Beaten, b.l.o.o.d.y, and above all terrified, the wretched slave sat on the sand for a while, rubbed his eyes, then sprang up suddenly and ran groaning toward the highway,--

"Swallow me, O earth! Cursed be the day in which I saw the light, and the night in which it was said, 'A man is born!' In the mantle of justice there is not the smallest shred for a slave. The G.o.ds themselves regard not a creature whose hands are for labor, whose mouth was made only for weeping, and whose back is for clubs. O death, rub my body into ashes, so that there, beyond on the fields of Osiris, I be not born into slavery a second time."

CHAPTER III

Panting with anger, Prince Rameses rushed up the hill, while behind him followed Tutmosis. The wig of the exquisite had turned on his head, his false beard had slipped down, and he carried it in his hand.

In spite of exertion he would have been pale had it not been for the layers of rouge on his face.

At last Rameses halted at the summit. From the ravine came the outcry of warriors and the rattle of the onrolling balistas; before the two men stretched the immense plain of Goshen, bathed continually in sun-rays. That did not seem land, but a golden cloud, on which the mind painted a landscape in colors of silver, ruby, pearl, and topaz.

"Look," cried the heir to Tutmosis, stretching out his hand, "those are to be my lands, and here is my army. Over there the loftiest edifices are palaces of priests, and here the supreme chief of the troops is a priest! Can anything like this be suffered?"

"It has always been so," replied Tutmosis, glancing around with timidity.

"That is not true! I know the history of this country, which is hidden to thee. The leaders of armies and the masters of officials were the pharaohs alone, or at least the most energetic among them. Those rulers did not pa.s.s their days in making offerings and prayers, but in managing the state."

"If it is the desire of his holiness to pa.s.s his days that way?" said Tutmosis.

"It is not my father's wish that nomarchs should govern as they please in the capitals of provinces. Why, the governor of Ethiopia considered himself as almost equal to the king of kings. And it cannot be my father's wish that his army should march around two golden beetles because the minister of war is a high priest."

"He is a great warrior," whispered Tutmosis, with increasing timidity.

"He a great warrior? Because he dispersed a handful of Libyan robbers ready to flee at the mere sight of Egyptians. But see what our neighbors are doing. Israel delays in paying tribute and pays less and less of it. The cunning Phnician steals a number of ships from our fleet every year. On the east we are forced to keep up a great army against the Hitt.i.tes, while around Babylon and Nineveh there is such a movement that it is felt throughout all Mesopotamia.

"And what is the outcome of priestly management? This, that while my great-grandfather had a hundred thousand talents of yearly income and one hundred and sixty thousand troops, my father has barely fifty thousand talents and one hundred and twenty thousand troops.

"And what an army! Were it not for the Greek corps, which keeps them in order as a dog watches sheep, the Egyptian soldiers to-day would obey only priests and the pharaoh would sink to the level of a miserable nomarch."

"Whence hast thou learned this?" asked Tutmosis, with astonishment.

"Am I not of a priestly family? And besides, they taught me when I was not heir to the throne. Oh, when I become pharaoh after my father,--may he live through eternity!--I will put my bronze-sandalled foot on their necks. But first of all I will seize their treasures, which have always been bloated, but which from the time of Rameses the Great have begun to swell out, and to-day are so swollen that the treasure of the pharaoh is invisible because of them."

"Woe to me and to thee!" sighed Tutmosis. "Thou hast plans under which this hill would bend could it hear and understand them. And where are thy forces, thy a.s.sistance, thy warriors? Against thee the whole people will rise, led by a cla.s.s of men with mighty influence. But who is on thy side?"

Rameses listened and fell to thinking. At last he said,--

"The army--"

"A considerable part of it will follow the priests."

"The Greek corps--"

"A barrel of water in the Nile."

"The officials--"

"Half of them belong to the priests."

The prince shook his head sadly, and was silent.

From the summit they went down by a naked and stony slope to the opposite base of the hill. Then Tutmosis, who had pushed ahead somewhat, cried,--

"Has a charm fallen on my eyes? Look, Rameses! Why, a second Egypt is concealed between these cliffs!"

"That must be an estate of some priest who pays no taxes," replied the prince, bitterly.

In the depth before their feet lay a rich valley in the form of a fork the tines of which were hidden between cliffs. At the juncture of the tines a number of servants' huts were visible, and the beautiful little villa of the owner or manager. Palm-trees grew there, grapes, olives, figs with aerial roots, cypresses, even young baobabs. In the centre flowed a rivulet, and at the source of it, some hundreds of yards higher up, small gardens were visible.

When they had gone down among grape-vines covered with ripe cl.u.s.ters, they heard a woman's voice which called, or rather sang in pensive notes:

"Where art thou gone from me, where art thou, hen of mine? Thou hast fled, thou art gone from me. I give thee drink and clean grain; what I give is so good that slaves envy thee. Where art thou gone, my hen--wilt thou not answer me? Night will come down on thee, think of that; thou wilt not reach thy home, where all are at work for thee.

Come; if thou come not, a falcon will fly from the desert and tear the heart out of thee. If he come thou wilt call in vain, as I now call in vain to thee. Give answer, or I shall be angry and leave this place.

If I leave thou'lt go home on thy own feet."

The song came toward the two men. The songstress was a few yards from them when Tutmosis thrust his head from between the bushes, and said,--

"Just look, Rameses, but that is a beautiful maiden!"

Instead of looking, the prince sprang into the path and stopped the road before the songstress. She was really a beautiful maiden, with Grecian features and a complexion like ivory. From under the veil on her head peeped forth an immense ma.s.s of dark hair, wound in a knot.

She wore a white trailing robe which she held on one side with her hand; under the transparent covering were maiden b.r.e.a.s.t.s shaped like apples.

"Who art thou?" cried Rameses.

The threatening furrows vanished from his forehead and his eyes flashed.

"O Jehovah! O Father!" cried she, frightened, halting motionless on the path.

But she grew calm by degrees, and her velvety eyes resumed their expression of mild sadness.

"Whence hast thou come?" inquired she of Rameses, with a voice trembling a little. "I see that thou art a soldier, but it is not permitted soldiers to come here."

"Why is it not permitted?"

"Because this is the land of a great lord named Sesofris."

"Ho! ho!" laughed Rameses.

"Laugh not, for thou wilt grow pale soon. The lord Sesofris is secretary to the lord Chaires, who carries his fan for the most worthy nomarch of Memphis. My father has seen him and fallen on his face before him."

"Ho! ho! ho!" repeated Rameses, laughing continually.

"Thy words are very insolent," said the maiden, frowning. "Were kindness not looking from thy face, I should think thee a mercenary from Greece or a bandit."

"He is not a bandit yet, but some day he may become the greatest bandit this land has ever suffered," said Tutmosis the exquisite, arranging his wig.