"And finally, give the tenth part, or even the twentieth part of the land as property to the workers, so that no one may take it away or mortgage it. Let each family have as much land in extent as the pavement of this room, and it will not be hungry. Give the people desert sands as property, and in a few years gardens will be growing on them."

"Thou speakest beautifully," interrupted the pharaoh; "but what thou sayest is what thou seest in thy heart, not in the world. Men's plans, though the best, are not always in accord with the natural course of things."

"I have seen such changes and their result, holiness," answered Pentuer.

"At certain temples various trials have been made at curing the sick, teaching children, rearing cattle, cultivating plants, and reforming men, and the following has happened: When they gave a lean and lazy man good food, and rest every seventh day, the man became st.u.r.dy, willing to work, and he dug more land than before. A laborer who receives wages is more cheerful and does more work than a slave, even though beaten with whips of iron. Well-nourished people have more children than hungry and overworked ones; the children of free men are healthy and strong; those of slaves are fragile, gloomy, inclined to stealing and to lying. Men have convinced themselves that land tilled by its owner gives one half more grain and vegetables than land tilled by captives.

"I will tell a most curious thing to thee, holiness: When they play on musical instruments to ploughmen, the men and the oxen work better, more quickly, and tire themselves less than when there is no music.

All this has been verified at our temples."

The pharaoh smiled.

"I must," said he, "have music on my lands and in the quarries. But if the priests convince themselves of such wonders as thou art relating, why act as they do on their own estates?"

Pentuer dropped his head.

"Because," replied he, sighing, "not all priests are sages, not all have n.o.ble hearts."

"That is it!" exclaimed the pharaoh.

"And now tell me, thou who art a son of earth-tillers, and knowest that among priests there are fools and rioters, tell me, why thou art unwilling to serve me in a struggle against the priesthood? Thou knowest that I cannot improve the lot of the working man unless first I teach the priests obedience to my orders."

Pentuer wrung his hands.

"O lord," replied he, "a struggle with the priesthood is G.o.dless and dangerous. More than one pharaoh began it, and was unable to finish."

"Because he was not supported by sages like thee!" burst out Rameses.

"And, indeed, I shall never understand why wise and honest priests bind themselves to a band of rogues, such as the majority of this cla.s.s are."

Pentuer shook his head and began slowly,--

"During thirty thousand years the sacred order of priests has nursed Egypt and made the country the wonder of the world, which it is at present. And how have the priests, in spite of their faults, been able to do this? Because they are the lamp in which burns the light of wisdom.

"This lamp may be foul, even malodorous; still it preserves the divine fire, without which darkness and savagery would prevail among people.

"Thou speakest, lord, of a struggle with the priesthood," continued Pentuer. "How can that profit me? If thou lose I shall be unhappy, for thou wilt not improve the lot of the worker. And if thou win? May I not live to that! for shouldst thou break the lamp, who knows whether thou wouldst not put out the fire of wisdom which for thousands of years has illuminated Egypt and mankind.

"These, lord, are the reasons why I will not take part in thy struggle with the sacred order of priests. I feel that the struggle is approaching, and I suffer because such a worm as I am unable to prevent it. But I will not partic.i.p.ate, for I should have to betray either thee, or the G.o.d, the creator of wisdom."

While hearing these words the pharaoh walked up and down the chamber in thought.

"Aa!" said he, without anger, "do as may please thee. Thou art not a warrior, hence I cannot reproach thee with lack of valor. But thou canst not be my adviser, though I beg thee to form a council to investigate the riots of working men, and, when I summon thee, declare what thy wisdom enjoins."

Pentuer knelt down in taking farewell of his lord.

"In every case," added the pharaoh, "know this, that I have no desire to quench the divine light. Let the priests guard wisdom in their temples, but--let them not make my army useless, let them not conclude shameful treaties, and--let them not steal,"--he said this excitedly,--"the treasures of the pharaohs.

"Can they think that I will stand at their gates, like a beggar, asking that they deign to give me funds to restore the state which is ruined by their stupid and villanous management? Ha, ha! Pentuer, I should not ask the G.o.ds for that which is my power and my right-- Thou mayst go."

The priest, withdrawing with his face toward the pharaoh, went out backward with obeisance, and when in the doorway he fell with his face on the pavement.

The pharaoh remained alone.

"Mortal men," thought he, "are like children. Herhor is wise: he knows that Egypt in case of war would need half a million of warriors; he knows that those troops need training, and still he has decreased the number of the regiments.

"The chief treasurer also is wise, but it seems to him quite in order that all the treasure of the pharaohs should go to the labyrinth.

"Finally here is Pentuer. What a strange person he is! He wants me to give earth-tillers food, land, and ever-recurring holidays. All this would decrease my income, which even now is insufficient. But if I say to him: help me to take the pharaoh's treasures from the priesthood, he calls that G.o.dlessness and the quenching of light in Egypt. Strange man, he would be glad to turn the state bottom upwards, so far as relates to the good of earth-tillers, but he would not venture to seize a high priest and lead him forth to prison. With the utmost composure he commands me to renounce half my income, but I am sure that he would not dare to take a copper uten out of the labyrinth."

The pharaoh smiled, and again he meditated.

"Each man wants to be happy himself; but if thou wish to give happiness to all men, each one will seize thy hand as he would if thou wert drawing an aching tooth from him.

"Therefore a pharaoh must have decision. Therefore my divine father did ill when he neglected the workers and trusted beyond bounds in the priesthood. He left me a grievous inheritance, but--I will improve it.

"At the Soda Lakes there was also a difficult question, more difficult than this one. Here are only gabblers and timid cowards; there stood armed men ready to go to death.

"One battle will open our eyes more widely than tens of years in peaceful management. Whoso says to himself, 'I will burst through this hindrance,' will burst through it. But he who hesitates must yield."

Darkness came. In the palace the watches were changed, and in the remoter halls torches were lighted. But no one dared enter the sovereign's chamber unless commanded.

Rameses, wearied by sleeplessness, by the journey of the day previous, by the occupations of that day, dropped into an armchair. It seemed to him that he had been pharaoh for centuries, and he could not believe that one day had not pa.s.sed since he had been at the pyramids.

"One day? Impossible!"

Then he thought that perhaps the spirits of the former pharaohs had settled in the heart of their heir. It must be so, for otherwise whence could such a feeling of age or remoteness settle down in him?

And why did governing the state seem to-day a simple thing, while two months before he was alarmed when he thought that he could not govern.

"One day?" repeated he, in spirit. "But I am a thousand years in this palace!"

Suddenly he heard a repressed voice,--

"My son! O son!"

The pharaoh sprang up from his chair.

"Who art thou?" exclaimed he.

"I am, I-- Hast thou forgotten me already?"

"O my son," said the voice again, "respect the will of the G.o.ds if thou wish to receive their blessed a.s.sistance--O respect the G.o.ds, for without their a.s.sistance the greatest power on earth is as dust and shadows--O respect the G.o.ds if thou wish that the bitterness of thy faults should not poison my existence in the happy region of the West."

The voice ceased, Rameses ordered to bring a light. One door of the room was closed, at the other a guard stood. No stranger could enter there.

Anger and alarm tore the pharaoh's heart. "What was that? Had the shade of his father spoken indeed to him, or was that voice only a new priestly trick?"

But if the priests, notwithstanding thick walls, could speak to him from a distance, they could overhear him. And then he, the lord of the world, was like a wild beast caged in on all sides.