"Therefore thou wilt have no difficulty in breaking the treaty when thou shalt inherit power after thy father,--may he live through eternity!" Rameses thought awhile. "It is easier," said he, "to sign a treaty than to break it." "It is easy also to break a treaty," laughed Tutmosis. "Are there not in Asia unorganized races which attack our boundaries? Does not the godlike Nitager stand on guard with his army to repulse them and carry war into their countries? Dost thou suppose that Egypt will not find armed men and treasures for the war? We will go, all of us, for each man can gain something, and in some way make his life independent. Treasures are lying in the temples--but the labyrinth--" "Who will take them from the labyrinth?" asked the prince, doubtingly. "Who? Any nomarch, any officer, any noble will take them if he has a command from the pharaoh, and--the minor priests will show the way to secret places." "They would not dare to do so. The punishment of the gods--" Tutmosis waved his hand contemptuously. "But are we slaves or shepherds, to fear gods whom Greeks and Phœnicians revile, and whom any mercenary warrior will insult and go unpunished?" "The priests have invented silly tales about gods,--tales to which they themselves attach no credit. Thou knowest that they recognize only the One in temples. They perform miracles, too, at which they laugh. "Only the lowest people strike the earth with their foreheads before statues in the old way. Even working women have doubts now about the all-might of Osiris, Set, and Horus; the scribes cheat the gods in accounts, and the priests use them as a lock and chain to secure their treasures." "Oho!" continued Tutmosis; "the days have passed when all Egypt believed in everything announced from temples. At present we insult the Phœnician gods, the Phœnicians insult our gods, and no thunderbolt strikes any man of us." The viceroy looked carefully at Tutmosis. "How did such thoughts come to thy head?" inquired he. "But it is not so long ago that thou wouldst pale at the very mention of the priesthood." "Yes, because I felt alone. But to-day, after I have seen that all the nobles understand as I, I feel encouraged." "But who told thee and the nobles of that treaty with Assyria?" "Dagon and other Phœnicians," answered Tutmosis. "They even said that when the time came they would rouse Asiatic races to rebellion, so that our troops might have a pretext to cross the boundaries, and when once on the road to Nineveh, the Phœnicians and their allies would join us. And thy army would be larger than that which Rameses the Great had behind him." This zeal of the Phœnicians did not please the heir, but he was silent on that subject. "But what will happen if the priests learn of your conversations?" inquired he. "None of you will escape death, be sure of that."