THE guard in the antechamber announced Pentuer. The priest prostrated
himself before the pharaoh, and said that he was waiting for commands.
"I do not wish to command," said Ramses, "but to beg thee. Thou knowest
that in Egypt there are riots of laborers, artisans, even convicts.
There are riots from the sea to the quarries. The only thing lacking is
that my warriors should rebel and proclaim as pharaoh Herhor, for
example."
"Live through eternity, holiness!" replied the priest. "There is not a
man in Egypt who would not sacrifice himself for thee, and not bless
thy name."
"Aha, if they knew," said the ruler, with anger, "how helpless the
pharaoh is, and how poor he is, each nomarch would like to be the lord
of his province. I thought that on inheriting the double crown I should
signify something. But I have convinced myself during the first day
that I am merely a shadow of the former rulers of Egypt; for what can a
pharaoh be without wealth, without an army, and, above all, without
faithful subjects? I am like the statues of the gods which they
incense, and before which they place offerings. The statues are
powerless and the offerings serve to fatten the priests. But, true,
Thou art on their side."
"It is painful to me," answered Pentuer, "that Thou speakest thus,
holiness, on the first day of thy reign. If news of this were to go
over Egypt!"
"To whom can I tell what pains me?" interrupted Ramses. "Thou art my
counselor; I was saved by thee, or at least Thou hadst the wish to save
my life, not of course to publish to the world that which is happening
in the ruler's heart, which heart I open before thee. But Thou art
right."
He walked up and down in the chamber, and said after a while in a tone
considerably calmer,
"I have appointed thee chief of a council which is to investigate the
causes of those ever-recurring riots in Egypt. I wish that only the
guilty be punished, and that justice be done those who are injured."
"May the god support thee with his favor," whispered the priest. "I
will do what Thou commandest. But the causes of the riots I know
already."
"What are they?"
"More than once have I spoken of them to thee, holiness. The toiling
people are hungry; they have too much work, and they pay too many
taxes. He who worked formerly from sunrise till sunset must begin now
an hour before sunrise and finish an hour after sunset. It is not long
since a common man might go every tenth day to visit the graves of his
mother and father, speak with their shades, and make them offerings.
But today no one goes, for no one has time to go."
"Formerly a working man ate three wheat cakes in the course of the day;
at present he has not even barley bread. Formerly labor on the canals,
dams, and roads was deducted from the taxes; now the taxes are paid
independently while public works are carried on without wages. These
are the causes of riots."
"I am the poorest noble in the kingdom!" cried the pharaoh, while he
tugged at his own hair. "Any landowner gives his cattle proper food and
rest; but all men who work for me are tired and hungry."
"What am I to do, then, tell Thou who hast begged me to improve the lot
of the workers?"
"Wilt Thou command me to tell, lord?"
"I will beg, I will command, as Thou wishest. Only speak wisely."
"Blessed be thy rule, O true son of Osiris," answered the priest. "This
is what it is proper to do: Command, lord, first of all, that pay be
given for labor on public works, as was the case formerly."
"Of course."
"Next command that field labor last only from sunrise till sunset. Then
direct, as during the divine dynasties, that people rest every seventh
day; not every tenth, but every seventh day. Then command that
landowners shall not have the right to mortgage earth-tillers, or
scribes the right to beat and torture them according to fancy.
"And finally, give the tenth part, or even the twentieth part of the
land as property to the workers, so that no one may take it away or
mortgage it. Let each family have as much land in extent as the
pavement of this room, and it will not be hungry. Give the people
desert sands as property, and in a few years gardens will be growing on
them."
"Thou speakest beautifully," interrupted the pharaoh; "but what Thou
sayest is what Thou seest in thy heart, not in the world. Men's plans,
though the best, are not always in accord with the natural course of
things."
"I have seen such changes and their result, holiness," answered
Pentuer.
"At certain temples various trials have been made at curing the sick,
teaching children, rearing cattle, cultivating plants, and reforming
men, and the following has happened: When they gave a lean and lazy man
good food, and rest every seventh day, the man became sturdy, willing
to work, and he dug more land than before. A laborer who receives wages
is more cheerful and does more work than a slave, even though beaten
with whips of iron. Well-nourished people have more children than
hungry and overworked ones; the children of free men are healthy and
strong; those of slaves are fragile, gloomy, inclined to stealing and
to lying. Men have convinced themselves that land tilled by its owner
gives one half more grain and vegetables than land tilled by captives.
"I will tell a most curious thing to thee, holiness: When they play on
musical instruments to ploughmen, the men and the oxen work better,
more quickly, and tire themselves less than when there is no music. All
this has been verified at our temples."
The pharaoh smiled.
"I must," said he, "have music on my lands and in the quarries. But if
the priests convince themselves of such wonders as Thou art relating,
why act as they do on their own estates?"
Pentuer dropped his head.
"Because," replied he, sighing, "not all priests are sages, not all
have noble hearts."
"That is it!" exclaimed the pharaoh.
"And now tell me, Thou who art a son of earth tillers, and knowest that
among priests there are fools and rioters, tell me, why Thou art
unwilling to serve me in a struggle against the priesthood? Thou
knowest that I cannot improve the lot of the working man unless first I
teach the priests obedience to my orders."
Pentuer wrung his hands.
"O lord," replied he, "a struggle with the priesthood is godless and
dangerous. More than one pharaoh began it, and was unable to finish."
"Because he was not supported by sages like thee!" burst out Ramses.
"And, indeed, I shall never understand why wise and honest priests bind
themselves to a band of rogues, such as the majority of this class
are."
Pentuer shook his head and began slowly, "During thirty thousand years
the sacred order of priests has nursed Egypt and made the country the
wonder of the world, which it is at present. And how have the priests,
in spite of their faults, been able to do this? Because they are the
lamp in which burns the light of wisdom.
"This lamp may be foul, even malodorous; still it preserves the divine
fire, without which darkness and savagery would prevail among people.
"Thou speakest, lord, of a struggle with the priesthood," continued
Pentuer. "How can that profit me? If Thou lose I shall be unhappy, for
Thou wilt not improve the lot of the worker. And if Thou win? May I not
live to that! for shouldst Thou break the lamp, who knows whether Thou
wouldst not put out the fire of wisdom which for thousands of years has
illuminated Egypt and mankind.
"These, lord, are the reasons why I will not take part in thy struggle
with the sacred order of priests. I feel that the struggle is
approaching, and I suffer because such a worm as I am unable to prevent
it. But I will not participate, for I should have to betray either
thee, or the God, the creator of wisdom."
While hearing these words the pharaoh walked up and down the chamber in
thought.
"Aa!" said he, without anger, "do as may please thee. Thou art not a
warrior, hence I cannot reproach thee with lack of valor. But Thou
canst not be my adviser, though I beg thee to form a council to
investigate the riots of working men, and, when I summon thee, declare
what thy wisdom enjoins."
Pentuer knelt down in taking farewell of his lord.
"In every case," added the pharaoh, "know this, that I have no desire
to quench the divine light. Let the priests guard wisdom in their
temples, but let them not make my army useless, let them not conclude
shameful treaties, and let them not steal," he said this excitedly,
"the treasures of the pharaohs.
"Can they think that I will stand at their gates, like a beggar, asking
that they deign to give me funds to restore the state which is ruined
by their stupid and villainous management? Ha, ha! Pentuer, I should
not ask the gods for that which is my power and my right Thou mayst
go."
The priest, withdrawing with his face toward the pharaoh, went out
backward with obeisance, and when in the doorway he fell with his face
on the pavement.
The pharaoh remained alone.
"Mortal men," thought he, "are like children. Herhor is wise: he knows
that Egypt in case of war would need half a million of warriors; he
knows that those troops need training, and still he has decreased the
number of the regiments.
"The chief treasurer also is wise, but it seems to him quite in order
that all the treasure of the pharaohs should go to the labyrinth.
"Finally here is Pentuer. What a strange person he is! He wants me to
give earth-tillers food, land, and ever-recurring holidays. All this
would decrease my income, which even now is insufficient. But if I say
to him: help me to take the pharaoh's treasures from the priesthood, he
calls that godlessness and the quenching of light in Egypt. Strange
man, he would be glad to turn the state bottom upwards, so far as
relates to the good of earth tillers, but he would not venture to seize
a high priest and lead him forth to prison. With the utmost composure
he commands me to renounce half my income, but I am sure that he would
not dare to take a copper uten out of the labyrinth."
The pharaoh smiled, and again he meditated.
"Each man wants to be happy himself; but if Thou wish to give happiness
to all men, each one will seize thy hand as he would if Thou wert
drawing an aching tooth from him.
"Therefore a pharaoh must have decision. Therefore my divine father did
ill when he neglected the workers and trusted beyond bounds in the
priesthood. He left me a grievous inheritance, but I will improve it.
"At the Soda Lakes there was also a difficult question, more difficult
than this one. Here are only gabblers and timid cowards; there stood
armed men ready to go to death.
"One battle will open our eyes more widely than tens of years in
peaceful management. Whoso says to himself, 'I will burst through this
hindrance,' will burst through it. But he who hesitates must yield."
Darkness came. In the palace the watches were changed, and in the
remoter halls torches were lighted. But no one dared enter the
sovereign's chamber unless commanded.
Ramses, wearied by sleeplessness, by the journey of the day previous,
by the occupations of that day, dropped into an armchair. It seemed to
him that he had been pharaoh for centuries, and he could not believe
that one day had not passed since he had been at the pyramids.
"One day? Impossible!"
Then he thought that perhaps the spirits of the former pharaohs had
settled in the heart of their heir. It must be so, for otherwise whence
could such a feeling of age or remoteness settle down in him? And why
did governing the state seem today a simple thing, while two months
before he was alarmed when he thought that he could not govern.
"One day?" repeated he, in spirit. "But I am a thousand years in this
palace!"
Suddenly he heard a repressed voice,
"My son! O son!"
The pharaoh sprang up from his chair.
"Who art thou?" exclaimed he.
"I am, I Hast Thou forgotten me already?"
"O my son," said the voice again, "respect the will of the gods if Thou
wish to receive their blessed assistance O respect the gods, for
without their assistance the greatest power on earth is as dust and
shadows O respect the gods if Thou wish that the bitterness of thy
faults should not poison my existence in the happy region of the West."
The voice ceased, Ramses ordered to bring a light. One door of the room
was closed, at the other a guard stood. No stranger could enter there.
Anger and alarm tore the pharaoh's heart. "What was that? Had the shade
of his father spoken indeed to him, or was that voice only a new
priestly trick?"
But if the priests, notwithstanding thick walls, could speak to him
from a distance, they could overhear him. And then he, the lord of the
world, was like a wild beast caged in on all sides.
It is true that in the palace of the pharaoh secret listening was
common. Ramses had thought, however, that his cabinet was safe, and
that the insolence of priests had stopped at the threshold of the
supreme ruler.
"But if that was a spirit?"
He did not wish to sup, but betook himself to rest. It seemed to him
that he could not sleep; but weariness won the victory over irritation.
In a few hours bells and a light woke him. It was midnight and the
astrologer priest came to make a report on the position of the heavenly
bodies. The pharaoh heard the report, and said at the end of it,
"Couldst thou, revered prophet, make thy report to the worthy Sem
hereafter? He is my substitute in matters touching religion."
The astrologer wondered greatly at the indifference of his lord to
affair? of the heavens.
"Art them pleased, holiness," inquired he, "to refuse those indications
which the stars give to rulers?"
"Do they give them?" asked the pharaoh. "Tell what they promise me."
Clearly the astrologer had looked for the question, so he answered
directly,
"The horizon is darkened for the moment. The lord of light has not come
yet to the road of truth which leads to knowledge of the divine will.
But sooner or later he will find both long life and a happy reign
filled with glory."
"Aha! I thank thee, holy man. And as soon as I know what to seek I will
accommodate myself to the indication. But again I beg thee to
communicate henceforth with the holy Sem. He is my substitute, but
shouldst Thou read anything in the stars Thou wilt tell me of it in the
morning."
The priest left the bedchamber shaking his head.
"They have roused me from sleep!" said Ramses, dissatisfied.
"An hour ago Queen Niort's, most greatly to be revered, commanded me,
holiness, to ask of thee an interview," said an adjutant, suddenly.
"Now? At midnight?" asked the pharaoh.
"Her exact words were that at midnight Thou wouldst wake, holiness."
The pharaoh meditated, then answered the adjutant that ha would wait
for the queen in the golden hall. He thought that there no one could
overhear them.
Ramses threw a mantle over his shoulders, put on sandals unfastened and
commanded to light the golden hall brightly. Then he went out,
directing the servants not to go with him.
He found Niort's in the hall; she was wearing coarse linen garments in
sign that she was mourning. When she saw the pharaoh she wished to drop
on her knees, but her son raised the queen and embraced her.
"Has something important happened, mother, that Thou art working at
this hour?" inquired Ramses.
"I was not asleep I was praying," replied the queen. "O my son, Thou
hast divined wisely that the affair is important. I have heard the
sacred voice of thy father."
"Indeed!" said the pharaoh, feeling that anger was filling him.
"Thy ever-living father," continued the queen, "told me, full of
sadness, that Thou wert entering on a way of error. Thou refusest with
contempt the ordination of high priest, and treatest badly the servants
of divinity."
"'Who will remain with Ramses,' said thy father, 'if he angers the gods
and the priests desert him? Tell him tell him,' repeated the revered
shade, 'that in this way he will ruin Egypt, himself, and the
dynasty.'"
"Oho!" said the pharaoh, "then they threaten me thus from the first day
of my reign. My mother, a dog barks loudest when he is afraid; so
threats are of evil omen, but only for the priesthood."
"But thy father said this," repeated the anxious lady.
"My immortal father and my holy grandfather," said the pharaoh, "being
pure spirits know my heart, and see the woeful condition of Egypt. But
since my heart wishes to raise the state by stopping abuses they would
not prevent me from carrying out my measures."
"Then dost Thou not believe that the spirit of thy father gives thee
counsel?" asked the queen, with rising terror.
"I know not. But I have the right to suppose that those voices of
spirits, which are heard in various comers of our palace, are some
trick of the priesthood. Only priests can fear me, never the gods, and
spirits. Therefore it is not spirits which are frightening us, mother."
The queen fell to thinking; it was clear that her son's words impressed
her. She had seen many miracles in her life and some of them had seemed
to her suspicious.
"In that case," said she, with a sigh, "Thou art not cautious, my son.
This afternoon Herhor visited me; he was very much dissatisfied with
the audience. He said that it was thy wish to remove the priests from
thy court."
"But of what use are priests to me? Are they to cause great outgo in my
kitchen and cellar? Or, perhaps, to hear what I say, and see what I
do?"
"The whole country will revolt," interrupted the queen, "if the priests
declare that Thou art an unbeliever."
"The country is in revolt now. But the priests are the cause of it,"
replied the pharaoh. "And touching the devotion of the Egyptian people
I begin to have another idea. If Thou knew, mother, how many lawsuits
there are in Lower Egypt for insults to the gods, and in Upper Egypt
for robbing the dead, Thou wouldst be convinced that for our people the
cause of the priests has ceased to be holy."
"This is through the influence of foreigners, especially Phoenicians,
who are flooding Egypt," cried the lady.
"All one through whose influence; enough that Egypt no longer considers
either statues or priests as superhuman. And wert thou, mother, to hear
the nobility, the officers, the warriors talk, Thou wouldst understand
that the time has come to put the power of the pharaoh in the place of
priestly power, unless all power is to fall in this country."
"Egypt is thine," sighed the queen. "Thy wisdom is uncommon, so do as
may please thee. But act Thou with caution oh, with caution! A scorpion
even when killed may still wound an unwary conqueror."
They embraced and the pharaoh returned to his bedchamber. But, in
truth, he could not sleep that time.
He understood clearly that between him and the priesthood a struggle
had begun, or rather something repulsive which did not even deserve the
name struggle, and which at the first moment he, the leader, could not
manage. For where was the enemy? Against whom was his faithful army to
show itself? Was it against the priests who fell on their faces before
him? Or against the stars which said that the pharaoh had not entered
yet on the true way? What and whom was he to vanquish? Was it, perhaps,
those voices of spirits which were raised amid darkness? Or was it his
own mother, who begged him in terror not to dismiss priests from state
offices?
The pharaoh writhed on his bed while feeling his helplessness. Suddenly
the thought came to him: "What care I for an enemy which yields like
mud in a hand grasp? Let them talk in empty halls, let them be angry at
my godlessness. I will issue orders, and whoso will not carry them out
is my enemy; against him I will turn courts, police, and warriors."