The Pharaoh and the Priest. Bolesław Prus

he is! The Egyptian people who kneel down before the pharaoh's dogs attack the house of the erpatr under direction of unknown enemies of Egypt. I myself must look into this."

CHAPTER XI

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      The month Thoth has ended and the month Paofi (the second half of July) has begun. The water of the Nile, from being greenish and then white, has become ruddy and is rising continually. The royal indicator in Memphis is filled to the height of two men almost, and the Nile rises two hands daily. The lowest land is inundated; from higher ground people are removing hastily flax, grapes, and cotton of a certain species. Over places which were dry in the early morning, waves plash as evening approaches. A mighty, unseen whirlwind seems to blow in the depth of the Nile. This wind ploughs up broad spaces on the river, fills the furrows with foam, then smoothes for a moment the surface, and after a time twists it into deep eddies. Again the hidden wind ploughs, again it smoothes out, whirls, pushes forward new hills of water, new rows of foam, and raises the rustling river, wins without ceasing new platforms of land. Sometimes the water, after reaching a certain boundary, leaps across in a twinkle, pours into a low place, and makes a shining pond where a moment earlier withered grass was breaking up into dust heaps.

      Though the rise of the river has reached barely one third of its height, the whole region near the banks is under water. Every hour some little height takes on the semblance of an island, divided from others by a narrow channel, which widens gradually and cuts off the house more and more from its neighbors. Very often he who walked out to work comes home in a boat from his labor.

      Boats and rafts appear more and more frequently on the river. From some of them men are catching fish in nets; on others they bring the harvest to granaries, or bellowing cattle to their stables. With other boats visits are made to acquaintances to inform them amid shouts and laughter that the river is rising. Sometimes boats gather in one place, like a flock of daws, and then shoot apart on all sides before a broad raft bearing down from Upper Egypt immense blocks of stone hewn out in quarries near the river.

      In the air, as far as the ear can hear, extend the roar of the rising water, the cries of frightened birds, and the gladsome songs of people. The Nile is rising, there will be bread in abundance.

      During a whole month investigation continued in the affair of the attack on the house of Ramses. Each morning a boat with officials and warriors came to some small estate. People were snatched from their labor, overwhelmed with treacherous questions, beaten with sticks. Toward evening two boats returned to Memphis: one brought officials, the other brought prisoners.

      In this way some hundreds of men were caught, of whom one half knew nothing, the other half were threatened by imprisonment or toil for a number of years in the quarries. But nothing was learned of those who led the attack, or of that priest who had persuaded the people to leave the place. Prince Ramses had qualities which were uncommonly contradictory. He was as impetuous as a lion and as stubborn as a bullock, but he had a keen understanding and a deep sense of justice.

      Seeing that this investigation by officials gave no result whatever, he sailed on a certain day to Memphis and commanded to open the prison.

      The prison was built on an eminence surrounded by a lofty wall, and was composed of a great number of stone, brick, and wooden buildings. These buildings for the main part were merely the dwellings of overseers. Prisoners were placed in subterranean dens hewn out in a cliff of limestone.

      When Prince Ramses passed the gate, he saw a crowd of women washing and feeding some prisoner. This naked man, who resembled a skeleton, was sitting on the ground, having his hands and feet in four openings of a square plank which took the place of fetters.

      "Has this man suffered long in this way?" asked Ramses.

      "Two months," said the overseer.

      "And must he sit here much longer?"

      "A month."

      "What did he do?"

      "He was insolent to a tax gatherer."

      The prince turned and saw another crowd, composed of women and children. Among them was an old man.

      "Are these prisoners?"

      "No, most worthy lord. That is a family waiting for the body of a criminal who is to be strangled oh, they are taking him already to the chamber," said the overseer.

      Then, turning to the crowd, he said,

      "Be patient a short time, dear people. Ye will get the body soon."

      "We thank thee greatly, worthy lord," answered an old man, doubtless the father of the delinquent. "We left home yesterday evening, our flax is in the field, and the river is rising."

      The prince grew pale, and halted.

      "Dost Thou know," asked he of the overseer, "that I have the right of pardon?"

      "Erpatr, Thou hast that right," answered the overseer, bowing; and then he added: "The law declares, O child of the sun, that in memory of thy presence men condemned for offences against the state and religion, but who conduct themselves properly, should receive some abatement. A list of such persons will be placed at thy feet within a month."

      "But he who is to be strangled this moment, has he not the right to my grace?"

      The overseer opened his arms, and bent forward in silence.

      They moved from place to place, and passed a number of courts. In wooden cases on the bare ground were crowded men sentenced to imprisonment. In one building were heard awful screams; they were clubbing prisoners to force confession.

      "I wish to see those accused of attacking my house," said the heir, deeply moved.

      "Of those there are more than three hundred," said the overseer.

      "Select according to thy own judgment the most guilty, and question them in my presence. I do not wish, though, to be known to them."

      They opened to Ramses a chamber in which the investigating official was occupied. The prince commanded him to take his usual place, but sat himself behind a pillar.

      The accused appeared one by one. All were lean; much hair had grown out on them, and their eyes had the expression of settled bewilderment.

      "Dutmoses," said the official, "tell how ye attacked the house of the most worthy erpatr."

      "I will tell truth, as at the judgment seat of Osiris. It was the evening of that day when the Nile was to begin rising. My wife said to me, 'Come, father, let us go up on the hills, where we can have an earlier sight of the signal in Memphis.' Then we went up where we could see the signal in Memphis more easily. Some warrior came to my wife and said, 'Come with me into that garden. We will find grapes there, and something else also.' Then my wife went into the garden with that warrior. I fell into great rage, and I looked at them through the wall. But whether stones were thrown at the prince's house or not I cannot tell, for because of the trees and darkness I could not see anything."

      "But how couldst Thou let thy wife go with a warrior?" asked the official.

      "With permission, worthiness, what was I to do? I am only an earth worker, and he is a warrior and soldier of his holiness."

      "But didst Thou see the priest who spoke to you?"

      "That was not a priest," said the man, with conviction. "That must have been the god Num himself, for he came out of a fig-tree and he had a ram's head on him."

      "But didst Thou see that he had a ram's head?"

      "With permission I do not remember well whether I saw myself or whether people told me. My eyes were affected by anxiety for my wife."

      "Didst Thou throw stones at the garden?"

      "Why should I throw stones, lord of life and death? If I had hit my wife, I should have made trouble for