The priest gave no answer; on the faces as far as could be seen emotion and terror were evident. At this moment the high priest Mefres seized a great ladle, took boiling pitch from the kettle, and said in loud accents,-- "May all perish thus who divulge temple secrets!" Next he poured pitch into the opening in the pavement, and from below came a roar,-- "Ye are killing me. Oh, if ye have in your hearts even a trace of compassion," groaned a voice. "May the worms gnaw thy body," said Mentezufis, as he poured melted pitch into the opening. "Dogs--jackals!" groaned the voice. "May thy heart be consumed by fire and its ashes be hurled into the desert," said the next priest, repeating the ceremony. "O gods! is it possible to suffer as I do?" was the answer from beneath the pavement. "May thy soul, with the image of its shame and its crime, wander onward through places where live happy people," said a second priest; and he poured another ladle of burning pitch into the aperture. "Oh, may the earth devour you!--mercy!--let me breathe!" Before the turn came to Rameses the voice underground was silent. "So do the gods punish traitors," said the high priest of the temple to the viceroy. The prince halted, and fixed on him eyes full of anger. It seemed to Rameses that he would burst out with indignation, and leave that assembly of executioners; but he felt a fear of the gods and advanced behind others in silence. The haughty heir understood now that there was a power before which the pharaohs incline. He was seized by despair almost; he wished to flee, to renounce the throne. Meanwhile he held silence and walked on, surrounded by priests chanting prayers. "Now I know," thought he, "where people go who are unpleasant to the servants of divinity." But this thought did not decrease his horror. Leaving the narrow corridor full of smoke, the procession found itself on an elevation beneath the open sky. Below was an immense court surrounded on three sides by low buildings instead of a wall. From the place where the priests halted was a kind of amphitheatre with five broad platforms by which it was possible to pass along the whole court or to descend to the bottom. In the court no one was present, but certain people were looking out of buildings. The high priest Mefres, as chief dignitary in the assembly, presented Pentuer to the viceroy. The mild face of the ascetic did not harmonize with the horrors which had taken place in the corridor; so the prince wondered. To say something, he said to Pentuer,-- "It seems to me that I have met thee somewhere, pious father?" "The past year at the manœuvres near Pi-Bailos. I was there with his worthiness Herhor." The resonant and calm voice of Pentuer arrested the prince. He had heard that voice on some uncommon occasion. But where and when had he heard it? In every case the priest made an agreeable impression. If he could only forget the cries of that man whom they had covered with boiling pitch!