s?"

"Because he will not pay his rent, and the treasury of the heir is in
need of it."

The servants of the official, in view of the catastrophe which had come
on their master, dropped their victim and stood as helpless as the
members of a body from which its head has been severed. The liberated
man began to spit again and shake the water out of his ears, but his
wife rushed up to the rescuer.

"Whoever Thou art," groaned she, clasping her hands before Ramses, "a
god, or even a messenger of the pharaoh, listen to the tale of our
sufferings. We are earth-tillers of the heir to the throne, may he live
through eternity! and we have paid all our dues: in millet, in wheat,
in flowers, and in skins of cattle. But in the last ten days this man
here has come and commands us again to give seven measures of wheat to
him. 'By what right?' asks my husband; 'the rents are paid, all of
them.' But he throws my husband on the ground, stamps, and says, 'By
this right, that the worthy Dagon has commanded.' 'Whence shall I get
wheat,' asks my husband, 'when we have none and for a month past we
have eaten only seeds, or roots of lotus, which are harder and harder
to get, for great lords like to amuse themselves with flowers of the
lotus?'"

She lost breath and fell to weeping. The prince waited patiently till
she calmed herself, but the man who had been plunged into the water
grumbled.

"This woman will bring misfortune with her talk. I have said that I do
not like to see women meddle."

Meanwhile the official, pushing up to the boatman, asked in an
undertone, indicating Ramses,

"Who is this?"

"Ah, may thy tongue wither!" answered the boatman. "Dost Thou not see
that he must be a great lord: he pays well and strikes heavily."

"I saw at once," answered the official, "that he must be some great
person. My youth passed at feasts with noted persons."

"Aha! the sauces have stuck to thy dress after those feasts," blurted
out the boatman.

The woman, after crying, continued,

"Today this scribe came with his people, and said to my husband, 'If
Thou hast not money, give thy two sons. The worthy Dagon will not only
forgive thee the rent, but will pay thee a drachma a year for each
boy.'"

"Woe to me because of thee!" roared the half-drowned husband; "Thou
wilt destroy us all with thy babbling. Do not listen to her," continued
he, turning to Ramses. "As a cow thinks that she frightens off flies
with her tail, so it seems to a