The Pharaoh And The Priest Part 72

"Wonderful are these Phnicians," thought the heir; "one may go wild for them, but 'tis not possible to trust them."

He felt wearied, and took farewell of the priestess. He looked around the chamber as though it were difficult to leave the place; and while going, he said to himself,--

"And still thou wilt be mine, and Phnician G.o.ds will not kill thee, if they regard their own priests and temples."

Barely had Rameses left Kama's villa, when into the chamber of the priestess rushed a young Greek who was strikingly beautiful, and strikingly similar to Rameses. Rage was depicted on his face.

"Lykon!" cried the terrified Kama. "What art thou doing here?"

"Vile reptile!" replied the Greek, in his resonant voice. "A month has not pa.s.sed since thy oath, declaring thy love, and that thou wouldst flee to Greece with me, and now thou art falling on the neck of another. Are the G.o.ds dead? Has justice deserted them?"

"Thou art mad with thy jealousy," interrupted the priestess; "thou wilt kill me."

"It is sure that I, and not thy stone G.o.ddess, will kill thee. With these two hands," cried he, stretching out his fingers, like talons, "I will choke thee if thou hast become the mistress--"

"Of whom?"

"Do I know? Of course, of both,--of that old a.s.syrian and this princeling, whose head I will split with a stone should he prowl about this place any longer. The prince! he has all the women of Egypt, and still he wants foreign priestesses. The priestesses are for priests, not for foreigners."

Kama recovered her coolness.

"But for us art thou not a foreigner?" asked she, haughtily.

"Reptile!" burst out the Greek, a second time. "I cannot be a foreigner for you Asiatics, since that gift of voice with which the G.o.ds have endowed me is turned to the use of your divinities. But how often, by means of my figure, have ye deceived dull Asiatics by telling them that the heir to the throne of Egypt belongs to your faith in secret?"

"Silence! silence!" hissed the priestess, closing his mouth with her hand.

There must have been something enchanting in her touch, for the Greek grew calm, and spoke lower.

"Hear me, Kama. Soon to the bay of Sebenico will come a Greek s.h.i.+p, commanded by my brother. Make the high priest send thee to Pi-Uto; we shall flee thence to northern Greece, to a place which has never yet seen a Phnician--"

"It will see them if I hide there," interrupted the priestess.

"Should a hair fall from thy head," whispered the raging Greek, "I swear that Dagon, that all the Phnicians here will lose their heads, or die in the stone quarries. They will learn what a Greek can do."

"But I say to thee," answered Kama, in the same tone, "that until I collect twenty talents I will not leave here. I have now only eight."

"Where wilt thou get the other twelve?"

"Sargon and the viceroy will give them."

"I will let Sargon give, but not the prince."

"Foolish Lykon, dost thou not know why that stripling pleases me a little? He reminds me of thee--"

The Greek was perfectly quieted.

"Well, well," muttered he, "I understand that when a woman has the choice between the heir to the throne and a man with my voice I have no need to tremble. But I am jealous and violent, so I beg thee to let him approach thee as little as possible."

He kissed her, slipped out of the villa, and vanished in the dark garden.

Kama stretched her clinched fist after him.

"Worthless buffoon!" whispered she; "thou who art hardly fit to be a singing slave in my mansion."

CHAPTER x.x.xV

When Rameses on the following morning visited his son, he found Sarah weeping. He asked what the cause was. She answered at first that nothing troubled her; then she said that she was sad. At last she fell at his feet and cried bitterly.

"My lord," whispered she, "I know that thou hast ceased to love me, but at least avoid danger."

"Who said that I have ceased to love thee?" asked Rameses, astonished.

"Thou hast in thy house three new women--ladies of high family."

"Ah, so that is the trouble?"

"Besides, thou art exposing thyself for a fourth,--a wicked Phnician."

The prince was confused. Whence could Sarah know of Kama, and know that she was wicked?

"As dust squeezes into caskets, so scandals work into the quietest houses," said Rameses. "Who has spoken to thee of a Phnician?"

"Do I know who? My heart and an evil omen."

"Then are there omens?"

"Terrible. One old priestess learned, I suppose from a crystal ball, that we shall all perish through Phnicians, especially I and--my son," burst out Sarah.

"And thou who believest in One, in Jehovah, fearest the fictions of some stupid old woman who is perhaps intriguing? Where is thy great Deity?"

"My G.o.d is only mine, but those others are thine; so I must revere them."

"Then that old woman spoke to thee of Phnicians?" asked Rameses.

"She told me long ago, while in Memphis, that I should guard against a Phnician woman," answered Sarah. "Here all are speaking of a Phnician priestess. I cannot tell; maybe it is only something wandering in my troubled head. People say even that were it not for her spell thou wouldst not have sprung into the arena. Oh, if the bull had killed thee! Even to-day, when I think of the evil which might have happened, the heart grows cold in my bosom."

"Laugh, Sarah," interrupted Rameses, joyously. "She whom I take to myself stands so high that no fear should reach her, still less, stupid scandal."

"But misfortune? Is there a mountain top so high that the missile of misfortune may not reach it?"

"Thy sickness has wearied thee, and fever has disturbed thy mind; that is why thou art troubled without reason. Be quiet, and watch over my son. A man," said he, in deep thought, "be he Greek or Phnician, can harm only beings like himself, but not us, who are G.o.ds of this world."

"What didst thou say of a Greek? What Greek?" asked Sarah, alarmed.