The overseer opened his arms, and bent forward in silence.

They moved from place to place, and pa.s.sed a number of courts. In wooden cases on the bare ground were crowded men sentenced to imprisonment. In one building were heard awful screams; they were clubbing prisoners to force confession.

"I wish to see those accused of attacking my house," said the heir, deeply moved.

"Of those there are more than three hundred," said the overseer.

"Select according to thy own judgment the most guilty, and question them in my presence. I do not wish, though, to be known to them."

They opened to Rameses a chamber in which the investigating official was occupied. The prince commanded him to take his usual place, but sat himself behind a pillar.

The accused appeared one by one. All were lean; much hair had grown out on them, and their eyes had the expression of settled bewilderment.

"Dutmoses," said the official, "tell how ye attacked the house of the most worthy erpatr."

"I will tell truth, as at the judgment seat of Osiris. It was the evening of that day when the Nile was to begin rising. My wife said to me, 'Come, father, let us go up on the hills, where we can have an earlier sight of the signal in Memphis.' Then we went up where we could see the signal in Memphis more easily. Some warrior came to my wife and said, 'Come with me into that garden. We will find grapes there, and something else also.' Then my wife went into the garden with that warrior. I fell into great rage, and I looked at them through the wall. But whether stones were thrown at the prince's house or not I cannot tell, for because of the trees and darkness I could not see anything."

"But how couldst thou let thy wife go with a warrior?" asked the official.

"With permission, worthiness, what was I to do? I am only an earth-worker, and he is a warrior and soldier of his holiness."

"But didst thou see the priest who spoke to you?"

"That was not a priest," said the man, with conviction. "That must have been the G.o.d Num himself, for he came out of a fig-tree and he had a ram's head on him."

"But didst thou see that he had a ram's head?"

"With permission I do not remember well whether I saw myself or whether people told me. My eyes were affected by anxiety for my wife."

"Didst thou throw stones at the garden?"

"Why should I throw stones, lord of life and death? If I had hit my wife, I should have made trouble for a week. If I had hit the warrior, I should have got a blow of a fist in the belly that would have made my tongue stick out, for I am nothing but an earth-worker, and he is a warrior of our lord who lives through eternity."

The heir leaned out from behind the column. They led away Dutmoses, and brought in Anup. He was a short fellow. On his shoulders were scars from club-strokes.

"Tell me, Anup," began the official again, "how was it about that attack on the garden of the heir to the throne?"

"Eye of the sun," said the man, "vessel of wisdom, thou knowest best of all that I did not make the attack, only a neighbor comes to me and says he, 'Anup, come up, for the Nile is rising.' And I say to him, 'Is it rising?' And he says to me, 'Thou art duller than an a.s.s, for an a.s.s would hear music on a hill, and thou dost not hear it.' 'But,'

says I, 'I am dull, for I did not learn writing; but with permission music is one thing and the rise of the river is another.' 'If there were not a rise,' says he, 'people would not have anything to be glad about and play and sing.' So I say to thy justice, we went to the hill, and they had driven away the music there and were throwing stones at the garden."

"Who threw stones?"

"I could not tell. The men did not look like earth-workers, but more like unclean dissectors who open dead bodies for embalming."

"And didst thou see the priest?"

"With thy permission, O watchfulness, that was not a priest, but some spirit that guards the house of the erpatr--may he live through eternity!"

"Why a spirit?"

"For at moments I saw him and at moments he went somewhere."

"Perhaps he was behind the people?"

"Indeed the people sometimes were in front of him. But at one time he was higher and at another time lower--"

"Maybe he went up on the hill and came down from it?"

"He must have gone up and come down, but maybe he stretched and shortened himself, for he was a great wonder-worker. Barely had he said, 'The Nile will rise,' and that minute the Nile began to rise."

"And didst thou throw stones, Anup?"

"How should I dare to throw stones into the garden of the erpatr? I am a simple fellow, my hand would wither to the elbow for such sacrilege."

The prince gave command to stop the examination, and when they had led away the accused, he asked the official,--

"Are these of the most guilty?"

"Thou hast said it, lord," answered the official.

"In that case all must be liberated to-day. We should not imprison people because they wished to convince themselves that the holy Nile was rising or for listening to music."

"The highest wisdom is speaking through thy lips, erpatr," said the official. "I was commanded to find the most guilty, hence I have summoned those whom I have found so; but it is not in my power to return them liberty."

"Why?"

"Look, most worthy, on that box. It is full of papyruses on which are written the details of the case. A judge in Memphis receives a report on the progress of the case daily, and reports to his holiness. What would become of the labor of so many learned scribes and great men if the accused were set free?"

"But they are innocent!" cried the prince.

"There was an attack, therefore an offence. Where there is an offence there must be offenders. Whoever has fallen once into the hands of power, and is described in acts, cannot get free without some result.

In an inn a man drinks and pays; at a fair he sells something and receives; in a field he sows and harvests; at graves he receives blessings from his deceased ancestors. How, then, could any one after he has come to a court return with nothing, like a traveller stopping half-way on his journey and turning back his steps homeward without attaining his object?"

"Thou speakest wisely," answered the heir. "But tell me, has not his holiness the right to free these people?"

The official crossed his arms on his breast and bent his head,--

"He is equal to the G.o.ds, he can do what he wishes; liberate accused, nay, condemned men, and destroy even the doc.u.ments of a case,--things which if done by a common man would be sacrilege."

The prince took farewell of the official, and said to the overseer, "Give the accused better food at my expense." Then he sailed, greatly irritated, to the other bank, stretching forth his hands toward the palace continually, as if begging the pharaoh to destroy the case.

But that day his holiness had many religious ceremonies and a counsel with the ministers, hence the heir could not see him. The prince went immediately to the grand secretary, who next to the minister of war had most significance at the court of the pharaoh. That ancient official, a priest at one of the temples in Memphis, received the prince politely but coldly, and when he had heard him he answered,--

"It is a marvel to me that thou wishest, worthiness, to disturb our lord with such questions. It is as if thou wert to beg him not to destroy locusts which devour what is on the fields."

"But they are innocent people."

"We, worthy lord, cannot know that, for law and the courts decide as to guilt and innocence. One thing is clear to me, the state cannot suffer an attack on any one's garden, and especially cannot suffer that hands should be raised against property of the erpatr."