It would seem that when he had been leader of a corps and was viceroy the priests would cease tormenting him with their guardianship. But just then they appeared with redoubled energy. They had made him viceroy; for what purpose?--to remove him from the pharaoh, and conclude a shameful treaty with Assyria. They had used force in such form that he betook himself to the temple as a penitent to obtain information concerning the condition of the state; there they deceived him through miracles and terrors, and gave thoroughly false explanations. Next they interfered with his amusements, his women, his relations with the pharaoh, his debts, and, finally, to humiliate and render him ridiculous in the eyes of Egyptians, they made his first-born a Hebrew. Where was the laborer, where the slave, where an Egyptian convict in the quarries who had not the right to say, "I am better than thou, the viceroy, for no son of mine is a Hebrew." Feeling the weight of the insult, Rameses understood at the same time that he could not avenge himself immediately. Hence he determined to defer that affair to the future. In the school of the priests he had learned self-command, in the court he had learned deceit and patience; those qualities became a weapon and a shield to him in his battle with the priesthood. Till he was ready he would lead them into error, and when the moment came he would strike so hard that they would never rise again. It began to dawn. The heir fell asleep, and when he woke the first person he saw was the steward of Sarah's villa. "What of the Jewess?" asked the prince. "According to thy command, worthiness, she washed the feet of her new mistress," answered the official. "Was she stubborn?" "She was full of humility, but not adroit enough; so the angry lady struck the Jewess with her foot between the eyebrows." The prince sprang up. "And what did Sarah do?" inquired he, quickly. "She fell to the pavement. And when the new mistress commanded her to go, she went out, weeping noiselessly." The prince walked up and down in the chamber. "How did she pass the night?" "The new lady?" "No! I ask about Sarah." "According to command, Sarah went with her child to the servants' house. The women, from compassion, yielded a fresh mat to her, but she did not lie down to sleep; she sat the whole night with her child on her knees." "But how is the child?" asked Rameses. "The child is well. This morning, when the Jewess went to serve her new mistress, the other women bathed the little one in warm water, and the shepherd's wife, who also has an infant, gave her breast to it." The prince stopped before the steward.