watch looked at the country; from
the other the priest on duty observed the stars.

At the right and left of these towers, called pylons, extended walls,
or rather long structures of one story, with narrow windows and flat
roofs, on which sentries paced back and forth. On both sides of the
main gate were two sitting statues fifteen feet in height. In front of
these statues moved other sentries.

When the prince, with a number of horsemen, approached the palace, the
sentry knew him in spite of the darkness. Soon an official of the court
ran out of the pylon. He was clothed in a white skirt and dark mantle,
and wore a wig as large as a headdress.

"Is the palace closed already?" inquired the prince.

"Thou art speaking truth, worthy lord," said the official. "His
holiness is preparing the god for sleep."

"What will he do after that?"

"He will be pleased to receive the war minister, Herhor."

"Well, and later?"

"Later his holiness will look at the ballet in the great hall, then he
will bathe and recite evening prayers."

"Has he not commanded to receive me?" inquired Ramses.

"Tomorrow morning after the military council."

"What are the queens doing?"

"The first queen is praying in the chamber of her dead son, and thy
worthy mother is receiving the Phoenician ambassador, who has brought
her gifts from the women of Tyre."

"Did he bring maidens?"

"A number of them. Each has on her person treasures to the value of ten
talents."

"Who is moving about down there with torches?" asked the prince,
pointing to the lower park.

"They are taking thy brother, worthiness, from a tree where he has been
sitting since midday."

"Is he unwilling to come down?"

"He will come down now, for the first queen's jester has gone for him,
and has promised to take him to the inn where dissectors are drinking."

"And hast Thou heard anything of the maneuvers of today?"

"They say that the staff was cut off from the corps."

"And what more?"

The official hesitated.

"Tell what Thou hast heard."

"We heard, moreover, that because of this five hundred blows of a stick
were given to a certain officer at thy command, worthiness."

"It is all a lie!" said one of the adjutants of the heir in an
undertone.

"The soldiers, too, say among themselves that it must be a lie,"
returned the official, with growing confidence.

Ramses turned his horse and rode to the lower part of the park where
his small palace was situat