Chapter 66

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 of the pharaoh was giving some signals.

"It seems that his holiness will beg us for peace," said one of the nomarchs, smiling.

"I doubt that!" answered Mefres.

Herhor ascended the pylon, for they were signaling to him from the palace. Soon he returned and said to those assembled:

"Our young priest has managed very well. At this moment Tutmosis is advancing with some tens of volunteers to imprison or slay us."

"And wilt Thou dare still to defend Ramses?" cried Mefres.

"I must and will defend him, for I swore solemnly to the queen that I would. Were it not for the worthy daughter of the holy Amenhotep, our position today would not be what it is."

"Well, but I have not sworn," replied Mefres, and he left the hall.

"What does he wish?" asked one of the nomarchs.

"He is an old man grown childish," replied Herhor, shrugging his shoulders.

Before six o'clock in the evening a division of the guard approached the temple of Ptah unhindered, and the leader of it knocked at the gate, which was opened immediately. This was Tutmosis with his volunteers.

When the chief entered the temple court he was astonished to see Herhor in the miter of Amenhotep, and surrounded only by priests come out to meet him.

"What dost Thou wish, my son?" asked the high priest of the chief, who was somewhat confused by the meeting.

Tutmosis mastered himself quickly, and said,

"Herhor, high priest of Amon in Thebes, because of letters which Thou hast written to Sargon, the Assyrian satrap, which letters I have with me, Thou art accused of high treason to the state, and must justify thyself before the pharaoh."

"If the young lord," answered Herhor calmly, "wishes to learn the object of the policy of the eternally living Ramses XII, let him apply to our Supreme Council and he will receive explanations."

"I summon thee to follow me at once, unless Thou wish that I should force thee," continued Tutmosis.

"My son, I implore the gods to preserve thee from violence, and from the punishment which Thou deservest."

"Wilt Thou go?" asked Tutmosis.

"I wait here for Ramses," answered Herhor.

"Well, then, remain here, trickster!" cried Tutmosis.

He drew his sword and rushed at Herhor.

At that instant Eunana, who was standing behind the chief, raised an axe and struck Tutmosis with all his might between the neck and the right shoulder blade, so that the blood spurted in every direction. The favorite of the pharaoh fell to the earth almost cut in two.

Some of the warriors with leveled spears rushed at Eunana, but they fell after a brief struggle with their own comrades. Of the volunteers, three-fourths were in the pay of the priesthood.

"May he live, his holiness Herhor, our lord!" cried Eunana, waving his bloody axe.

"May he live through eternity!" repeated the warriors and priests, and all fell on their faces.

The most worthy Herhor raised his hands and blessed them.

On leaving the court of the temple, Mefres went to the underground chamber to Lykon. The high priest at the very threshold drew from his bosom a crystal ball, at the sight of which the Greek fell into auger.

"Would that the earth swallowed you! Would that your corpses might know no rest!" said Lykon, abusing him in a voice which grew lower and lower.

At last he was silent and fell into a trance.

"Take this dagger," said Mefres, giving the Greek a slender steel blade. "Take this dagger and go to the palace garden. Halt there at the clump of fig trees and wait for him who deprived thee of Kama, and took her away."

Lykon gritted his teeth in helpless rage.

"And when Thou seest him, wake," concluded Mefres.

He threw over the Greek an officer's mantle with a cowl, whispered the password into his ear and led him forth to the empty streets of Memphis through a secret door of the temple.

Then Mefres ran with the celerity of youth to the summit of the pylon, and taking in his hand some banners, made signals toward the palace. They saw and understood him, that was evident, for a bitter smile came to the parchment like face of the high priest.

Mefres put down the banners, left the summit of the pylon and descended slowly. When he reached the pavement he was surrounded by some men in light brown tunics, which were covered by coats in white and black stripes.

"Here is the most worthy Mefres," said one of them. And all three knelt before the high priest, who raised his hand mechanically, as if to bless them. But he dropped it suddenly, inquiring, "Who are ye?"

"Overseers of the labyrinth."

"Why have ye barred the way to me?" asked he, and his hand and thin lips began to tremble.

"We need not remind thee, holy man," said one of the overseers still kneeling, "that some days ago Thou wert in the labyrinth, to which Thou knowest the way as well as we, though Thou art uninitiated. Thou art too great a sage not to know what our law is in such a case."

"What does this mean?" exclaimed Mefres in a raised voice. "Ye are murderers sent by Her."

He did not finish. One of the men seized him by the arms, another passed a kerchief over his head, and a third threw a transparent liquid over his face. Mefres struggled a number of times, and fell. They sprinkled him again. When he was dead they placed him in a niche, pushed into his dead hand a papyrus, and vanished.

Three men dressed similarly chased after Lykon almost the instant that he was pushed out of the temple by Mefres and found himself on the empty street. The men had hidden not far from the door through which the Greek issued, and at first let him pass freely. But soon one of them noted something suspicious in his hand, so they followed.

A wonderful thing! Lykon though in a trance felt, as it were, the pursuit; he turned quickly into a street full of movement, then to a square where a multitude of people were circling about, and then ran to the Nile by Fisher Street. There, at the end of some alley, he found a small boat, sprang into it and began to cross the river with a speed which was remarkable.

He was a couple of hundred yards from the shore when a boat pushed out after him with one rower and three passengers. Barely had these left land when a second boat appeared with two rowers and three passengers also.

Both boats pursued Lykon with stubbornness. In that which had only one rower sat the overseers of the labyrinth, looking diligently at their rivals, as far as was permitted by the darkness, which came soon after sundown.

"Who are those three?" whispered they among themselves. "Since the day before yesterday they have been lurking around the temple, and today they are pursuing Lykon. Do they wish to protect him from us?"

Lykon's small boat reached the other shore. The Greek sprang from it and went swiftly toward the palace garden. Sometimes he staggered, stopped, and seized his head, but after an instant he went forward again, as if drawn by some incomprehensible attraction.

The overseers of the labyrinth landed also, but they were preceded by their rivals.

And a race began which was unique in its kind: Lykon was hurling toward the palace, like a swift runner; after him were the three unknown men, and the three overseers of the labyrinth.

A few hundred steps from the garden the pursuing groups came together. It was night then, but clear.

"Who are ye?" asked one of the labyrinth men of the others.

"I am the chief of police in Pi-Bast, and, with my centurions, am pursuing a great criminal," answered one of them.

"We are overseers of the labyrinth and are following the same person."

The groups looked at each other with hands on their swords or knives.

"What will ye do with him?" asked the chief of police.

"We have a sentence against the man."

"But will ye leave the body?"

"With all that is on it," replied the elder overseer.

The police whispered among themselves.

"If ye tell the truth," said the chief at last, "we shall not hinder you. On the contrary, we will lend him to you for a while, as he will fall into our hands later."

"Do ye swear?"

"We swear."

"Then we may go together."

So they joined forces, but the Greek had vanished.

"Curses on him!" cried the chief of police. "He has escaped again!"

"He will be found," answered the overseer of the labyrinth, "or perhaps even he will return."

"Why should he go to the pharaoh's garden?" asked the chief of police.

"The high priests are using him for some purpose of their own, but he will return to the temple."

They decided to wait and act in common.

"We are spending the third night for nothing," said one of the policemen, yawning.

They wrapped themselves in their cloaks and lay on the grass.

Immediately after the departure of Tutmosis, the worthy lady Niort's, in silence, with lips tightly closed from anger, left the chamber of her son, and when Ramses wished to calm her, she interrupted him sharply,

"I take leave of the pharaoh, and pray the gods to permit me to see him to-morrow as pharaoh."

"Dost Thou doubt that, mother?"

"It is possible to doubt everything in presence of one who listens to madmen and traitors."

They parted in anger.

Soon his holiness recovered good-humor and conversed joyously with the officials. But about six o'clock alarm began to torment him.

"Tutmosis ought to send us a courier," said he. "For I am certain that the affair is already settled in one or another way."

"I do not know that," said the chief treasurer. "They may not have found boats at the crossing. There may have been resistance at the temple."

"But where is that young priest?" asked Hiram on a sudden.

"The priest? The messenger of the late Samentu?" repeated the officials in concern. "That is true where can he be?"

Men were sent to search the garden. They searched every path, but there was no priest.

This circumstance made a bad impression on the dignitaries. Each one sat in silence, sunk in alarming thoughts.

About sundown the pharaoh's chamber servant entered and whispered that the lady Hebron was very ill, and implored his holiness to visit her.

The officials, knowing the relations between their lord and the beautiful Hebron, looked at one another. But when the pharaoh announced his purpose of going into the garden they made no protest. The garden, thanks to numerous guards, was as safe as the palace. No one considered it proper to watch over the pharaoh even from a distance, knowing that Ramses did not wish any one to be occupied with him at certain moments.

When he disappeared, the chief scribe said to the treasurer,

"Time drags on like a chariot in the desert. Perhaps Hebron has some news from Tutmosis."

"At this moment," answered the treasurer, "his expedition with a few tens of men to the temple of Ptah seems to me inconceivable madness!"

"But did the pharaoh act more wisely at the Soda Lakes when he chased all night after Tehenna?" put in Hiram. "Daring means more than numbers."

"But that young priest?" asked the treasurer.

"He came without our knowledge and went without leave," added Hiram. "Each one of us acts like a conspirator."

The treasurer shook his head.

Ramses passed the space between his villa and that of Tutmosis quickly. When he entered her chamber Hebron threw herself on his neck with weeping.

"I am dying of fear!" cried she.

"Art Thou alarmed for Tutmosis?"

"What is Tutmosis to me?" answered Hebron, with a contemptuous grimace. "I care for thee only! Of thee only am I thinking, I am alarmed for thee!"

"Blessed be thy alarm which freed me even for a moment from tedium," said the pharaoh, laughing. "O gods! what a day! If Thou hadst heard our discussions, if Thou hadst seen the faces of our counselors! And in addition to all, it pleased the worthy queen to honor our assembly with her presence. Never bad I supposed that the dignity of pharaoh could be so annoying."

"Do not say this audibly," cautioned Hebron. "What wilt Thou do if Tutmosis does not succeed in seizing the temple?"

"I will take the leadership from him, hide my crown in a box, and put on an officer's helmet," answered Ramses. "I am certain that when I appear at the head of the troops myself the sedition will vanish."

"Which one?" inquired Hebron.

"Ah, true, we have two," laughed Ramses. "That of the people against the priests, that of the priests against me."

He seized Hebron in his arms and went toward the couch whispering,

"How beautiful Thou art today! Each time I see thee Thou art different, each time more beautiful than ever."

"Let me go," whispered Hebron. "At times I am afraid that Thou wilt bite me."

"Bite? No! But I might kiss thee to death. Thou dost not even suspect thy own beauty."

"I am beautiful in comparison with ministers and generals. But free me."

"In thy presence I should wish to be like a pomegranate. I should wish to have as many arms as the tree has branches, so as to embrace thee with all of them, as many hands as it has leaves, and as many lips as it has flowers, so as to kiss thy lips, eyes, and bosom at once with them."

"Thou hast a mind marvelously free of care for a sovereign whose throne is in peril."

"On the couch, I do not care for a throne. While I have a sword I shall have power."

"Thy troops are scattered," said Hebron, defending herself.

"Tomorrow fresh troops will come, and after to-morrow I shall gather the scattered ones. I repeat to thee be not occupied with trifles. One moment of fondling is worth more than a year of dominion."

One hour after sunset the pharaoh left Hebron's villa and returned slowly to his palace. He was full of imaginings, he was dreamy, and he thought the high priests were great fools to resist him. Since Egypt became Egypt there had not been a kindlier pharaoh.

All at once, from out a clump of fig trees sprang a man in a dark mantle, and barred the road to Ramses. The pharaoh, to see the man better, approached his face to the face of the stranger and cried suddenly,

"O wretch, is it thou? Go to the guard house!"

It was Lykon. Ramses seized him by the neck; the Greek hissed and knelt on the ground. At the same moment the pharaoh felt a sharp pain in the left side of his stomach.

"Dost Thou bite too?" cried Ramses. He seized the Greek with both hands, and when he heard the cracking of his broken spine he hurled him off in disgust.

Lykon fell quivering in the convulsions of death.

The pharaoh moved back a couple of steps. He examined his body and discovered the handle of a dagger.

"He has wounded me!"

He drew the slender steel from his side and pressed the wound.

"I wonder," thought he, "if any of my counselors has a plaster?" He felt weak and hurried forward. Right at the palace one of the officers stood before him and said, "Tutmosis is dead; the traitor Eunana slew him."

"Eunana?" repeated the pharaoh. "But what of the others?"

"All, all the volunteers who went with Tutmosis were sold to the priests."

"Well, I must finish this!" said Ramses. "Sound the trumpets for the Asiatic regiments."

The trumpets sounded, and the Asiatics hurried from the barracks, leading their horses.

"Give me my steed!" said the pharaoh. But he felt a sudden dizziness and added, "No, give me a litter, I should tire myself."

All at once he tottered into the arms of the officers.

"Oh, I almost forgot," said Ramses in a dying voice. "Bring my helmet and sword that steel sword from the Soda. Let us go to Memphis."

Officials and servants ran out of the villa with torches. The pharaoh was supported by officers, his face was pale and his eyes were mist- covered. He stretched forth his hand as if seeking his breastplate, his lips moved, and amid general silence the lord of two worlds, the temporal and the western, breathed his life out.

The dove-eyed goddess Astaroth had avenged the wrong done her priestess.