, appoint
to thee a very small punishment. Thou wilt receive fifty blows of a
stick on thy body."

"Worthiness!"

"Eunana, Thou hast known how to be fortunate, now be manful and receive
this slight remembrance as becomes an officer in the army of his
holiness."

Barely had the worthy Herhor finished when the officers oldest in rank
placed Eunana in a commodious position at the side of the highroad.
After that one of them sat on his neck, another on his feet, while a
third and a fourth counted out fifty blows of pliant reeds on his naked
body.

The unterrified warrior uttered no groan; on the contrary, he hummed a
soldier song, and at the end of the ceremony wished to rise. But his
stiffened legs refused obedience, so he fell face downward on the sand;
they had to take him to Memphis on a two-wheeled vehicle. While lying
on this cart and smiling at the soldiers, Eunana considered that the
wind does not change so quickly in Lower Egypt as fortune in the life
of an inferior officer.

When, after the brief halt, the retinue of the heir to the throne moved
on its farther journey, Herhor mounted his horse and riding at the side
of Nitager, spoke in an undertone about Asiatic nations and, above all,
about the awakening of Assyria.

Then two servants of the minister, the adjutant carrying his fan and
the secretary Pentuer, began a conversation also.

"What dost Thou think of Eunana's adventure?" asked the adjutant.

"And what thinkest Thou of the slave who hanged himself?"

"It seems to me that this was his best day, and the rope around his
neck the softest thing that has touched him in life. I think, too, that
Eunana from this time on will watch the heir to the throne very
closely."

"Thou art mistaken," answered Pentuer. "Eunana from this time on will
never see a scarab, even though it were as large as a bullock. As to
that slave, dost Thou not think that in every case it must have been
very evil for him very evil in this sacred land of Egypt?"

"Thou knowest not slaves, hence speakest thus."

"But who knows them better?" asked Pentuer, gloomily. "Have I not grown
up among them? Have I not seen my father watering land, clearing
canals, sowing, harvesting, and, above all, paying tribute? Oh, Thou
knowest not the lot of slaves in Egypt."

"But if I do not, I know the lot of the foreigner. My great-grandfather
or great-great-grandfather was famous among the Hyksos, but he remained
here, for he grew attached to