"Before my eyes thou hast done deeds which show great wisdom, and also power over spirits. Besides thou wert ready to save me. So, although it is thy resolve to keep many things from my knowledge--"

"Pardon, lord," interrupted Pentuer. "For gold and jewels, thou wilt find traitors shouldst thou need them, among priests even. But I am not of those men. For think, were I to betray the G.o.ds, what bond could I give not to betray thee also?"

Rameses grew thoughtful.

"Thou hast answered wisely," said he. "But it is a wonder to me why thou, a priest, hast for me kindness in thy heart. Thou didst bless me a year ago, and to-day thou wouldst not let me go alone into the desert, and hast shown me great service."

"Because the G.o.ds have forewarned me that thou art worthy, lord; shouldst thou wish, thou mayst rescue the ill-fated people of Egypt."

"How do the people concern thee?"

"I came from them. My father and brother raised water long days from the Nile, and received blows of sticks for their labor."

"How can I aid the people?" asked Rameses.

Pentuer grew animated.

"Thy people," said he, with emotion, "toil too much, they pay too much tribute, they suffer persecution and misery. Hard is the fate of the toiling man. The worm eats half his harvest, the rhinoceros the other half; in the fields, a legion of mice live; the locust comes,--the cattle trample,--the sparrows steal. What is left after these for the threshing floor the thief takes. Oh, wretched earth-tillers! Now comes the scribe to the boundary and mentions the harvest. His attendants have sticks, and black men carry palm rods. 'Give wheat!' say they. He answers, 'There is none.' They flog him; immediately they stretch him out at full length--they bind him; they hurl him into the ca.n.a.l, where they sink him, head downward. They bind his wife in his presence and also his children. His neighbors flee, carrying their wheat away with them."[20]

[20] Original description.

"I have seen that myself," said Rameses, "and have driven off at least one scribe of that sort. But can I be everywhere to forestall injustice?"

"Thou mayst command, lord, not to torment working-men needlessly. Thou mayst decrease taxes, appoint days of rest for the earth-tillers. Thou mayst give each family a patch of land, even the harvest of which would be theirs, and serve to nourish them. In the opposite case they will feed themselves as they now do, with lotus seeds, rotten fish and papyrus, till thy people will perish finally. But show them favor and they will rise."

"Indeed, I will do so!" said Rameses. "A wise owner will not let cattle starve nor work beyond the strength of their bodies, or be clubbed without reason. This must be changed."

Pentuer halted.

"Dost thou promise that, worthy lord?"

"I swear!" answered Rameses.

"Then I swear that thou wilt be the most famous of all pharaohs; before thee the fame of Rameses the Great, will grow pale!" cried the priest, mastering himself no longer.

The prince fell to thinking, then asked,--

"What can we two do against those priests who hate me?"

"They fear thee, lord," answered Pentuer. "They fear lest thou begin war too soon against a.s.syria?"

"What is that to them if the war be successful?"

The priest bent his head and spread his hands, but was silent.

"Then I will tell thee," cried the prince, in anger. "They want no war! They fear that I might return from it a conqueror, laden with treasures, urging on slaves in front of me. They fear this because they wish every pharaoh to be a weak tool in their grasp,--a utensil of no real value,--a utensil to be thrown aside when the wish comes.

But this will not happen in my case. Either I shall do what I plan, and which I, as the son and heir of the G.o.ds have the right to do, or I shall perish."

Pentuer drew back, and muttered an exorcism.

"Speak not thus, worthy lord," said he, in confusion, "lest evil spirits circling through the desert may seize thy words. A word,--remember this, ruler,--is like a stone sent from a sling; it may strike a wall, rebound, and hit the man who hurled it."

The prince motioned with his hand contemptuously.

"It is all one," replied he. "A life in which every one stops my will has no worth for me. When the G.o.ds do not bar me, the winds of the desert do; when evil spirits are not against me, the priests are. Is the power of a pharaoh to be of such sort. I wish to do what my mind says, to give account to my deathless ancestors, and to them only, not to this or that shaven head, who pretends to interpret the will of divinity, but who is really seizing power, and turning my wealth to his own use."

At some tens of yards from them a strange cry was heard at that moment, half neighing, half bleating, and an immense shadow sped past.

It went like an arrow, and as far as could be seen had a humped back and a long neck.

From the prince's retinue came sounds of fear.

"That is a griffin! I saw its wings clearly," said one and another of the Asiatics.

"The desert is swarming with monsters," added the old Libyan.

Rameses was afraid; he also thought that the pa.s.sing shadow had the head of a serpent, and something resembling short wings.

"Do monsters really show themselves in the desert?" asked he of the priest.

"It is true," said Pentuer, "that in such a lonely place evil spirits prowl about in strange guises. But it seems to me that that which has pa.s.sed is rather a beast. It is like a saddle horse, only larger and quicker in movement. Dwellers in the oases say that this beast may live without drinking water at all, or at least very rarely. If that be the case, men hereafter may in crossing deserts use this strange creature, which to-day rouses fear only."

"I should not dare to sit on the back of a great beast like that,"

said Rameses, as he shook his head.

"Our ancestors said the same of the horse, which helped the Hyksos to conquer Egypt, but to-day it is indispensable to our army. Time changes men's judgments greatly," said Pentuer.

The last clouds had vanished from the sky and a clear night set in.

Though the moon was absent the air was so clear that on the background of the white sand a man could distinguish the general outline of objects, even when small or distant. The piercing cold also diminished. All advanced now in silence, and sank, as they walked, in the sand to their ankles. Suddenly a tumult and cries rose among the Asiatics,--

"A sphinx! Look, a sphinx! We shall not escape from this desert if spectres show themselves all the time."

Indeed, outlines of a sphinx on a white limestone hill were seen very clearly. The body of a lion, an immense head with an Egyptian cap, and as it were a human profile.

"Calm yourselves, barbarians," said the old Libyan. "That is no sphinx; it is a lion, and he will do no harm, for he is occupied in eating."

"Indeed, that is a lion!" confirmed the prince halting. "But how he resembles a sphinx."

"He is the father of our sphinxes," added the priest in a low voice.

"His face recalls a man's features, his mane is the wig."

"And our great sphinx, that at the pyramids?"

"Many ages before Menes," said Pentuer, "when there were no pyramids yet, there was on that spot a rock which looked like a rec.u.mbent lion, as if the G.o.ds wished in that way to indicate the beginning of the desert. The holy priests of that period commanded artists to hew the rock around with more accuracy and to fill out its lacks by additions.

The artists, seeing people oftener than lions, cut out the face of a man, and thus the first sphinx had its origin."

"To which we give divine honor," said the prince, smiling.

"And justly," answered the priest. "For the G.o.ds made the first features of this work and men finished them under divine guidance. Our sphinx by its size and mysteriousness recalls the desert. It has the posture of spirits wandering through it, and terrifies men as does the desert. That sphinx is really the son of the G.o.ds and the father of terror."