Chapter 52

THE guard in the antechamber announced Pentuer. The priest prostrated himself before the pharaoh, and said that he was waiting for commands.

"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 quarries. The only thing lacking is that my warriors should rebel and proclaim as pharaoh Herhor, for example."

"Live through eternity, holiness!" replied the priest. "There is not a man in Egypt who would not sacrifice himself for thee, and not bless thy name."

"Aha, if they knew," said the ruler, with anger, "how helpless the pharaoh is, and how poor he is, each nomarch would like to be the lord of his province. I thought that on inheriting the double crown I should signify something. But I have convinced myself during the first day that I am merely a shadow of the former rulers of Egypt; for what can a pharaoh be without wealth, without an army, and, above all, without faithful subjects? I am like the statues of the gods which they incense, and before which they place offerings. The statues are powerless and the offerings serve to fatten the priests. But, true, Thou art on their side."

"It is painful to me," answered Pentuer, "that Thou speakest thus, holiness, on the first day of thy reign. If news of this were to go over Egypt!"

"To whom can I tell what pains me?" interrupted Ramses. "Thou art my counselor; I was saved by thee, or at least Thou hadst the wish to save my life, not of course to publish to the world that which is happening in the ruler's heart, which heart I open before thee. But Thou art right."

He walked up and down in the chamber, and said after a while in a tone considerably calmer,

"I have appointed thee chief of a council which is to investigate the causes of those ever-recurring riots in Egypt. I wish that only the guilty be punished, and that justice be done those who are injured."

"May the god support thee with his favor," whispered the priest. "I will do what Thou commandest. But the causes of the riots I know already."

"What are they?"

"More than once have I spoken of them to thee, holiness. The toiling people are hungry; they have too much work, and they pay too many taxes. He who worked formerly from sunrise till sunset must begin now an hour before sunrise and finish an hour after sunset. It is not long since a common man might go every tenth day to visit the graves of his mother and father, speak with their shades, and make them offerings. But today no one goes, for no one has time to go."

"Formerly a working man ate three wheat cakes in the course of the day; at present he has not even barley bread. Formerly labor on the canals, dams, and roads was deducted from the taxes; now the taxes are paid independently while public works are carried on without wages. These are the causes of riots."

"I am the poorest noble in the kingdom!" cried the pharaoh, while he tugged at his own hair. "Any landowner gives his cattle proper food and rest; but all men who work for me are tired and hungry."

"What am I to do, then, tell Thou who hast begged me to improve the lot of the workers?"

"Wilt Thou command me to tell, lord?"

"I will beg, I will command, as Thou wishest. Only speak wisely."

"Blessed be thy rule, O true son of Osiris," answered the priest. "This is what it is proper to do: Command, lord, first of all, that pay be given for labor on public works, as was the case formerly."

"Of course."

"Next command that field labor last only from sunrise till sunset. Then direct, as during the divine dynasties, that people rest every seventh day; not every tenth, but every seventh day. Then command that landowners shall not have the right to mortgage earth-tillers, or scribes the right to beat and torture them according to fancy.

"And finally, give the tenth part, or even the twentieth part of the land as property to the workers, so that no one may take it away or mortgage it. Let each family have as much land in extent as the pavement of this room, and it will not be hungry. Give the people desert sands as property, and in a few years gardens will be growing on them."

"Thou speakest beautifully," interrupted the pharaoh; "but what Thou sayest is what Thou seest in thy heart, not in the world. Men's plans, though the best, are not always in accord with the natural course of things."

"I have seen such changes and their result, holiness," answered Pentuer.

"At certain temples various trials have been made at curing the sick, teaching children, rearing cattle, cultivating plants, and reforming men, and the following has happened: When they gave a lean and lazy man good food, and rest every seventh day, the man became sturdy, willing to work, and he dug more land than before. A laborer who receives wages is more cheerful and does more work than a slave, even though beaten with whips of iron. Well-nourished people have more children than hungry and overworked ones; the children of free men are healthy and strong; those of slaves are fragile, gloomy, inclined to stealing and to lying. Men have convinced themselves that land tilled by its owner gives one half more grain and vegetables than land tilled by captives.

"I will tell a most curious thing to thee, holiness: When they play on musical instruments to ploughmen, the men and the oxen work better, more quickly, and tire themselves less than when there is no music. All this has been verified at our temples."

The pharaoh smiled.

"I must," said he, "have music on my lands and in the quarries. But if the priests convince themselves of such wonders as Thou art relating, why act as they do on their own estates?"

Pentuer dropped his head.

"Because," replied he, sighing, "not all priests are sages, not all have noble hearts."

"That is it!" exclaimed the pharaoh.

"And now tell me, Thou who art a son of earth tillers, and knowest that among priests there are fools and rioters, tell me, why Thou art unwilling to serve me in a struggle against the priesthood? Thou knowest that I cannot improve the lot of the working man unless first I teach the priests obedience to my orders."

Pentuer wrung his hands.

"O lord," replied he, "a struggle with the priesthood is godless and dangerous. More than one pharaoh began it, and was unable to finish."

"Because he was not supported by sages like thee!" burst out Ramses. "And, indeed, I shall never understand why wise and honest priests bind themselves to a band of rogues, such as the majority of this class are."

Pentuer shook his head and began slowly, "During thirty thousand years the sacred order of priests has nursed Egypt and made the country the wonder of the world, which it is at present. And how have the priests, in spite of their faults, been able to do this? Because they are the lamp in which burns the light of wisdom.

"This lamp may be foul, even malodorous; still it preserves the divine fire, without which darkness and savagery would prevail among people.

"Thou speakest, lord, of a struggle with the priesthood," continued Pentuer. "How can that profit me? If Thou lose I shall be unhappy, for Thou wilt not improve the lot of the worker. And if Thou win? May I not live to that! for shouldst Thou break the lamp, who knows whether Thou wouldst not put out the fire of wisdom which for thousands of years has illuminated Egypt and mankind.

"These, lord, are the reasons why I will not take part in thy struggle with the sacred order of priests. I feel that the struggle is approaching, and I suffer because such a worm as I am unable to prevent it. But I will not participate, for I should have to betray either thee, or the God, the creator of wisdom."

While hearing these words the pharaoh walked up and down the chamber in thought.

"Aa!" said he, without anger, "do as may please thee. Thou art not a warrior, hence I cannot reproach thee with lack of valor. But Thou canst not be my adviser, though I beg thee to form a council to investigate the riots of working men, and, when I summon thee, declare what thy wisdom enjoins."

Pentuer knelt down in taking farewell of his lord.

"In every case," added the pharaoh, "know this, that I have no desire to quench the divine light. Let the priests guard wisdom in their temples, but let them not make my army useless, let them not conclude shameful treaties, and let them not steal," he said this excitedly, "the treasures of the pharaohs.

"Can they think that I will stand at their gates, like a beggar, asking that they deign to give me funds to restore the state which is ruined by their stupid and villainous management? Ha, ha! Pentuer, I should not ask the gods for that which is my power and my right Thou mayst go."

The priest, withdrawing with his face toward the pharaoh, went out backward with obeisance, and when in the doorway he fell with his face on the pavement.

The pharaoh remained alone.

"Mortal men," thought he, "are like children. Herhor is wise: he knows that Egypt in case of war would need half a million of warriors; he knows that those troops need training, and still he has decreased the number of the regiments.

"The chief treasurer also is wise, but it seems to him quite in order that all the treasure of the pharaohs should go to the labyrinth.

"Finally here is Pentuer. What a strange person he is! He wants me to give earth-tillers food, land, and ever-recurring holidays. All this would decrease my income, which even now is insufficient. But if I say to him: help me to take the pharaoh's treasures from the priesthood, he calls that godlessness and the quenching of light in Egypt. Strange man, he would be glad to turn the state bottom upwards, so far as relates to the good of earth tillers, but he would not venture to seize a high priest and lead him forth to prison. With the utmost composure he commands me to renounce half my income, but I am sure that he would not dare to take a copper uten out of the labyrinth."

The pharaoh smiled, and again he meditated.

"Each man wants to be happy himself; but if Thou wish to give happiness to all men, each one will seize thy hand as he would if Thou wert drawing an aching tooth from him.

"Therefore a pharaoh must have decision. Therefore my divine father did ill when he neglected the workers and trusted beyond bounds in the priesthood. He left me a grievous inheritance, but I will improve it.

"At the Soda Lakes there was also a difficult question, more difficult than this one. Here are only gabblers and timid cowards; there stood armed men ready to go to death.

"One battle will open our eyes more widely than tens of years in peaceful management. Whoso says to himself, 'I will burst through this hindrance,' will burst through it. But he who hesitates must yield."

Darkness came. In the palace the watches were changed, and in the remoter halls torches were lighted. But no one dared enter the sovereign's chamber unless commanded.

Ramses, wearied by sleeplessness, by the journey of the day previous, by the occupations of that day, dropped into an armchair. It seemed to him that he had been pharaoh for centuries, and he could not believe that one day had not passed since he had been at the pyramids.

"One day? Impossible!"

Then he thought that perhaps the spirits of the former pharaohs had settled in the heart of their heir. It must be so, for otherwise whence could such a feeling of age or remoteness settle down in him? And why did governing the state seem today a simple thing, while two months before he was alarmed when he thought that he could not govern.

"One day?" repeated he, in spirit. "But I am a thousand years in this palace!"

Suddenly he heard a repressed voice,

"My son! O son!"

The pharaoh sprang up from his chair.

"Who art thou?" exclaimed he.

"I am, I Hast Thou forgotten me already?"

"O my son," said the voice again, "respect the will of the gods if Thou wish to receive their blessed assistance O respect the gods, for without their assistance the greatest power on earth is as dust and shadows O respect the gods if Thou wish that the bitterness of thy faults should not poison my existence in the happy region of the West."

The voice ceased, Ramses ordered to bring a light. One door of the room was closed, at the other a guard stood. No stranger could enter there.

Anger and alarm tore the pharaoh's heart. "What was that? Had the shade of his father spoken indeed to him, or was that voice only a new priestly trick?"

But if the priests, notwithstanding thick walls, could speak to him from a distance, they could overhear him. And then he, the lord of the world, was like a wild beast caged in on all sides.

It is true that in the palace of the pharaoh secret listening was common. Ramses had thought, however, that his cabinet was safe, and that the insolence of priests had stopped at the threshold of the supreme ruler.

"But if that was a spirit?"

He did not wish to sup, but betook himself to rest. It seemed to him that he could not sleep; but weariness won the victory over irritation.

In a few hours bells and a light woke him. It was midnight and the astrologer priest came to make a report on the position of the heavenly bodies. The pharaoh heard the report, and said at the end of it,

"Couldst thou, revered prophet, make thy report to the worthy Sem hereafter? He is my substitute in matters touching religion."

The astrologer wondered greatly at the indifference of his lord to affair? of the heavens.

"Art them pleased, holiness," inquired he, "to refuse those indications which the stars give to rulers?"

"Do they give them?" asked the pharaoh. "Tell what they promise me."

Clearly the astrologer had looked for the question, so he answered directly,

"The horizon is darkened for the moment. The lord of light has not come yet to the road of truth which leads to knowledge of the divine will. But sooner or later he will find both long life and a happy reign filled with glory."

"Aha! I thank thee, holy man. And as soon as I know what to seek I will accommodate myself to the indication. But again I beg thee to communicate henceforth with the holy Sem. He is my substitute, but shouldst Thou read anything in the stars Thou wilt tell me of it in the morning."

The priest left the bedchamber shaking his head.

"They have roused me from sleep!" said Ramses, dissatisfied.

"An hour ago Queen Niort's, most greatly to be revered, commanded me, holiness, to ask of thee an interview," said an adjutant, suddenly.

"Now? At midnight?" asked the pharaoh.

"Her exact words were that at midnight Thou wouldst wake, holiness."

The pharaoh meditated, then answered the adjutant that ha would wait for the queen in the golden hall. He thought that there no one could overhear them.

Ramses threw a mantle over his shoulders, put on sandals unfastened and commanded to light the golden hall brightly. Then he went out, directing the servants not to go with him.

He found Niort's in the hall; she was wearing coarse linen garments in sign that she was mourning. When she saw the pharaoh she wished to drop on her knees, but her son raised the queen and embraced her.

"Has something important happened, mother, that Thou art working at this hour?" inquired Ramses.

"I was not asleep I was praying," replied the queen. "O my son, Thou hast divined wisely that the affair is important. I have heard the sacred voice of thy father."

"Indeed!" said the pharaoh, feeling that anger was filling him.

"Thy ever-living father," continued the queen, "told me, full of sadness, that Thou wert entering on a way of error. Thou refusest with contempt the ordination of high priest, and treatest badly the servants of divinity."

"'Who will remain with Ramses,' said thy father, 'if he angers the gods and the priests desert him? Tell him tell him,' repeated the revered shade, 'that in this way he will ruin Egypt, himself, and the dynasty.'"

"Oho!" said the pharaoh, "then they threaten me thus from the first day of my reign. My mother, a dog barks loudest when he is afraid; so threats are of evil omen, but only for the priesthood."

"But thy father said this," repeated the anxious lady.

"My immortal father and my holy grandfather," said the pharaoh, "being pure spirits know my heart, and see the woeful condition of Egypt. But since my heart wishes to raise the state by stopping abuses they would not prevent me from carrying out my measures."

"Then dost Thou not believe that the spirit of thy father gives thee counsel?" asked the queen, with rising terror.

"I know not. But I have the right to suppose that those voices of spirits, which are heard in various comers of our palace, are some trick of the priesthood. Only priests can fear me, never the gods, and spirits. Therefore it is not spirits which are frightening us, mother."

The queen fell to thinking; it was clear that her son's words impressed her. She had seen many miracles in her life and some of them had seemed to her suspicious.

"In that case," said she, with a sigh, "Thou art not cautious, my son. This afternoon Herhor visited me; he was very much dissatisfied with the audience. He said that it was thy wish to remove the priests from thy court."

"But of what use are priests to me? Are they to cause great outgo in my kitchen and cellar? Or, perhaps, to hear what I say, and see what I do?"

"The whole country will revolt," interrupted the queen, "if the priests declare that Thou art an unbeliever."

"The country is in revolt now. But the priests are the cause of it," replied the pharaoh. "And touching the devotion of the Egyptian people I begin to have another idea. If Thou knew, mother, how many lawsuits there are in Lower Egypt for insults to the gods, and in Upper Egypt for robbing the dead, Thou wouldst be convinced that for our people the cause of the priests has ceased to be holy."

"This is through the influence of foreigners, especially Phoenicians, who are flooding Egypt," cried the lady.

"All one through whose influence; enough that Egypt no longer considers either statues or priests as superhuman. And wert thou, mother, to hear the nobility, the officers, the warriors talk, Thou wouldst understand that the time has come to put the power of the pharaoh in the place of priestly power, unless all power is to fall in this country."

"Egypt is thine," sighed the queen. "Thy wisdom is uncommon, so do as may please thee. But act Thou with caution oh, with caution! A scorpion even when killed may still wound an unwary conqueror."

They embraced and the pharaoh returned to his bedchamber. But, in truth, he could not sleep that time.

He understood clearly that between him and the priesthood a struggle had begun, or rather something repulsive which did not even deserve the name struggle, and which at the first moment he, the leader, could not manage. For where was the enemy? Against whom was his faithful army to show itself? Was it against the priests who fell on their faces before him? Or against the stars which said that the pharaoh had not entered yet on the true way? What and whom was he to vanquish? Was it, perhaps, those voices of spirits which were raised amid darkness? Or was it his own mother, who begged him in terror not to dismiss priests from state offices?

The pharaoh writhed on his bed while feeling his helplessness. Suddenly the thought came to him: "What care I for an enemy which yields like mud in a hand grasp? Let them talk in empty halls, let them be angry at my godlessness. I will issue orders, and whoso will not carry them out is my enemy; against him I will turn courts, police, and warriors."