"A foreign adventurer came like a thief to Egypt, and put on the members of the supreme council a treaty so shameful that we should be justified in signing it only after we had lost battles, lost all our regiments and both capitals. And to think that this was done by one man, most assuredly a spy of King Assar! And our sages let themselves be so charmed by his eloquence, that, when the pharaoh would not let them give up Phœnicia, they disbanded regiments in every case, and caused war on our western boundary. Have we ever heard of a deed like this?" continued Rameses, no longer master of himself. "When it was just the time to raise the army to three hundred thousand and hurry on to Nineveh, those pious maniacs discharged twenty thousand men and fired their own dwelling-house." Mefres, still and pale, listened to these jeers. At last he said,-- "I know not, worthy lord, from what source thou hast taken thy information. May it be as pure as the hearts of the highest counsellors! But let us suppose that thou art right, that some Chaldean priest had power to bring the council to sign a burdensome treaty with Assyria. If it happened thus, whence knowest thou that that priest was not an envoy of the gods, who through his lips forewarned us of dangers hanging over Egypt?" "How do the Chaldeans enjoy your confidence to such a degree?" asked the viceroy. "The Chaldean priests are elder brothers of the Egyptians," interrupted Mentezufis. "Then perhaps the Assyrian king is the master of the pharaoh?" "Blaspheme not, worthiness," said Mefres, severely. "Thou art pushing into the most sacred things frivolously, and to do that has proved perilous to men who were greater than thou art." "Well, I will not do so. But how is a man to know that one Chaldean is an envoy of the gods, and another a spy of King Assar?" "By miracles," answered Mefres. "If, at thy command, prince, this room should fill with spirits, if unseen powers were to bear thee in the air, we should know that thou wert an agent of the immortals, and should respect thy counsel." Rameses shrugged his shoulders. "I, too, have seen spirits: a young girl made them. And I saw a juggler lying in the air in the amphitheatre." "But thou didst not see the fine strings which his four assistants had in their teeth," put in Mentezufis. The prince laughed again, and, remembering what Tutmosis had told him about the devotions of Mefres, he said in a jeering tone,-- "In the days of Cheops a certain high priest wished absolutely to fly through the air. With this object he prayed to the gods, and commanded his inferiors to see whether unseen powers were not raising him. And what will ye say, holy fathers? From that time forth there was no day when prophets did not assure the high priest that he was borne in the air,--not very high, it is true, about a finger from the pavement. But--what is that to thy power, worthiness?" inquired he of Mefres, suddenly.