The Pharaoh and the Priest. Bolesław Prus

had pushed off from the country house, the smile vanished from the banker's face, and an expression of anger came out thereon. When Sarah's house was hidden behind the trees, Dagon stood up and raised his hands.

      "O Baal of Sidon, O Astoreth!" said he, "avenge my insult on this cursed daughter of a Jew. Let her treacherous beauty perish as a drop of rain in the desert! May disease devour her body, and madness bind her soul! May her lord hunt her out of his house like a mangy swine! And as today she pushed my goblet aside, may the hour come when people will push her withered hand aside, when in thirst she begs them for a cup of dirty water."

      Then he spat and muttered words with hidden and dreadful meaning; a black cloud covered the sun for a while, and the water near the side of the boat began to grow muddy and rise in a mighty wave. When he finished, the sun had grown bright again; but the river was disturbed, as if a new inundation were moving it.

      Dagon's rowers were frightened, and ceased their singing; but separated from their master by the side of the boat, they could not see his ceremonies.

      Thenceforth the Phoenician did not appear before Prince Ramses. But on a certain day when the prince came to his residence, he found in his bedchamber a beautiful Phoenician dancer, sixteen years of age, whose entire dress was a golden circlet on her head, and a shawl, as delicate as spider webs, thrown across her shoulders.

      "Who art thou?" asked the prince.

      "I am a priestess, and thy servant; the lord Dagon has sent me to frighten away thy auger against him."

      "How wilt Thou do that?"

      "Oh, in this way sit down there," said she, seating him in an armchair. "I will stand on tiptoe, so as to grow taller than thy anger, and with this shawl, which is sacred, I will drive evil spirits from thee. A kish! a kish!" whispered she, dancing in a circle. "Ramses, let my hands remove gloom from thy hair, let my kisses bring back to thy eyes their bright glances. Let the beating of my heart fill thy ears with music, lord of Egypt. A kish! a kish! he is not yours, but mine. Love demands such silence that in its presence even anger must grow still."

      While dancing, she played with the prince's hair, put her arms around his neck, kissed him on the eyes. At last she sat down wearied at his feet, and, resting her head on his knees, turned her face toward him quickly, panting with parted lips.

      "Thou art no longer angry with thy servant Dagon?" whispered she, stroking his face.

      Ramses wished to kiss her on the lips, but she sprang away from his knees, crying,

      "Oh, that is not possible!"

      "Why so?"

      "I am a virgin and priestess of the great goddess Astoreth. Thou wouldst have to love my guardian goddess greatly, and honor her before Thou couldst kiss me."

      "But is it permitted thee?"

      "All things are permitted me, for I am a priestess, and have sworn to preserve my virginity."

      "Why hast Thou come hither, then?"

      "To drive out thy anger. I have done so, I depart. Be well and kind always," added she, with a piercing glance.

      "Where dost Thou dwell? What is thy name?" asked Ramses.

      "My name is Fondling, and I dwell Ei, why should I tell? Thou wilt not come soon to me."

      She waved her hand and vanished. The prince, as if stunned, did not move from his chair. When after a while he looked through the window, he saw a rich litter which four Nubians bore toward the Nile swiftly.

      Ramses was not sorry for the departing woman; she astonished, but did not attract him.

      "Sarah is calmer," thought he, "and more beautiful. Moreover, it seems to me that that Phoenician must be cold, and her fondlings are studied."

      But from that time the prince ceased to be angry at Dagon, all the more since on a day when he was at Sarah's earth-tillers came to him, and thanking him for protection declared that the Phoenician forced them to pay new rents no longer.

      That was the case close to Memphis, but on other lands the prince's tenants made good Dagon's losses.

CHAPTER XIV

       Table of Contents

      In the month of Choeak (from the middle of September to the middle of October), the waters of the Nile were highest, and began to fall slightly. In the gardens people gathered tamarinds, dates, olives; and trees blossomed a second time.

      At this juncture his holiness Ramses XII left his sun-bright palace in Memphis, and with a grand suite on some tens of stately barges sailed to Thebes, to thank the gods there for the bounteous inundation, and also to place offerings oil the tombs of his eternally living ancestors.

      The most worthy ruler took farewell of his heir very graciously; but the direction of state affairs during his absence he left with Herhor.

      Ramses felt this proof of want of confidence so greatly that for three days he took no food and did not leave his villa; he only wept. Later he ceased to shave, and transferred himself to Sarah's house, so as not to meet Herhor or annoy his own mother, whom he considered the cause of his failures.

      On the following day Tutmosis visited him in this retreat, bringing two boats filled with musicians and dancers, and a third containing baskets of food and flowers, with pitchers of wine. But the prince commanded the musicians and dancers to depart, and taking Tutmosis to the garden, he said,

      "Of course my mother may she live through eternity! sent thee to separate me from the Jewess? Tell her worthiness that were Herhor to become not merely viceroy, but the son of my father, I should do that which pleases me. I know how to do it. Today they wish to deprive me of Sarah, and to-morrow they would take my power from me; I will show them that I shall not renounce anything."

      The prince was irritated. Tutmosis shrugged his shoulders, and remarked finally,

      "As a whirlwind sweeps a bird into a desert, so does anger cast a man on the shores of injustice. How canst Thou wonder if the priests are displeased because the heir to the throne has connected his life with a woman of another country and a strange religion? Sarah does not please them, especially since Thou hast her alone. Hadst Thou a number of various women, like all noble youths, they would not mind the Jewess. But have they done her harm? No. On the contrary, even some priest defended her against a raging crowd which it pleased thee to liberate from imprisonment."

      "But my mother?"

      Tutmosis laughed.

      "Thy worthy mother loves thee as her own eyes and heart. Of course Sarah does not please her, either, but dost Thou know what her worthiness said once to me? This, that I should entice Sarah from thee. What a jest on her part! To this I answered with a second jest: 'Ramses has given me a brace of hunting dogs and two Syrian horses because he has grown tired of them; perhaps some day he will give me his mistress too, of course I shall have to take her with other things.'."

      "Do not think of it. I would not give Sarah to any man, were it only for this, because of her my father has not appointed me viceroy."

      Tutmosis shook his head.

      "Thou art greatly mistaken," answered he, "so much mistaken that I am terrified. Dost Thou not really understand the causes of the disfavor? Every enlightened Egyptian knows them."

      "I know nothing."

      "So much the worse," said the anxious Tutmosis. "Thou dost not know, then, that warriors, since the maneuvers, especially Greek warriors, drink thy health in every dramshop."

      "They got money to do so."

      "True; but not to cry out, with all the voice that is in them, that

       when Thou shalt succeed to his holiness may he live through eternity!

       Thou wilt begin a great war,