To this the prince answered,--

"I will say more, Sargon. If an attack was made on thee yesterday, I a.s.sure thee that no one of my courtiers made it. For I judge that a man of such strength as thou art must have broken more than one skull.

But my attendants are unharmed, every man of them."

"He has told truth, and spoken wisely," whispered Sargon to Istubar.

"But though," continued the prince, "this evil deed has happened, not through my fault, or through that of my attendants, I feel bound to decrease thy dissatisfaction with a city in which thou wert met so unworthily; hence I have visited thy bedchamber; hence I open to thee my house at all times, as often as thou mayst wish to visit it, and I beg thee to accept this small gift from me."

The prince drew forth from his tunic a chain set with rubies and sapphires.

The gigantic Sargon shed tears; this moved the prince but did not affect the indifference of Istubar. The priest saw that Sargon had tears, joy, or anger, at call, as befitted the amba.s.sador of a king full of wisdom.

The viceroy sat a moment longer, and then took farewell of Sargon.

While going out, he thought that the a.s.syrians, though barbarians, were not evil minded, since they knew how to respond to magnanimity.

Sargon was so touched that he gave order immediately to bring wine, and he drank from midday till evening.

Some time after sunset the priest, Istubar, left Sargon's chamber for a while; he returned soon, but through a concealed doorway. Behind him appeared two men in dark mantles. When they had pushed their cowls aside, Sargon recognized in one the high priest Mefres, in the other Mentezufis the prophet.

"We bring thee, worthy amba.s.sador, good news," said Mefres.

"May I be able to give you the like," cried the amba.s.sador. "Be seated, holy and worthy fathers. And though I have reddened eyes, speak to me as if I were in perfect soberness; for when I am drunk my mind is improved even. Is this not true, Istubar?"

"Speak on," said the Chaldean.

"To-day," began Mentezufis, "I have received a letter from the most worthy minister Herhor. He writes that his holiness--may he live through eternity!--awaits thy emba.s.sy at Memphis in his wonderful palace, and that his holiness--may he live through eternity!--is well disposed to make a treaty with a.s.syria."

Sargon tottered on his feet, but his eyes showed clear mental action.

"I will go," said he, "to his holiness the pharaoh,--may he live through eternity! In the name of my lord I will put my seal on the treaty, if it be written on bricks in cuneiform letters, for I do not understand your writing. I will lie even all day on my belly before his holiness, and will sign the treaty. But how will ye carry it out,--ha! ha! ha! that I know not," concluded he, with rude laughter.

"How darest thou, O servant of the great a.s.sar, doubt the good-will and faith of our ruler?" inquired Mentezufis.

Sargon grew a little sobered.

"I do not speak of his holiness," replied he, "but of the heir to the throne of Egypt."

"He is a young man full of wisdom, who will carry out the will of his father and the supreme council without hesitation," answered Mefres.

"Ha! ha! ha!" laughed the drunken barbarian again. "Your prince-- O G.o.ds, put my joints out if I speak an untruth, when I say that I should wish a.s.syria to have such an heir as he is. Our a.s.syrian heir is a sage, a priest. He, before going to war, looks first at the stars in the sky; afterward he looks under hens' tails. But yours would examine to see how many troops he had; he would learn where the enemy was camping, and fall on him as an eagle on a lamb. He is a leader, he is a king! He is not of those who obey priestly counsels. He will take counsel with his own sword, and ye will have to carry out what he orders. Therefore, though I sign a treaty, I shall tell my lord that behind the sick pharaoh and the wise priests there is in Egypt a young heir to the throne who is a lion and a bull in one person,--a man on whose lips there is honey, but in whose heart lies a thunderbolt."

"And thou wilt tell an untruth," interrupted Mentezufis. "For our prince, though impulsive and riotous somewhat, as is usual with young people, knows how to respect both the counsel of sages and the highest inst.i.tutions of the country."

"O ye sages learned in letters, ye who know the circuits of the stars!" said Sargon, jeering. "I am a simple commander of troops, who without my seal would not always be able to scratch off my signature.

Ye are sages, I am unlearned; but by the beard of my king, I would not change what I know for your wisdom. Ye are men to whom the world of papyrus and brick is laid bare; but the real world in which men live is closed to you. I am unlearned, but I have the sniff of a dog; and, as a dog sniffs a bear from a distance; so I with reddened nose sniff a hero.

"Ye will give counsel to the prince! But ye are charmed by him already, as a dove is by a serpent. I, at least, do not deceive myself; and, though the prince is as kind to me as my own father, I feel through my skin that he hates me and my a.s.syrians as a tiger hates an elephant. Ha! ha! Only give him an army, and in three months he would be at Nineveh, if soldiers would rise up to him in the desert instead of falling down and dying--"

"Even though thou wert speaking truth," interrupted Mentezufis, "even if the prince wished to go to Nineveh, he will not go."

"But who will detain him when he is the pharaoh?"

"We."

"Ye? ye? Ha! ha! ha!" laughed Sargon. "Ye think always that that young man does not feel this treaty. But I--but I--ha! ha! ha! I will let the skin be torn from me, and my body be impaled if he does not know everything."

"Would the Phnicians be so quiet if they possessed not the certainty that your young lion of Egypt would shield them before the bull of a.s.syria?"

Mentezufis and Mefres looked at each other stealthily. The genius of the barbarian almost terrified them; he had given bold utterance to that which they had not thought of. What would the result be, indeed, if the heir had divined their plans and wished to cross them?

But Istubar, silent thus far, rescued them from momentary trouble.

"Sargon," said he, "thou art interfering in affairs not thy own. Thy duty is to conclude with Egypt a treaty of the kind that our lord wishes. But what the heir knows or does not know, what he will do or will not do, is not thy affair, since the supreme, eternally existent priestly council a.s.sures us that the treaty will be executed. In what way it will be executed is not a question for our heads."

The dry tone with which Istubar declared this calmed the riotous joy of the amba.s.sador. He nodded and muttered,--

"A pity for the man in that case! He is a grand warrior, and magnanimous."

CHAPTER x.x.xVII

After their visit to Sargon the two holy men, Mentezufis and Mefres, when they had concealed themselves carefully with their burnouses, returned home, meditating deeply.

"Who knows," said Mentezufis, "that the view of that drunken Sargon concerning our prince is not the right one?"

"In that case Istubar's view is still more correct," answered Mefres, decidedly.

"Still, let us not be too hasty. We should examine the prince first,"

remarked Mentezufis.

"Let us do so."

In fact, both priests went to the heir next morning with very serious faces, and asked for a confidential talk with him.

"What has happened?" inquired the prince. "Has his worthiness Sargon gone on some new night emba.s.sy?"

"Alas! the question for us is not of Sargon," answered Mefres. "But reports are current among people that thou, most worthy lord, art maintaining relations continually with unbelieving Phnicians."

From these words the prince divined why the two prophets had made the visit, and the blood boiled in him. But he saw at once that this was the beginning of a play between the priests and him, and, as became the son of a pharaoh, he mastered himself in one instant. His face a.s.sumed an expression of innocent curiosity.

"The Phnicians are dangerous, born enemies of Egypt," said Mefres.

The heir smiled.

"Holy fathers, if ye would lend me money, and if ye had beautiful maidens in your temples, I should see you oftener. But as things are, I must be friendly with Phnicians."