The Pharaoh and the Priest: An Historical Novel of Ancient Egypt

"Ah, our sovereign!" sighed the old Phoenician. "Since Thou hast become lord of Egypt the criminals are those who dare to see thee and not give account of what Thou art pleased...

In return for this homage the pharaoh gave him his hand to kiss, and declared that thenceforth Antefa was his friend, and might enter even the throne hall in sandals.

WHEN he left Fayum the pharaoh and his retinue advanced southward a number of days up the Nile, surrounded by a throng of boats, greeted by shouts, and covered with flowers.

BY advice of astrologers the headquarters were to move from Pi-Bast on the seventh day of Hator. For that day was "good, good, good." Gods in heaven and men on earth rejoiced at...

ON the 20th of Paofi Memphis looked as it might during a great solemn festival. All occupations had ceased; even carriers were not bearing burdens. The whole population had come...

AFTER leaving Abydos, Ramses XIII sailed up the Nile to the city of Tan-ta-ren (Dendera) and Keneh, which stood nearly opposite each other: one on the western, the other on the...

They were in the desert; a couple of hundred yards behind them was an army; in front were fugitives several hundred yards in advance. But though they beat and urged on their hor...

One correspondence he conducted with the minister Herhor; Mentezufis sent reports to Memphis touching the advance of the troops, and the activity of the viceroy; of this activit...

In the course of those few months, during which Prince Ramses had fulfilled the duties of viceroy of Lower Egypt, his holiness the pharaoh had failed in health continually. The...

On Paofi 12 alarming news went forth from various Egyptian temples. During a few preceding days an altar was overturned in the temple of Horus; in the temple of Isis a statue of...

In the middle of the month Famenut (January) spring began. All Egypt was green with growing wheat. On black patches of land crowds of men were sowing lupines, beans, and barley....

WHEN the priests and the heir to the throne returned to the courtyard in the evening, several hundred torches were gleaming so brightly that it was as clear there as in the dayt...

So in the month Hator, after thirty-four years of rule, died the Pharaoh Mer-Amen-Ramses XII, the ruler of two worlds, the lord of eternity, the giver of life and every happiness.

THE old man kept his promise. Every day to the prince's palace in Pi- Bast came crowds of slaves and long rows of asses bearing wheat, barley, dried meat, woven stuffs, and wine...

RAMSES saw now that either he would not carry out the commands of the pharaoh or that he must yield to the will of the priesthood; this filled him with dislike and anger. Hence...

MEANWHILE Pentuer made ready to revisit Lower Egypt and find on the one hand thirteen delegates from among land-tillers and artisans for the pharaoh, and on the other to encoura...

About nine in the evening Phut left the inn "Under the Ship" in company with a negro who carried a torch. Half an hour earlier Asarhadon sent out a confidential servant, command...

Among the inhabitants of Pi-Bast alarming news had begun to circulate concerning the Libyans. It was said that those barbarian warriors, disbanded by the priests, began by beggi...

In the month of Choeak (from the middle of September to the middle of October), the waters of the Nile were highest, and began to fall slightly. In the gardens people gathered t...

When Ramses on the following morning visited his son, he found Sarah weeping. He asked what the cause was. She answered at first that nothing troubled her; then she said that sh...

FROM the day that he became viceroy of Lower Egypt a life unparalleled in troubles set in for Ramses, such a life as he had not even imagined, though born and reared in the phar...

IT was the month Thoth. In the city of Pi-Bast and its environs the concourse of people had begun, because of heat, to diminish. But the court of Ramses amused itself always, an...

RAMSES passed most of the night in feverish imaginings. Once the vision of the state appeared to him as an immense labyrinth with strong walls through which no one could force a...

THE priestess brought little happiness to the viceroy. When he came the first time to visit her in the villa occupied recently by Sarah, he thought: "I shall be met with delight...

IN the beginning of the month Paofi (July, August) the pharaoh, Queen Niort's, and the court returned from Thebes to the palace at Memphis. Toward the end of the journey, which...

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 pr...

AT sunrise of the twenty-first of Hator there came from Memphis to the camp at the Soda Lakes an order by which three regiments were to march to Libya to stand garrison in the t...

In the month of Mechir that is, during January the god Khonsu returned to Thebes covered with costly gifts. For three years and nine months he had traveled in the country of Buc...

THAT same day, in Memphis, Dagon the Phoenician, the viceroy's worthy banker, lay on a couch under the veranda of his mansion. Around him were fragrant potted bushes with needle...

THE foreign quarter in Memphis lay on the northeastern extremity of the city near the river. There were several hundred houses in that place and many thousand people, Assyrians,...

LEARNING from Hiram that the Phoenicians had given him the priestess, Ramses wished to have her in his house at the earliest, not because he could not live without her, but beca...

"Then Thou didst take the trouble, worthiness, in the evening? Never could I have dared to suppose that our ruler was under the open sky, a few steps from me."

THE temple received Pentuer with great honor, and the inferior priests went out half an hour's journey to greet him. From all the wonderful places of Lower Egypt many prophets h...

"I do not wish to command," said Ramses, "but to beg thee. Thou knowest that in Egypt there are riots of laborers, artisans, even convicts. There are riots from the sea to the q...

Prince Ramses began his journey in the most beautiful season of the year, during the month Phamenoth (end of December and beginning of January). The river had fallen to half its...

The exquisite appeared at once, dressed carefully and perfumed. He looked sharply at the prince to learn in what humor he was, and to fix his own features correspondingly. But o...

In the month Paoni (March-April), on the day of the vernal equinox, about nine in the evening, when the star Sirius inclined toward its setting, two wayfaring priests and one pe...

The month Thoth has ended and the month Paofi (the second half of July) has begun. The water of the Nile, from being greenish and then white, has become ruddy and is rising cont...

HALF an hour later dense throngs of the Egyptian army appeared and soon the escort of the prince was in the camp. From all sides were heard trumpets sounding the recall. Warrior...

THE priest observed the heir stealthily, and found him much changed. Ramses was pale; he had almost grown thin in a few hours; his eyes had lost their glitter and had sunk benea...

RAMSES and his comrade ran about a quarter of an hour along the rocky ridge of the hill, drawing ever nearer to the trumpets, which sounded more and more urgently. At last they...

The month Mechir (December) was approaching. The waters decreased, the land extended more widely each day, the grass became higher and thicker, and in the grass flashed up flowe...

The Phoenicians told, of course as the greatest secret, that the priests, it was unknown for what reason, not only forgave the Assyrians the unpaid tribute, not only freed them...

In the afternoon Hiram appeared before the palace in a simple litter borne by eight poor Egyptians to whom he gave alms. He was surrounded by the most notable Phoenician merchan...

The temples were closed; there were no processions. All music ceased; no feasts were given. Dancing women became wailers; instead of dancing they tore their hair; this also brou...

ON the eighteenth day of Paofi chaos had begun. Communication was interrupted between Lower and Upper Egypt; commerce had ceased; on the Nile moved only boats on guard, the road...

AT that same hour to a minute, the priest, watching on the pylon of the temple of Ptah in Memphis, informed the high priests and nomarchs counseling in the hall, that the palace...

At sunrise the trumpets were sounded, and all the Egyptian forces were drawn up under arms on the widest part of the valley. According to command of the prince, who wished to in...

THE entrance to the pharaoh's palace at Memphis was through a gate placed between two lofty towers or pylons. The external walls of these buildings were of gray sandstone covere...

THE immense suite of his holiness had remained in the hall of attendance, but as if split into two parts. On one side were Herhor, Mefres, and some high priests superior in year...

After the funeral of the pharaoh, Egypt returned to its usual life, and Ramses XIII to affairs of state. The new ruler in the month Epifi visited the cities of the Nile above Th...

THE western boundary of Egypt for a distance of more than a hundred geographic miles is composed of a wall of naked limestone hills about two hundred meters high, intersected by...

We know not whether the prophets in the underground temple of the Sphinx saw the new ruler of Egypt when he halted at the foot of the pyramids, and gave information touching him...

THUS seemed those moments of approach between Sarah and her princely lover, which were rare enough withal. For after he had given those commands to-Patrokles and the steward, Ra...

AS the suite of the heir approached Memphis, the sun was near its setting, while from countless canals and the distant sea came a wind filled with cool moisture. The road descen...

The month Paoni had passed, Epiphi was beginning (April and May). The sun stood high, heralding the most violent season of heat for Egypt. A mighty wind from the desert had blow...

IN the city of Anu a series of feasts and amusements now followed. The worthy nomarch brought the choicest wines from his cellars; from the three neighboring provinces came the...

HIS stay in Aa had so wearied Ramses that to seek rest and rally his thoughts he commanded to stop all solemnities in his honor, and directed that during his journey people shou...

ON the right bank of the Nile, on the edge of the northern suburb of Memphis, was that laud which the heir to 'the throne had given as place of residence to Sarah the daughter o...

The expedition of the heir to the throne, undertaken with the object of discovering the priest who had saved Sarah and had given him legal advice, had a result that was unexpected.

THE next day Ramses sent his black men with commands to Memphis, and about midday came a great boat toward Sarah's house from the direction of the city. The boat was filled with...

From the death of Ramses XIII till the day of his burial the state was governed by the most worthy San-Amen-Herhor as high priest of the Theban Amon, and viceroy of the late pha...

"If I did not fear that blasphemy might stain my lips, I should say that some priests waste their time. They are wretched, though holy! They eat no meat, they are satisfied with...

Panting with anger, Prince Ramses 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...

"Unbelievers! Enemies of Egypt!" cried some one. "Ye are singing when we are sunk in suffering, and ye are praising the Jewess who stops the flow of the Nile with her witchcraft."

Some days later Prince Ramses was summoned before the face of his most worthy mother, Nikotris, who was the second wife of the pharaoh, but now the greatest lady in Egypt. The g...

Straightway his worthiness Herhor directed his adjutant who carried the mace to take charge of the vanguard in place of Eunana. Then he commanded that the military engines for h...