The dry tone with which Istubar declared this calmed the riotous joy
of the ambassador. He nodded and muttered,--
"A pity for the man in that case! He is a grand warrior, and
magnanimous."