ak so much. Tell me then, Pentuer,
and record this: Is it proper that the heir to the throne should
express his will before the army? Only a pharaoh may act thus, or a
traitor, or a frivolous stripling, who with the same heedlessness will
do hasty deeds or belch forth words of blasphemy."

The sun went down, and soon after a starry night appeared. Above the
countless canals of Lower Egypt a silvery mist began to thicken, a mist
which, borne to the desert by a gentle wind, freshened the wearied
warriors, and revived vegetation which had been dying through lack of
moisture.

"Or tell me, Pentuer," continued the minister, "and inquire: whence
will the heir get his twenty talents to keep the promise which he made
this day to the army with such improvidence? Besides, it seems to me,
and certainly to thee, a dangerous step for an heir to make presents to
the army, especially now, when his holiness has nothing with which to
pay Nitager's regiments returning from the Orient. I do not ask what
thy opinions are, for I know them, as Thou knowest my most secret
thoughts. I only ask thee to the end that Thou remember what Thou hast
seen, so as to tell it to the priests in council."

"Will they meet soon?" inquired Pentuer.

"There is no reason yet to summon them. I shall try first to calm this
wild young bull through the fatherly hand of his holiness. It would be
a pity to lose the boy, for he has much ability and the energy of a
southern whirlwind. But if the whirlwind, instead of blowing away
Egypt's enemies, blows down its wheat and tears up its palm-trees!"

The minister stopped conversation, and his retinue vanished in the dark
alley of trees which led to Memphis.

Meanwhile Ramses reached the palace of the pharaoh.

This edifice stood on an elevation in a park outside the city. Peculiar
trees grew there: baobabs from the south; pines, oaks, and cedars from
the north. Thanks to the art of gardeners, these trees lived some tens
of years and reached a considerable height.

The shady alley led to a gate which was as high as a house of three
stories. From each side of the gate rose a solid building like a tower
in the form of a truncated pyramid, forty yards in width with the
height of five stories. In the night they seemed like two immense tents
made of sandstone. These peculiar buildings had on the ground and the
upper stories square windows, and the roofs were flat. From the top of
one of these pyramids without apex, a