The Pharaoh And The Priest Part 64

"Kama! Kama!" called a voice from the statue.

She was frightened.

"Thou seest they call me. They may have heard thy blaspheming."

"They may have heard my anger."

"The anger of the G.o.ds is more terrible."

She tore away and vanished in the darkness of the temple. Rameses rushed after her, but was pushed back on a sudden. The whole temple between him and the altar was filled with an immense b.l.o.o.d.y flame, in which monstrous figures appeared,--huge bats, reptiles with human heads, shades--

The flame advanced toward him directly across the whole width of the building; and, amazed by this sight, which was new to him, the prince retreated. All at once fresh air was around him. He turned his head--he was outside the temple, and that instant the bronze doors closed with a crash behind him.

He rubbed his eyes, he looked around. The moon from the highest point in the heavens had lowered toward the west. At the side of the column Rameses found his sword and burnous. He raised them, and moved down the steps like a drunken man.

When he returned to his palace at a late hour, Tutmosis, on seeing his pale face and troubled look, cried with alarm,--

"By the G.o.ds! where hast thou been, Erpatr? Thy whole court is alarmed and sleepless."

"I was looking at the city. The night is beautiful."

"Dost thou know," added Tutmosis, hurriedly, as if fearing that some one else might antic.i.p.ate him, "that Sarah has given thee a son?"

"Indeed?--I wish no one in the retinue to be alarmed when I go out to walk."

"Alone?"

"If I could not go out alone when it pleases me, I should be the most wretched slave in Egypt," said Rameses, bitterly.

He gave his sword and burnous to Tutmosis, and went to his bedroom without calling any one. Yesterday the birth of a son would have filled him with gladness; but at that moment he received the news with indifference. His whole soul was occupied with the thought of that evening, the most wonderful in all his life experience. He still saw the light of the moon; in his ears the song of the Greek was still sounding. But that temple of Astaroth!

He could not sleep till morning.

CHAPTER x.x.xII

Next day the prince rose late, bathed himself and dressed, then summoned Tutmosis.

The exquisite appeared at once, dressed carefully and perfumed. He looked sharply at the prince to learn in what humor he was, and to fix his own features correspondingly. But on the face of Rameses was only weariness.

"Well," asked the prince, yawning, "art thou sure that a son is born to me?"

"I have that news from the holy Mefres."

"Oho! How long is it since the prophets are occupied with my household?"

"Since the time that thou hast shown them thy favor, worthiness."

"Is that true?" asked the prince, and he fell to thinking.

He recalled the scene of the previous night in the temple of Astaroth, and compared it with a similar spectacle in the temple of Hator.

"They called my name," said he to himself, "both here and there. But there my cell was very narrow, and the walls were thick; here the person calling, namely, Kama, could hide herself behind a column and whisper. But here it was terribly dark, while in my cell it was clear." At last he said to Tutmosis,--

"When did that happen?"

"When was thy worthy son born? About ten days ago. The mother and child are well; they seem perfectly healthy. At the birth were present Menes himself, thy worthy mother's physician, and his worthiness Herhor."

"Well--well," said the prince, and again he fell to thinking: "They touched me here and there, with a hand in both cases. Was there such a difference? It seems to me that there was, maybe for the reason that here I was, and there I was not, prepared to see a miracle. But here they showed me another _myself_, which they did not succeed in doing there. Very clever are the priests! I am curious to know who represented me so well,--a G.o.d or a man? Oh, the priests are very clever, and I do not know even whom to trust more,--our priests or the Phnicians?

"Hear me, Tutmosis," said he, aloud. "They must come hither; I must see my son. At last no one will have the right to consider himself better than I."

"Is the worthy Sarah to come immediately with her son?"

"Let them come at the earliest, if their health permit. Within the palace bounds are many convenient buildings. It is necessary to choose a place among the trees, quiet, and, when the time of heat comes, cool. Let me, too, show the world my son."

Again he was thoughtful; this disquieted Tutmosis.

"Yes, they are clever!" thought Rameses. "That they deceive the common people, even by rude methods, I knew. Poor sacred Apis! how many prods he got during processions when people lay prostrate before him! But to deceive me, I should not have believed that,--voices of G.o.ds, invisible hands, a man covered with pitch; these were accessories!

Then came Pentuer's song about the decrease of land and population, the officials, the Phnicians, and all that to disgust me with war."

Tutmosis said suddenly,--

"I fall on my face before thee."

"I must bring hither, gradually, regiments from cities near the sea. I wish to have a review and reward them for loyalty."

"But we, the n.o.bles, are we not loyal to thee?" inquired Tutmosis, confused.

"The n.o.bles and the army are one."

"But the nomarchs and the officials?"

"Even the officials are loyal," answered the prince. "What do I say?

The Phnicians even are so, though in many other points they are deceivers."

"By the G.o.ds! speak in a lower voice," whispered Tutmosis; and he looked toward the other room timidly.

"Oho!" laughed the prince, "why this alarm? So for thee, too, it is no secret that we have traitors?"

"I know of whom thou art speaking, worthiness, for thou wert always prejudiced against--"

"Against whom?"

"Against whom--I divine. But I thought that after the agreement with Herhor, after a long stay in the temple--"