more and more frequently on the river. From some
of them men are catching fish in nets; on others they bring the harvest
to granaries, or bellowing cattle to their stables. With other boats
visits are made to acquaintances to inform them amid shouts and
laughter that the river is rising. Sometimes boats gather in one place,
like a flock of daws, and then shoot apart on all sides before a broad
raft bearing down from Upper Egypt immense blocks of stone hewn out in
quarries near the river.

In the air, as far as the ear can hear, extend the roar of the rising
water, the cries of frightened birds, and the gladsome songs of people.
The Nile is rising, there will be bread in abundance.

During a whole month investigation continued in the affair of the
attack on the house of Ramses. Each morning a boat with officials and
warriors came to some small estate. People were snatched from their
labor, overwhelmed with treacherous questions, beaten with sticks.
Toward evening two boats returned to Memphis: one brought officials,
the other brought prisoners.

In this way some hundreds of men were caught, of whom one half knew
nothing, the other half were threatened by imprisonment or toil for a
number of years in the quarries. But nothing was learned of those who
led the attack, or of that priest who had persuaded the people to leave
the place. Prince Ramses had qualities which were uncommonly
contradictory. He was as impetuous as a lion and as stubborn as a
bullock, but he had a keen understanding and a deep sense of justice.

Seeing that this investigation by officials gave no result whatever, he
sailed on a certain day to Memphis and commanded to open the prison.

The prison was built on an eminence surrounded by a lofty wall, and was
composed of a great number of stone, brick, and wooden buildings. These
buildings for the main part were merely the dwellings of overseers.
Prisoners were placed in subterranean dens hewn out in a cliff of
limestone.

When Prince Ramses passed the gate, he saw a crowd of women washing and
feeding some prisoner. This naked man, who resembled a skeleton, was
sitting on the ground, having his hands and feet in four openings of a
square plank which took the place of fetters.

"Has this man suffered long in this way?" asked Ramses.

"Two months," said the overseer.

"And must he sit here much longer?"

"A month."

"What did he do?"

"He was insolent to a tax gatherer."

The prince turned