The Pharaoh and the Priest. Bolesław Prus

      "We shall see. I wish sincerely to help thee, but I have not the means," said the lady, sadly. "Do, then, as Thou art able, but remember that the Phoenicians in our state are like rats in a granary; when one pushes in through a crevice, others follow."

      Ramses loitered in leave-taking.

      "Hast Thou something more to tell me?" inquired the queen.

      "I should like to ask My heart divines that thou, mother, hast some plans regarding me. What are they?"

      She stroked his face.

      "Not now not yet. Thou art free today, like every young noble in the country; then make use of thy freedom. But, Ramses, the time is coming when Thou wilt have to take a wife whose children will be princes of the blood royal and whose son will be thy heir. I am thinking of that time."

      "And what?"

      "Nothing defined yet. In every case political wisdom suggests to me that thy wife should be a priest's daughter."

      "Perhaps Herhor's?" said the prince, with a laugh.

      "What would there be blamable in that? Herhor will be high priest in

       Thebes very soon, and his daughter is only fourteen years of age."

      "And would she consent to occupy the place of the Jewess?" asked

       Ramses, ironically.

      "Thou shouldst try to have people forget thy present error."

      "I kiss thy feet, mother, and I go," said the prince, seizing his own head. "I hear so many marvelous things here that I begin to fear lest the Nile may flow up toward the cataract, or the pyramids pass over to the eastern desert."

      "Blaspheme not, my child," whispered the lady, gazing with fear at

       Ramses. "In this land most wonderful miracles are seen."

      "Are not they this, that the walls of the palace listen to their owners?" asked her son, with a bitter smile.

      "Men have witnessed the death of pharaohs who had reigned a few months only, and the fall of dynasties which had governed nine nations."

      "Yes, for those pharaohs forgot the sword for the distaff," retorted

       Ramses.

      He bowed and went out.

      In proportion as the sound of Ramses' steps grew less in the immense antechamber, the face of the worthy lady changed; the place of majesty was taken by pain and fear, while tears were glistening in her great eyes.

      She ran to the statue of the goddess, knelt, and sprinkling incense from India on the coals, began to pray,

      "O Isis, Isis, Isis! three times do I pronounce thy name. O Isis, who givest birth to serpents, crocodiles, and ostriches, may thy name be thrice praised. O Isis, who preservest grains of wheat from robber whirlwinds, and the bodies of our fathers from the destructive toil of time, Isis, take pity on my son and preserve him! Thrice be thy name repeated and here and there and beyond, today and forever, and for the ages of ages, as long as the temples of our gods shall gaze on themselves in the waters of the Nile."

      Thus praying and sobbing, the queen bowed down and touched the pavement with her forehead. Above her at that moment a low whisper was audible,

      "The voice of the just is heard always."

      The worthy lady sprang up, and full of astonishment looked around. But there was no one in the chamber. Only the painted flowers gazed at her from the walls, and from above the altar the statue of the goddess full of super-terrestrial calm.

CHAPTER VIII

       Table of Contents

      The prince returned to his villa full of care, and summoned Tutmosis.

      "Thou must," said Ramses, "teach me how to find money."

      "Ha!" laughed the exquisite; "that is a kind of wisdom not taught in the highest school of the priests, but wisdom in which I might be a prophet."

      "In those schools they explain that a man should not borrow money," said Ramses.

      "If I did not fear that blasphemy might stain my lips, I should say that some priests waste their time. They are wretched, though holy! They eat no meat, they are satisfied with one wife, or avoid women altogether, and they know not what it is to borrow. I am satisfied, Ramses," continued the exquisite, "that Thou wilt know this kind of wisdom through my counsels. Today Thou wilt learn what a source of sensations lack of money is. A man in need of money has no appetite, he springs up in sleep, he looks at women with astonishment, as if to ask, 'Why were they created?' Fire flashes in his face in the coolest temple. In the middle of a desert shivers of cold pass through him during the greatest heat. He looks like a madman; he does not hear what people say to him. Very often he walks along with his wig awry and forgets to sprinkle it with perfume. His only comfort is a pitcher of strong wine, and that for a brief moment. Barely has the poor man's thoughts come back when again he feels as though the earth were opening under him.

      "I see," continued the exquisite, "that at present Thou art passing through despair from lack of money. But soon Thou wilt know other feelings which will be as if a great sphinx were removed from thy bosom. Then Thou wilt yield to the sweet condition of forgetting thy previous trouble and present creditors, and then Ah, happy Ramses, unusual surprises will await thee! For the term will pass, and thy creditors will begin to visit thee under pretence of paying homage. Thou wilt be like a deer hunted by dogs, or an Egyptian girl who, while raising water from the river, sees the knotty back of a crocodile."

      "All this seems very gladsome," interrupted Ramses, smiling; "but it brings not one drachma."

      "Never mind," continued Tutmosis. "I will go this moment to Dagon, the Phoenician banker, and in the evening Thou wilt find peace, though he may not have given thee money."

      He hastened out, took his seat in a small litter, and surrounded by servants vanished in the alleys of the park.

      Before sunset Dagon, a Phoenician, the most noted banker in Memphis, came to the house of Ramses. He was a man in the full bloom of life, yellow, lean, but well built. He wore a blue tunic and over it a white robe of thin texture. He had immense hair of his own, confined by a gold circlet, and a great black beard, his own also. This rich growth looked imposing in comparison with the wigs and false beards of Egyptian exquisites.

      The dwelling of the heir to the throne was swarming with youth of the aristocracy. Some on the ground floor were bathing and anointing themselves, others were playing chess and checkers on the first story, others in company with dancing girls were drinking under tents on the terrace. Ramses neither drank, played, nor talked with women; he walked along one side of the terrace awaiting the Phoenician impatiently. When he saw him emerge from an alley in a litter on two asses, he went to the first story, where there was an unoccupied chamber.

      After awhile Dagon appeared in the door. He knelt on the threshold and exclaimed,

      "I greet thee, new sun of Egypt! Mayst Thou live through eternity, and may thy glory reach those distant shores which are visited by the ships of Phoenicia."

      At command of the prince, he rose and said with violent gesticulations,

      "When the worthy Tutmosis descended before my mud hut my house is a mud hut in comparison with thy palaces, erpatr such was the gleam from his face that I cried at once to my wife, 'Tamara, the worthy Tutmosis has come not from himself, but from one as much higher than he as the Lebanon is higher than the sand of the seashore.' 'Whence dost Thou know, my lord, that the worthy Tutmosis has not come for himself?' 'Because he could not come with money, since he has none, and he could not come for money, because I have none.' At that moment we bowed down both of us to the worthy Tutmosis. But when he told us that it was thou, most worthy lord, who desirest fifteen talents from thy slave, I asked my wife, 'Tamara, did my heart teach me badly?' 'Dagon,