which the kings of Thebes have always made use of for their royal
letters.
But, my dear mother, I will here close this epistle. My next will not
be for your eye at present, if ever; unless circumstances transpire
which will remove the seal from the secret revealed to me.
I feel that your warmest sympathies will be with the unhappy queen.
Farewell, dearest mother! May the gods preserve you from all sorrow,
and the Lord of the Sun, the Great Invisible, defend your life and
throne. I hope soon to hear the result of your embassy to the barbaric
King of Cyprus.
Your dutiful son,
SESOSTRIS.
LETTER XXIII.
PALACE OF RHODA.
MY VERY DEAR MOTHER:
I embrace the first leisure I can command, since closing my last
letter, to resume the subject which filled its pages.
This letter, however, I shall withhold, until I either have authority
to send it to you, or circumstances render it expedient to destroy it;
but in order to keep a record of the events now transpiring, I write
them down in the shape of an epistle to my dear mother, so that
hereafter, if it be necessary to refer to it for facts, there may be
written evidence of them.
The letter of Prince Mœris, which the queen placed in my hands, was
dated some years back, and, no doubt, on noticing this, my countenance
betrayed surprise; for she said quickly--
"Read that first. I conceal nothing from you. You shall know from the
beginning."
By permission of her majesty, I took a copy of the letter, and of the
two that follow. It was dated--
"CASTLE OF BUBASTIS, PELUSIAN DELTA.
"TO AMENSE, QUEEN:
"Your Majesty,--I address my letter to you from this petty castle,
though, albeit, the stronghold of your kingdom seaward, over which
you have made me governor. For a subject, this would be a post of
honor. For me, the son of your husband's brother, your royal nephew,
it is but an honorable exile from a court where you fear my presence.
Honorable, do I say?--rather, dishonorable; for am I not a prince of
the blood of the Pharaohs? But let this pass, your majesty. I do not
insist upon any thing based upon mere lineage. _I feel that I was
aggrieved by the birth of Remeses._ I see that you turn pale. Do not
do so yet. You must read further before the blood wholly leaves your
cheek. I repeat, I am aggrieved by the 'birth of Remeses.' You see I
quote the last three words. Ere you close this letter, your majesty
will know why I mark them _thus_. Your husband, the vicegerent of the
Thisitic kingdom of the South, after leaving his capital, Thebes, at
the head of a great army, died like a soldier descended from a line
of a thousand warrior kings, in combat with the Ethiopian. I was
then, for your majesty was without offspring, the heir to the throne
of Egypt. I was the son of your husband's younger brother. Though but
three years old when your lord was slain, I had learned the lesson
that I was to be king of Egypt, when I became a man. But to the
surprise of all men, of your council of priests, and your cabinet of
statesmen, lo! you soon afterwards became a mother, when no evidences
of this promise had been apparent! Nay, do not cast down this letter,
O queen! Read it to the end! It is important you should know all.
"When I became of lawful maturity, it was whispered to me by a
certain person, that there were suspicions that the queen had feigned
maternity, and that she had adopted an infant of the wife of one of
her lords, in order to prevent the son of her husband's brother from
inheriting. It is true, your majesty, that my father, your lord's
brother, loved you, as a maiden, and would have borne you from the
palace of Pharaoh, your father, as his own. Yet why should your
revenge extend to his son, after he married another princess? Why did
you deceive Egypt, and supplant his son (myself), by imposing upon
Egypt the infant Remeses, the child of a lord of your palace, whom no
one knows, for you took care to send him, with an ample bribe of
gold, to Carthage, or some other distant country. Now, your majesty
knows whether this be true or not. I believe it to be so, and that
the haughty, hypocritically meek Remeses, has no more right to be
called the son of Pharaoh's daughter than one of the children of the
base Hebrews, or of an Egyptian swine-herd; and, by the gods, judging
from his features, he might be a Ben Israel!
"I demand, therefore, that you make me viceroy of the Thebaïd. Unless
you do so, I swear to your majesty, that I will agitate this
suspicion, and fill all Egypt with the idea that your favorite
Remeses is not your son. Whether I believe this or not, matters not.
If there be any truth in it, _your majesty knows_, and will, no
doubt, act accordingly.
"Your faithful nephew,
"MŒRIS, Prince."
When I had finished reading this extraordinary letter, I raised my
eyes to the queen. She was intently observing its effect upon my
countenance.
"Dared that man write thus to your majesty?" I cried, with the
profoundest emotions of indignation.
"You have read," answered the queen, with a tremulous voice.
"And did not your majesty at once send and arrest the bold insulter
and dangerous man?" I said.
She bit her lip, and said, in a hollow tone--
"Prince of Tyre, is he not this day viceroy of the Thebaïd?"
"Does your majesty mean that you yielded to his demand?"
"Yes."
"I marvel at it," said I, confounded at the acknowledgment. "If what
he had said had been true--"
"Sesostris, falsehood often flies faster than truth. It can do as much
mischief. The rumor of such a thing, false or true, would have shaken
my throne, and destroyed the confidence of the mass of the people in
Remeses when he came to the sceptre. I resolved to stifle it by giving
Mœris what he asked."
I regarded the queen with sentiments of pity and sorrow. She said
quickly--
"Read another letter from him." I did so. It was dated three years
later, and demanded the command of the fleet, and its separation
from the control of the general-in-chief of the armies. This
general-in-chief was Remeses, dear mother. To the demand the queen
yielded, and thereby erected the maritime arm of her kingdom into an
independent service, acknowledging no superior authority but that of
the throne. When I had ended the perusal of the letter, the queen
placed in my hand a third missive from this powerful man.
"This is what I received but now," she gasped. "Read it, Sesostris,
and give me your sympathy."
It bore date--
"CAMP, OPPOSITE THE PALACES OF THE MEMNONIA, THEBAÏD.
"TO THE QUEEN AMENSE:
"Your Majesty,--I write from my pavilion pitched at the foot of the
Libyan mountains. I need not forewarn you of the subject of this
letter, when I assure you that within the hour I have received
intelligence from Memphis, that you are about to abdicate your throne
in favor of Remeses, your suppositious son. This intelligence does
not surprise me. When I was in Lower Egypt, I saw through you and
your policy. I perceived that while you feared me, you resolved to
defeat my power over you. This purpose, to surrender the sceptre of
the two Egypts, I can penetrate. You design, thereby, securely to
place Remeses beyond my power to harm him, for that, being king, if I
lift a finger he can destroy me. I admire your policy, and bow in
homage to your diplomacy. But, O queen, both you and Remeses are in
my power! Nay, do not flash your imperial eyes at this assertion.
Hear me for a few moments.
"Your ready compliance with my demand, a few years ago, to create me
viceroy of Thebes, led me to believe that my suspicions were true;
that is, that Remeses was the son of one of your noble ladies, whom
you had adopted. And when you made me admiral of your fleet, on my
second demand, I was convinced that you feared the truth, and that it
might be proven, with proper evidence, that Remeses was not your son.
I set to work to obtain this evidence. You know that I have something
of the sleuth-hound in my composition, and that once upon a track I
will follow it to its termination, were it under the pyramid of
Noachis itself. I employed emissaries. I bribed even your own
courtiers. I ascertained who were of your court when your husband was
killed in Ethiopia, thirty-five years ago. Three old lords and ladies
still live, and have good memories when gold, and jewels, and
promises of place dazzle their humid eyes. From them I learned, that
about the time of the supposed birth of Remeses, you sent away, in
one day, five of your ladies and maids of honor, to a distant
country: yet not so quickly but that one of them dropped the secret,
that you were not a real mother, and that the infant you called your
own was the son of another woman. This secret was told to her brother
who, in after years, was my master of horse. When, on one occasion, I
was about to put him to death for cowardice in battle, he informed me
that he held a great secret 'concerning the queen, Prince Remeses,
and myself,' and that if I would pardon and restore him to his rank,
he would divulge it, saying, that for fear it would be traced to him
by your majesty if he ever spoke of it, he had never made it known to
any man.
"Curiosity and instinct led me to pardon him. He then stated what I
have above written,--that you feigned maternity, and, obtaining a
male child from the Hebrew nurse of one of your ladies, who had given
birth to it a few weeks before, you shut yourself up three months,
and then palmed it upon the priests and people, as the heir of your
throne and of the sceptre of the Pharaohs. The mother, the nurse, and
the ladies who were parties to the transaction, were then all
banished from Egypt.
"Instituting a thorough investigation, by dispatching galleys to
Tyre, Carthage, Gades, and the isles of the sea, at length I was
rewarded by the discovery of the port to which your women were
carried. Two of them only were found alive. Those two are now in the
city of On! When I was in Lower Egypt I saw them, and will name them:
Thebia, of Pythom, and Nilia, of On. Your majesty perceives how exact
I am: that I have my way clear as I advance. Methinks I can see you
turn deadly white, and that with a shriek you let fall the papyrus!
Take it up again, and resume the perusal. It is useless to shrink
from the development of the truth. You may shut your eyes at noon,
and say 'It is night,' but you cannot, by so doing, destroy the light
of the sun. You may close your eyes--you may destroy this letter, or
may read no further; but the truth will shine, nevertheless, with a
brightness which will drive night itself before it!
"These venerable women, examined apart, told the same tale. It is as
follows:
"'That you had approached the river on the morning of the festival of
Isis (you see I am particular), to bathe, as your custom was, in the
marble crescent at the foot of the gardens of your palace of Rhoda,
where you now are residing. You had descended the steps into the
water, and your women had taken your necklace, and other ornaments
from you; and, robed in your bathing-dress, you were about to step
into the river, when you descried a basket floating slowly past,
close to the place where you stood. While you were looking at it, it
lodged against a group of flags, near the statue of Nepth, just above
you. Your maidens were lingering upon the bank, or walking near at
hand, awaiting you, when, seeing Nilia not far off, you called to
her, and said--
"'Seest thou the little baris of basket-work, O Nilia. Draw it in to
the shore, and look what it contains.'
"The handmaiden obeyed you, aided by her companion, Thebia, and when
you drew near and opened the lid, you beheld a beautiful child lying
within it. It looked up into your face, and wept so piteously, that
you took it up, deeply impressed by its beauty and helplessness, and
the extraordinary manner in which it had come to you. You placed it
in the arms of Thebia, and said to her:
"'This child is sent to me by Nilus, the deity of this great river of
Egypt. I will adopt it as my own, for it has no father but the river,
no mother but this little ark of flags and bitumen in which it has
floated to my feet.'
"You then gave the lovely babe many kisses, tenderly soothed its
cries, and was so happy with the prize, that you hastened to leave
the river. But before you did so, the wind blew aside its mantle, and
you discovered that it was a Hebrew male child, for the Egyptians do
not circumcise their infants. This discovery was made also by the two
women, Nilia and Thebia, and you said:
"'It is one of the Hebrews' children.'
"It was at the time when your father's edict for the destruction of
all the male children of this Syrian race was in existence. You
deliberated what to do with it, when its wailing tones moved your
heart, and you said to them:
"'It shall still be mine! Let us keep the secret! I will raise it as
my son! Its parents think it has perished, for they could not have
hoped to save it by committing it to this frail bark, and it can
never know its origin!'
"That child, O queen, is Remeses! Of this I have certain evidence.
The two women say, you ordered the little ark to be taken in charge
by your chief of the baths. In verification of the account, the ark
still exists, and I have seen it.
"It is not necessary for me to add more. I have written enough to
show you the power I hold over you, and over this Remeses-Mosis. His
very name signifies 'Taken out of the water,' and was given to him by
yourself, as if the gods would make you the means of your own
conviction.
"Now, O queen, who intendeth to place a degraded Hebrew upon the
throne of Egypt, I, Mœris, write this epistle warning you, that
unless you revoke your purpose, and publicly adopt me as your son,
and convey to me the two crowns, I will proclaim through all Egypt
your shame, and the true history of this Remeses! I could have
excused you had he proved to be the son of one of your ladies, as the
report was; but an Hebrew! _He_ deserves death, and _you_ to forfeit
your crown! But I will make these terms with your majesty:--if you
will call a council of your hierarchy and adopt me as your son, that
I may be your heir, and will abdicate in my favor, I will conceal
what I know from the Egyptians; and more still, I will make Remeses
governor over Goshen, and lord of all his people under my rule. Is
not this liberal?
"If you refuse my terms, I will descend upon Lower Egypt with my
fleet, declare your throne vacant, Remeses a slave, and seize the
sceptre! Once in my power, your favorite Remeses shall die an
ignominious death, and you shall remain a prisoner for life in the
castle of Bubastis.
"I dispatch a special courier--my master of horse--_whose sister was
your lady in waiting at the finding of Remeses_. Unless I have a
reply in the affirmative, for which my courier will delay six hours,
you shall hear me knocking at the gates of Rhoda with the head of my
spear!
MŒRIS,
"NEPHEW AND HEIR OF AMENSE, QUEEN OF EGYPT."
When, my dear mother, I had finished reading this extraordinary
letter, I held it unrolled in my hands for a few moments, stupefied,
as it were, with amazement. My eyes sought the face of the queen. It
was rigid as iron--white as alabaster; but her regards were riveted
upon my countenance.
"Your majesty," I said, hardly knowing what to say, "what fable is
this of the daring and impious Prince of Thebes--?"
She interrupted me with--
"What dost thou think, O Sesostris? If it be a fable, is it not, in
such a man's hand, as dangerous as truth? Dare I let him circulate
such a tale throughout Egypt? _Can_ I let it reach the ears of
Remeses?"
"Why not, O queen?" I asked. "If it is false, it can be shown to be
so; and my friend Remeses is too great and wise to heed it. Is it by
so improbable and artfully framed a story as this, you are made
unhappy; and for this you resign your crown and hasten to secure
Remeses in power?"
"Is it not enough?"
"No, O wise and virtuous lady!" I answered, with indignant feelings
against Mœris, and sympathy for her womanly fears; "my advice to
you is, to defy the malice and wickedness of the viceroy, inform
Remeses of these letters--nay, let him read them--assemble your army,
and meet him with open war. A row of galleys sunk across the Rile will
stop his fleet; and if he land, your soldiers, with Remeses at their
head, will drive him back to his city of a hundred gates, and--"
Again the queen interrupted me:
"No, no! I cannot tell Remeses! He must never know of these letters!"
she almost shrieked.
"Has Remeses any suspicion of the tale they tell?" I asked.
"No. He knows no other mother. If he hears this story, he will
investigate it to the last, to show me that he would prove it false in
the mouth of Mœris."
"And this he ought to do, your majesty," I said, firmly.
"Prince Sesostris, dost thou believe he could prove it false?" she
demanded, in a mysterious and strange tone.
"Undoubtedly," I answered; though, my dear mother, I could not wholly
resist the recollection, which forced itself upon me most sharply and
painfully, of the resemblance I had noticed between Remeses and the
Hebrew people. But I banished the idea it suggested, regarding it more
probable for an Egyptian and Hebrew to look alike, than for Remeses to
have been born a Hebrew, and adopted by Pharaoh's daughter.
Nevertheless, there was apparent to myself a want of fulness in my
tones when I answered her "undoubtedly."
The queen came close up to me, and said in a deep, terrible whisper,
looking first wildly around her, to see if any one overheard her,--
"_He cannot prove it false!_"
"You mean, O queen," said I, "that though Remeses cannot prove it
false, it nevertheless _is_ false?"
"_No._ It cannot be proven _false_, because it is TRUE!" she answered,
as if her voice came from within a sarcophagus.
"True?" I repeated, with horror.
"True, O prince! It is impossible for me to conceal or prevaricate. I
promised to confide in you; but I have kept back till the last the
_whole_ truth! I can do so no longer!" She caught by my arm to sustain
her tottering form.
"Is not Remeses, then, your son?" I cried.
"No."
"Is he a Hebrew?"
"Yes."
"Then this letter of Mœris is all true?"
"All, as to the fact that Remeses is a Hebrew!"
Such was the rapid colloquy which followed. O my dear mother, no
mortal can estimate the amount of agony which overwhelmed my soul at
this intelligence! I sank upon the pedestal of a statue near me, and
covering my face with my hands, burst into tears. The queen did not
speak, but suffered my paroxysm of grief and mortification to exhaust
itself. At length I raised my head. I felt for her--felt, oh how
profoundly, for the unhappy Remeses--ignorant of his calamity, and
engaged, even then, in the vigils and rites which were to prepare him
to ascend the throne! I could now understand all that had been
inexplicable in the queen's conduct, unravel her mysterious language,
see the motive of all her acts. I no longer marvelled that she, loving
Remeses with all a mother's love, trembled before Mœris and his
secret, and gave him all he demanded as the price of silence. But when
he asked for her throne as the bribe for secrecy, it was more than her
spirit could bear; and unable alone, unaided, to meet him in his
demand, she sought counsel of me and sympathy; and little by little
made known to me, as I have narrated, the secret she would have
sacrificed her life to conceal, if she could thereby have concealed it
forever from Remeses.
"Poor, noble, unhappy Remeses!" I ejaculated.
"He must _never_ know it!" she cried, passionately.
"It will be known to him," I answered, sorrowfully "If you refuse
Prince Mœris's demand, he will write another such missive as this,
and dispatch it to Remeses. The prince, if I may, from love, still
call him so, will, as you have said, examine the matter. Mœris will
refer him to the ladies Nilia and Thebia. He will then come to you--"
"To me?" she cried, with a shudder.
"To you, O queen, and ask of you if Prince Mœris and these women
relate the truth."
"He would not believe--he would not believe it--so far as to come to
me. He would not insult me by making such a demand of me!"
"He may be forced to it. Circumstances may overcome him, so that he
will feel that he must appeal to you. He would refuse to ascend the
throne of Egypt, so high is his integrity, if there were a doubt as to
his legitimate right to it."
"O prince, counsel me! What shall I do?" she cried, wringing her
hands, and looking towards me in the most appealing and helpless
manner.
"I know not how to counsel your majesty," I replied, greatly
distressed, my heart bleeding both for her and Remeses, who, I felt,
sooner or later, must come to the truth of the dreadful rumor; and
also from my knowledge of the perfect uprightness and justice of his
character, as well as his firmness, that he would investigate it until
he either disproved or verified it.
At length, after a long and painful interval of embarrassment, the
queen, of her own will, said to me--
"Sesostris, I meant no wrong. I loved the weeping babe, in its
desolate state, and no sooner did I take it up than it smiled, and won
my heart. You know the fine appearance of Remeses as a man; judge you
therefore how lovely he was when an infant three months old. I was
childless. My husband had been a few weeks dead, and this infant
seemed to be sent to me in part to fill up the place made void in my
affections. That it was a Hebrew child did not move me. I had always
opposed the cruel edict of the king, my father; and felt that, to save
this child of the oppressed Hebrews, would in some degree, atone for
the death of so many who were destroyed in obedience to his orders.
Thus I was influenced by a threefold motive--to save the infant, to
adopt a son, to atone for evil."
"Good and lawful motives, O queen," I said, interested in her
narrative, so touchingly told as to deeply affect me.
"I did not believe I was doing evil. I at once, at the suggestion of
one of my maids, sent a Hebrew girl, who was gazing upon us from afar,
to call a nurse from the Hebrew women for the child. She brought one,
comely and gentle in manner, whom I took with me to the palace; and,
after instructing her to keep the matter a secret, suffered her to
take the child home, for she lived in a garden, not far above the
palace, upon the island, her father being a cultivator of flowers for
the priests. The tenderness of this Hebrew woman towards the beautiful
babe pleased me, and, after I had, in a public manner, acknowledged
the child, even as Mœris's letter states, I let it remain with her
until it grew to be three years old, when I commanded her to bring it
to the palace to remain; for although I had seen it almost daily, I
now desired to have it wholly in my possession. From that time he has
been brought up in my own palace, as my son, and educated as prince of
the empire and heir to the throne. For all my care and affection, he
has repaid me with the profoundest devotion, and tenderest attachment.
At first, seeing he was very fond of his Hebrew nurse, I jealously
forbade her again to visit him, so that I might be the sole object of
his attachment. He soon forgot her, and from his fourth year has known
no love but mine. When he came to manhood, I had him instructed in the
art of war, and made him general of the army of the pyramids. By the
greatest philosophers and sages he was taught geometry, astrology,
architecture, physics, mythology, and the knowledge of all science. I
have spared no care to educate him in all the learning of the
Egyptians. With all his wisdom and vast knowledge, he is as docile and
gentle in disposition as a child: ever dutifully submissive to my
will, the voice which has led armies by its battle-cry, melts into
tenderness in my presence. Ah, prince, never mother loved a son as I
have loved him!"
"I pity you, O queen, with all my heart," said I, warmly.
"Oh, what shall I do? What shall I reply to Mœris?"
"I know not how to counsel you!" I said, embarrassed by this appeal.
"I will then act. His courier shall not go back unanswered. I will
defy him!" A new spirit seemed all at once to animate her.
She clapped her hands. A page entered.
"Bid the Theban courier enter. His answer is ready." The master of
horse came haughtily in, a cloud of impatience yet upon his brow.
"Go back to thy master, and say to him, that Amense is still queen of
Egypt, and wears both the crowns of her fathers, and that she will
defend them. Say, that I defy him, and fear him not!"
The courier looked amazed, bowed with a slight gesture of obeisance,
and left the presence.
No sooner had the valves of the door closed upon him, than she said--