ave lost the throne, and Egypt would have avoided
great disturbance and the bitterest days of her history.

But the serenity of morning scattered the visions which circled above
the heated head of the heir, and the succeeding days changed greatly
his ideas of the inflexible interests of Egypt.

The visit of the prince to the prison was not fruitless. The
investigating official made a report to the supreme judge immediately,
the judge looked over the case again, examined some of the accused
himself, and in the course of some days liberated the greater number;
the remainder he brought to trial as quickly as possible.

When he who had complained of the damage done the prince's property did
not appear, though summoned in the hall of the court and on the market-
place, the case was dropped, and the rest of the accused were set at
liberty.

One of the judges remarked, it is true, that according to law the
prince's overseer should be prosecuted for false complaint, and, in
case of conviction, suffer the punishment which threatened the
defendants. This question too they passed over in silence.

The overseer disappeared from the eyes of justice, he was sent by the
heir to the province of Takeus, and soon the whole box of documents in
the case vanished it was unknown whither.

On hearing this, Prince Ramses went to the grand secretary and asked
with a smile,

"Well, worthy lord, the innocent are liberated, the documents
concerning them have been destroyed sacrilegiously, and still the
dignity of the government has not been exposed to danger."

"My prince," answered the grand secretary, with his usual coolness, "I
did not understand that Thou offerest complaints with one hand and
wishest to withdraw them with the other. Worthiness, Thou wert offended
by the rabble; hence it was thy affair to punish it. If Thou hast
forgiven it, the state has nothing to answer."

"The state! the state!" repeated the prince. "We are the state," added
he, blinking.

"Yes, the state is the pharaoh and his most faithful servants," added
the secretary.

This conversation with such a high official sufficed to obliterate in
the prince's soul those ideas of state dignity which were growing and
powerful, though indistinct yet. "The state, then, is not that
immovable, ancient edifice to which each pharaoh is bound to add one
stone of glory, but rather a sand-heap, which each ruler reshapes as he
pleases. In the state there are no narrow doors,