He was calm and satisfied, like a man who after long hesitation knows what he must do, and has faith in his own abilities. So then, to free himself of even the traces of his recent indignation, he went to Sarah. Amusement with his little son always calmed him, and filled his heart with serenity. He passed the garden, entered Sarah's villa, and found her in tears again. "Oh, Sarah!" cried he, "if the Nile were in thy bosom thou wouldst weep it all away." "I will not weep any longer," said she; but a more abundant stream flowed from her eyes. "What is this?" asked the prince; "or hast thou brought in some witch again who frightens thee with Phœnician women?" "I am not afraid of Phœnician women, but of Phœnicia," said Sarah; "thou knowest not, lord, what bad people the Phœnicians are." "Do they burn children?" laughed Rameses. "Thou thinkest that they do not?" asked she, looking at him with great eyes. "A fable! I know, besides, from Prince Hiram, that that is a fable." "Hiram!" cried Sarah, "Hiram! but he is the most wicked of all! Ask my father, and he will tell thee how Hiram entices young girls of distant countries to his ships, and raising the sails takes away the unfortunates to sell them. Even we had a bright-haired slave girl stolen by Hiram. She became insane from sorrow for her country. But she could not even say where her country was; and she died. Such is Hiram, such is that vile Dagon, and all those wretches." "Perhaps; but how does this concern us?" inquired Rameses. "Very much. Thou, O lord, art listening to Phœnician counsels; but our Jews have learned that Phœnicia wants to raise a war between Egypt and Assyria. Even their first bankers and merchants have bound themselves by dreadful oaths to raise it." "Why should they want war?" inquired the prince, with apparent indifference. "Because they will furnish arms to you and to Assyrians; they will furnish, also, supplies and information, and for everything they furnish they will make you pay ten prices. They will plunder the dead and wounded of both armies. They will buy slaves from your warriors and from the Assyrians. Is that little? Egypt and Assyria will ruin themselves, but the Phœnicians will build up new storehouses with wealth from both sides!" "Who explained such wisdom to thee?" asked the prince, smiling. "Do I not hear my father and our relatives and friends whispering of this, while they look around in dread lest some one may hear what they are saying? Besides, do I not know the Phœnicians? They lie prostrate before thee, but thou dost not note their deceitful looks; often have I seen their eyes green with greed and yellow from anger. O lord, guard thyself from Phœnicians as from venomous serpents." Rameses looked at Sarah, and involuntarily he compared her sincere love with the calculations of the Phœnician priestess, her outbursts of tenderness with the treacherous coldness of Kama.