The Pharaoh And The Priest Part 84

"Therefore let not that which thou hearest of the wretched Lykon go beyond our own hearts, nor any word touching our chase after that G.o.dless outcast."

"I understand," replied the official. "It may even happen that such a criminal may lose his life before we can give him to the court."

"Thou hast said it," replied Hiram, pressing his hand; "and every help asked by thee of Phnicians will be furnished."

They parted like two friends who were hunting a wild beast, and knew that the problem was not that their spear should strike, but that the beast should drop in its tracks and not go into other hands.

After some days Rameses visited Kama again, but found her in a state touching on insanity. She hid herself in the darkest room of the villa; she was hungry, her hair was not dressed, she was even unwashed. She gave the most contradictory commands to her servants; at one time she ordered all to come to her, at another she sent all away.

In the night she summoned the guard of warriors, and fled to the highest chamber soon after, crying out that they wished to kill her.

In view of these actions all desire vanished from the prince's soul, and there remained simply a feeling of great trouble. He seized his head when the steward of the palace and the officer told him of these wonders, and he whispered:

"Indeed, I did badly in taking that woman from her G.o.ddess; for the G.o.ddess alone could endure her caprices with patience."

He went, however, to Kama, and found her emaciated, broken, and trembling.

"Woe to me!" cried she. "There are none around me but enemies. My tirewoman wishes to poison me; my hairdresser to give me some dreadful disease. The warriors are waiting an opportunity to bury swords and spears in my bosom; I am sure that instead of food, they prepare for me magic herbs in the kitchen. All are rising up to destroy me--"

"Kama!" interrupted the prince.

"Call me not by that name!" whispered she; "it will bring me misfortune."

"But how do these ideas come to thee?"

"How? Dost thou think that in the daytime I do not see strange people who appear at the palace and vanish before I can call in my servants?

And in the night do I not hear people outside the wall whispering?"

"It seems so to thee."

"Cursed! Cursed!" cried Kama, weeping. "Ye all say that it seems to me. But the day before yesterday some criminal hand threw into my bedchamber a veil, which I wore half a day before I saw that it was not mine and that I had never worn a veil like it."

"Where is that veil?" inquired the prince, now alarmed.

"I burned it, but I showed it first to my servants."

"If not thine even, what harm could come of it?"

"Nothing yet. But had I kept that rag in the house two days longer, I should have been poisoned, or caught some incurable disorder. I know Asiatics and their methods."

Wearied and irritated, the prince left her at the earliest, in spite of entreaties to stay. When he asked the servants about that veil, the tirewoman declared that it was not one of Kama's; some person had thrown it into the chamber.

The prince commanded to double the watch at the villa and around it, and returned in desperation to his dwelling.

"Never should I have believed," said he, "that a single weak woman could bring so much trouble. Four freshly caught hyenas are not so restless as that Kama!"

At his palace the prince found Tutmosis, who had just returned from Memphis and had barely taken time to bathe and dress after the journey.

"What hast thou to say?" inquired the prince of his favorite, divining that he had not brought pleasant tidings. "Hast thou seen his holiness?"

"I saw the sun-G.o.d of Egypt, and this is what he said to me--"

"Speak," hurried Rameses.

"Thus spoke our lord," answered Tutmosis, crossing his arms on his breast: "'For four and thirty years have I directed the weighty car of Egypt, and I am so wearied that I yearn to join my mighty forefathers who dwell now in the western kingdom. Soon I shall leave this earth, and then my son, Rameses, will sit on the throne, and do with the state what wisdom points out to him.'"

"Did my holy father speak thus?"

"Those are his words repeated faithfully. A number of times the lord spoke explicitly, saying that he would leave no command to thee, so that thou mightst govern Egypt as thy wishes indicate."

"Oh, holy one! Is his illness really serious? Why did he not summon me?" asked the prince, in sorrow.

"Thou must be here, for thou mayst be of service in this part of Egypt."

"But the treaty with a.s.syria?"

"It is concluded in this sense, that a.s.syria may wage war on the east and north without hindrance from Egypt. But the question of Phnicia remains in abeyance till thou art the pharaoh."

"O blessed! O holy ruler! From what a dreadful heritage thou hast saved me."

"So Phnicia remains in abeyance," continued Tutmosis. "But still there is one bad thing. His holiness, to show a.s.syria that he will not hinder her in the war against northern peoples, has commanded to decrease our army by twenty thousand mercenaries."

"What dost thou tell me!" cried the heir, astounded.

Tutmosis shook his head in sign of sorrow.

"I speak the truth, and four Libyan regiments are now disbanded."

"But this is madness!" almost howled the heir, wringing his hands.

"Why have we so weakened ourselves, and whither will those disbanded men go?"

"They have gone to the Libyan desert already, and will either attack the Libyans, which will cause us trouble, or will join them and both will attack then our western border."

"I have heard nothing of this! What did they do, and when did they do it? No news reached us!" cried Rameses.

"The disbanded troops went to the desert from Memphis, and Herhor forbade to mention this news to any person."

"Do neither Mefres nor Mentezufis know of this matter?"

"They know."

"They know, and I do not."

The prince grew calm on a sudden, but he was pale, and on his young face was depicted terrible hatred. He seized both hands of his favorite, pressed them firmly, and whispered,--

"Hear me! By the sacred heads of my father and mother, by the memory of Rameses the Great--by all the G.o.ds, if there are any, I swear that during my rule if the priests will not bow down before me I will crush them."

Tutmosis listened in alarm.

"I or they!" finished the prince. "Egypt cannot have two lords."