When the fourth courier came about nine, and repeated the same words, the pharaoh was frowning.

"What are they waiting for?" asked he. "Let them attack immediately."

The courier answered that the chief band which was to attack and batter down the bronze gate had not arrived yet.

This explanation displeased the pharaoh. He shock his head, and sent an officer to Memphis to hasten the attack.

"What does this delay mean?" asked he. "I thought that my army would waken me with news of the capture of the temple. In such cases prompt action is the condition of success."

The officer rode away, but nothing had changed at the temple of Ptah.

The people were waiting for something, but the chief band was not in its place yet. Some other will seemed to delay the execution of the order.

About ten the litter of Queen Nikotris came to the villa occupied by the pharaoh. The revered lady broke into her son's chamber almost with violence, and fell at his feet, weeping.

"What dost thou wish of me, mother?" asked Rameses, hardly hiding his impatience. "Hast thou forgotten that the camp is no place for women?"

"I will not leave thee to-day, I will not leave thee for an instant!"

exclaimed the queen. "Thou art the son of Isis, it is true, and she surrounds thee with care. But I should die from fright."

"What threatens me?" inquired the pharaoh, shrugging his shoulders.

"The priest who investigates the stars," said she, tearfully, "declared to a serving woman that thou wilt live and reign a hundred years if this day favors thee."

"Ah! Where is that man who is skilled in my fate?"

"He fled to Memphis," replied the lady.

Rameses thought a while, then he said, smiling,--

"As the Libyans at the Soda Lakes hurled missiles at us, the priests hurl threats to-day. Be calm, mother! Talk is less dangerous than stones and arrows."

From Memphis a new courier rushed in with a report that all was well, but still the main band was not ready.

On the comely face of the pharaoh appeared signs of anger. Wishing to calm the sovereign, Tutmosis said to him,--

"The people are not an army. They know not how to a.s.semble at a given hour; while marching they stretch out like a swamp, and obey no commands. If the occupation of the temples were committed to regiments they would be in possession at present."

"What art thou saying, Tutmosis?" cried the queen. "Where has any one heard of Egyptian troops--"

"Thou hast forgotten," interrupted Rameses, "that according to my commands the troops were not to attack, but defend the temples from attacks of the people."

"Action is delayed through this also," answered Tutmosis, impatiently.

"O counsellors of the pharaoh!" burst out the queen. "Your lord acts wisely, appearing as a defender of the G.o.ds, and ye, instead of making him milder, urge him to violence."

The blood rushed to Tutmosis' head. Fortunately an adjutant called him from the chamber with information that at the gate was an old man who wished to speak with his holiness.

"To-day each man is struggling to get at the pharaoh, as he might at the keeper of a dramshop," muttered the adjutant.

Tutmosis thought that in the time of Rameses XII. no one would have dared to speak of the ruler in that way. But he feigned not to hear.

The old man whom the watch had detained was Prince Hiram. He wore a soldier's mantle covered with dust; he was irritated and wearied.

Tutmosis commanded to admit him, and when both were in the garden, he said to him,--

"I judge that thou wilt bathe, worthiness, and change thy dress before I obtain an audience with his holiness?"

Hiram raised his iron-gray brows, and his bloodshot eyes became bloodier.

"From what I have seen," said he firmly, "I may even not ask for an audience."

"Hast thou the letters of the high priest to a.s.syria?"

"What good are those letters, since ye have agreed with the priests?"

"What dost thou say, worthiness?" inquired Tutmosis, starting.

"I know what I say!" replied Hiram. "Ye have obtained tens of thousands of talents from the Phnicians, as it were for the liberation of Egypt from the power of the priesthood, and to-day in return for that ye are robbing and slaying us. See what is happening from the sea to the First Cataract: your common people are hunting the Phnicians like dogs, for such is the command of the priesthood."

"Thou art mad, Phnician! Our people are taking the temple of Ptah in Memphis."

Hiram waved his hand.

"They will not take it! Ye are deceiving us, or ye are deceiving yourselves. Ye were to seize, first of all, the labyrinth and its treasure, and that only on the 23d. Meanwhile ye are wasting power on the temple of Ptah, and the labyrinth is lost. What is happening here?

Where is mind to be found in this place?" continued the indignant Phnician. "Why storm an empty building? Ye are attacking it so that the priests may take more care of the labyrinth!"

"We will seize the labyrinth, too," said Tutmosis.

"Ye will seize nothing, nothing! Only one man could take the labyrinth, and he will be stopped by to-day's action in Memphis."

Tutmosis halted on the path.

"About what art thou troubled?" asked he, abruptly.

"About the disorder which reigns here. About this, that ye are no longer a government, but a group of officers and officials whom the priests send whithersoever they wish and whensoever it pleases them.

For three days, there is such terrible confusion in Lower Egypt that the people are killing us, your only friends, the Phnicians. And why is this? Because government has dropped from your hands, and the priests have seized it."

"Thou speakest thus for thou knowest not the position," replied Tutmosis. "It is true that the priests thwart us and organize attacks on Phnicians. But power is in the hands of the pharaoh; events move in general according to his orders."

"And the attack on the temple of Ptah?" inquired Hiram.

"Was ordered by the pharaoh. I was present at the confidential council, during which the pharaoh gave command to take possession of the temples to-day instead of the 23d."

"Well, I declare to thee, commander of the guard, that ye are lost, for I know to a certainty that the attack of to-day was decided on at a council of high priests and nomarchs in the temple of Ptah, which was held on Paofi 13."

"Why should they arrange an attack on themselves?" asked Tutmosis in a jeering voice.

"They must have had some reason for it. And I have convinced myself that they manage their affairs better than ye manage yours."