The officer and steward approached Sarah, but stopped, as they dared not touch her; but there was no need to do so. Sarah wound a garment around the puling child, and left the room, whispering,-- "O God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, have mercy on us!" She bowed low before the prince, and from her eyes tears flowed in silence. While she was still in the antechamber, Rameses heard her sweet voice,-- "God of Abraham--Isa--" When all was quiet, the viceroy called the officer and steward. "Go with torches to the house among the fig-trees." "I understand," replied the steward. "And conduct hither, immediately, the woman who dwells there." "It will be done." "Thenceforth that woman will be thy mistress and the mistress of Sarah; the Jewess must wash the feet of her mistress every morning, pour water to her, and hold a mirror before her. That is my will, my command." "It shall be accomplished," said the steward. "And to-morrow morning thou wilt tell me if the new servant is stubborn." When he had given these commands, he returned home; but he did not sleep that night. He felt that without raising his voice for a moment he had crushed Sarah, the wretched Jewess, who had dared to deceive him. He had punished her as a king who with one movement of the eye dashes people down from heights into the abyss of servitude. But Sarah was merely an instrument of the priests, and the heir had too great a feeling of justice to forgive the real authors when he had broken the instrument. His rage was intensified all the more because the priests were unassailable. He might send out Sarah with her child in the middle of the night to the servants' house, but he could not deprive Herhor of his power, nor Mefres of the high priesthood. Sarah had fallen at his feet, like a trampled worm; but Herhor and Mefres, who had snatched his first-born from him, towered above Egypt, and, oh, shame! above him, the coming pharaoh, like pyramids. And he could not tell how often in that year he had recalled the wrongs which priests had inflicted. At school they had beaten him with sticks till his back was swollen, or had tortured him with hunger till his stomach and spine had grown together. At the manœuvres of the year past, Herhor spoiled his whole plan, then put the blame on him, and took away the command of an army corps. That same Herhor drew on him the displeasure of his holiness because he had taken Sarah to his house, and did not restore him to honor till the humiliated prince had passed a couple of months in a voluntary exile.