"Yes, they are clever!" thought Rameses. "That they deceive the common people, even by rude methods, I knew. Poor sacred Apis! how many prods he got during processions when people lay prostrate before him! But to deceive me, I should not have believed that,--voices of gods, invisible hands, a man covered with pitch; these were accessories! Then came Pentuer's song about the decrease of land and population, the officials, the Phœnicians, and all that to disgust me with war." Tutmosis said suddenly,-- "I fall on my face before thee." "I must bring hither, gradually, regiments from cities near the sea. I wish to have a review and reward them for loyalty." "But we, the nobles, are we not loyal to thee?" inquired Tutmosis, confused. "The nobles and the army are one." "But the nomarchs and the officials?" "Even the officials are loyal," answered the prince. "What do I say? The Phœnicians even are so, though in many other points they are deceivers." "By the gods! speak in a lower voice," whispered Tutmosis; and he looked toward the other room timidly. "Oho!" laughed the prince, "why this alarm? So for thee, too, it is no secret that we have traitors?" "I know of whom thou art speaking, worthiness, for thou wert always prejudiced against--" "Against whom?" "Against whom--I divine. But I thought that after the agreement with Herhor, after a long stay in the temple--" "What of the temple? In the temple, and in the whole country, for that matter, I have convinced myself of one thing, that the very best lands, the most active population, and immense wealth are not the property of the pharaoh." "Quieter! quieter!" whispered Tutmosis. "But I am quiet always; I have a calm face at all times, so let me speak even here; besides, I should have the right to say, even in the supreme council, that in this Egypt, which belongs entirely to my father, I, his heir and viceroy, had to borrow a hundred talents from a petty prince of Tyre. Is this not a shame?" "But how did this come to thy mind to-day?" asked Tutmosis, wishing to put an end to the perilous conversation as quickly as possible. "How?" answered the prince; and he grew silent, to sink again into meditation. "It would not mean so much," thought he, "if they deceived me alone; I am only heir to the pharaoh, and not admitted to all secrets. But who will assure me that they have not acted in the same way with my worthy father? He has trusted them entirely during thirty and some years; he has bowed down before miracles, given abundant offerings to the gods, for this result,--that his property and power should pass into the hands of ambitious tricksters! And no one has opened his eyes. For the pharaoh cannot, like me, enter Phœnician temples at night, and absolutely no one has admission to his holiness.