"O ye sages learned in letters, ye who know the circuits of the stars!" said Sargon, jeering. "I am a simple commander of troops, who without my seal would not always be able to scratch off my signature. Ye are sages, I am unlearned; but by the beard of my king, I would not change what I know for your wisdom. Ye are men to whom the world of papyrus and brick is laid bare; but the real world in which men live is closed to you. I am unlearned, but I have the sniff of a dog; and, as a dog sniffs a bear from a distance; so I with reddened nose sniff a hero. "Ye will give counsel to the prince! But ye are charmed by him already, as a dove is by a serpent. I, at least, do not deceive myself; and, though the prince is as kind to me as my own father, I feel through my skin that he hates me and my Assyrians as a tiger hates an elephant. Ha! ha! Only give him an army, and in three months he would be at Nineveh, if soldiers would rise up to him in the desert instead of falling down and dying--" "Even though thou wert speaking truth," interrupted Mentezufis, "even if the prince wished to go to Nineveh, he will not go." "But who will detain him when he is the pharaoh?" "We." "Ye? ye? Ha! ha! ha!" laughed Sargon. "Ye think always that that young man does not feel this treaty. But I--but I--ha! ha! ha! I will let the skin be torn from me, and my body be impaled if he does not know everything." "Would the Phœnicians be so quiet if they possessed not the certainty that your young lion of Egypt would shield them before the bull of Assyria?" Mentezufis and Mefres looked at each other stealthily. The genius of the barbarian almost terrified them; he had given bold utterance to that which they had not thought of. What would the result be, indeed, if the heir had divined their plans and wished to cross them? But Istubar, silent thus far, rescued them from momentary trouble. "Sargon," said he, "thou art interfering in affairs not thy own. Thy duty is to conclude with Egypt a treaty of the kind that our lord wishes. But what the heir knows or does not know, what he will do or will not do, is not thy affair, since the supreme, eternally existent priestly council assures us that the treaty will be executed. In what way it will be executed is not a question for our heads." The dry tone with which Istubar declared this calmed the riotous joy of the ambassador. He nodded and muttered,-- "A pity for the man in that case! He is a grand warrior, and magnanimous." CHAPTER XXXVII After their visit to Sargon the two holy men, Mentezufis and Mefres, when they had concealed themselves carefully with their burnouses, returned home, meditating deeply. "Who knows," said Mentezufis, "that the view of that drunken Sargon concerning our prince is not the right one?" "In that case Istubar's view is still more correct," answered Mefres, decidedly. "Still, let us not be too hasty. We should examine the prince first," remarked Mentezufis. "Let us do so."