The Pharaoh And The Priest Part 85

"Formerly it had only one, the pharaoh," added Tutmosis.

"Then thou wilt be loyal to me?"

"I, all the n.o.bles, and the army, I swear to thee."

"Enough!" concluded Rameses. "Let them discharge the mercenary regiments, let them sign treaties, let them hide before me like bats, and let them deceive us all. But the time will come-- And now, Tutmosis, rest after the journey; be with me at the feast this evening. Those people have so bound me that I can only amuse myself.

Then let me amuse myself. But in time I will show them who the ruler of Egypt is,--they or I."

From that day feasts began again. The prince, as if ashamed to meet the army, was not present at drills. Still, his palace was swarming with n.o.bles, officers, jugglers, and singers, while at night great orgies took place, at which the sound of harps mingled with the drunken shouts of guests and the spasmodic laughter of women.

Rameses invited Kama to one of these feasts, but she refused.

The prince was offended. Seeing this, Tutmosis said,--

"They have told me, lord, that Sarah has lost thy favor."

"Do not mention that Jewess to me," replied Rameses. "But dost thou know what she did with my son?"

"I know; but that, it seems to me, was not her fault. I heard in Memphis that thy worthy mother and the worthy minister Herhor made thy son a Jew, so that he might rule over Israelites sometime--"

"But the Israelites have no king,--only priests and judges,"

interrupted the prince.

"They have not, but they wish to have. They, too, are disgusted with priestly rule."

The heir waved his hand contemptuously.

"A charioteer of his holiness means more than any king, especially any king of the Israelites, who as yet have no kingdom."

"In every case, Sarah's fault is not so great," put in Tutmosis.

"Then know that I will pay the priests sometime."

"They are not to blame so greatly. For instance, the worthy Herhor did this to increase the glory and power of thy dynasty. And he did it with the knowledge of thy mother."

"But why does Mefres interfere? His single duty is to care for the temple, not influence the fate of the pharaoh's descendants."

"Mefres is an old man growing whimsical. The whole court of his holiness jeers at him because of practices, of which I know nothing, though I see the holy man almost daily."

"This is curious. What does he do?"

"A number of times during twenty-four hours he performs solemn services in the most secret parts of the temple, and he commands the priests to see if the G.o.ds do not hold him suspended while praying."

"Ha! ha!" laughed Rameses. "And all this is going on in Pi-Bast here under our eyes, and I do not know of it?"

"A priestly secret."

"A secret of which all in Memphis are talking! Ha! ha! ha! In the amphitheatre I saw a Chaldean suspended in the air."

"I saw him too; but that was a trick, while Mefres wishes to be borne above the earth really on the wings of his devotion."

"Unheard-of buffoonery! What do the other priests say to this?"

"Perhaps in our sacred papyruses there is mention that in old times there were prophets among us who had the gift of suspending themselves in the air; so the desires of Mefres do not astonish priests nowadays.

And since, as is known to thee, subordinates among us see whatever pleases superiors, some holy men claim that during prayer Mefres really rises a couple of fingers high above the pavement."

"Ha! ha! ha! And with this great secret the whole court is occupied, and we, like laborers or earth-diggers, do not even suspect that miracles are wrought at one side of us. A wretched fate to be heir to the throne of Egypt!" laughed the viceroy.

When he grew calm, at the repeated request of Tutmosis, he commanded to transfer Sarah from the servants' house to Kama's first villa. The servants were delighted at this change; all the serving and slave women, and even the scribes conducted Sarah to her new dwelling with music and shouts of pleasure.

The Phnician woman, when she heard the uproar, asked the reason; and when they told her that Sarah had been restored to the favor of the prince, and that from the servants' house she had been transferred to the villa, the enraged ex-priestess sent for Rameses.

The prince came.

"Dost thou treat me in this way?" screamed she, losing control of her temper. "Thou didst promise that I should be thy first woman, but before the moon traversed half the heavens thy promise was broken.

Perhaps thou thinkest that the vengeance of Astaroth will fall on the priestess alone, and not reach to princes."

"Tell thy Astaroth," replied Rameses, calmly, "not to threaten princes, or she may go herself to the servants' house."

"I understand!" exclaimed Kama. "I shall go to the servants' house, perhaps even to prison, while thou wilt spend nights with thy Jewess.

Because I have left the G.o.ds for thee I have drawn down a curse on my own head. Because I left them I know no rest for a moment; I have lost my youth for thee, my life, my soul even, and this is the pay which thou givest me."

The prince confessed in his heart that Kama had sacrificed much for him, and he felt compunction.

"I have not been and shall not be with Sarah," said he. "But does it harm thee that the ill-fated woman has some comfort and can nourish her child unmolested?"

Kama trembled. She raised her clinched fist, her hair stirred, and in her eyes an ugly fire of hate was flashing.

"Is this the answer which thou givest me? The Jewess is unhappy because thou didst drive her from the villa, and I must be satisfied, though the G.o.ds have driven me out of their temples. But my soul--the soul of a priestess who is drowning in tears and in terror--does not mean more for thee than that brat of the Jew woman--this child, which, would he were dead--may he--"

"Silence!" cried the prince, shutting her mouth.

She drew back frightened.

"Then may I not even complain of my wretchedness?" inquired she. "But if thou art so careful of that child, why steal me from the temple, why promise that I should be first in thy household? Have a care,"

continued she, raising her voice again, "that Egypt, after learning my fate, may not call thee a faith-breaker."

The prince turned his head and laughed. But he sat down, and said,--

"My teacher was right, indeed, when he warned me against women: Ye are like ripe peaches in the eyes of a man whose tongue thirst has parched, but peaches ripe only in appearance. Woe to the fool who dares bite that fruit of fair seeming; instead of cooling sweetness he will find a nest of wasps that will sting not his lips alone, but his heart also."

"Wilt thou complain? Wilt thou not spare me even this shame after I have sacrificed to thee both my dignity of priestess and my virtue?"

The heir shook his head and smiled.

"Never could I have thought," said he, after a while, "that the story told by laborers before bedtime could have come true. But to-day I see the truth of it. Listen to me, Kama; perhaps thou wilt stop, and not force me to withdraw the good-will which I have for thee."

"He wishes now to tell a fable!" said the priestess, bitterly. "Thou hast told me one already, and I was profited by hearing it."