The Pharaoh and the Priest: An Historical Novel of Ancient EgyptPrus, Bolesław
History
The Pharaoh and the Priest: An Historical Novel of Ancient Egypt
Prus, Bolesław
Egypt -- History -- To 332 B.C. -- Fiction
They moved from place to place, and passed a number of courts. In
wooden cases on the bare ground were crowded men sentenced to
imprisonment. In one building were heard awful screams; they were
clubbing prisoners to force confession.
"I wish to see those accused of attacking my house," said the heir,
deeply moved.
"Of those there are more than three hundred," said the overseer.
"Select according to thy own judgment the most guilty, and question
them in my presence. I do not wish, though, to be known to them."
They opened to Rameses a chamber in which the investigating official
was occupied. The prince commanded him to take his usual place, but
sat himself behind a pillar.
The accused appeared one by one. All were lean; much hair had grown
out on them, and their eyes had the expression of settled
bewilderment.
"Dutmoses," said the official, "tell how ye attacked the house of the
most worthy erpatr."
"I will tell truth, as at the judgment seat of Osiris. It was the
evening of that day when the Nile was to begin rising. My wife said to
me, 'Come, father, let us go up on the hills, where we can have an
earlier sight of the signal in Memphis.' Then we went up where we
could see the signal in Memphis more easily. Some warrior came to my
wife and said, 'Come with me into that garden. We will find grapes
there, and something else also.' Then my wife went into the garden
with that warrior. I fell into great rage, and I looked at them
through the wall. But whether stones were thrown at the prince's house
or not I cannot tell, for because of the trees and darkness I could
not see anything."
"But how couldst thou let thy wife go with a warrior?" asked the
official.
"With permission, worthiness, what was I to do? I am only an
earth-worker, and he is a warrior and soldier of his holiness."
"But didst thou see the priest who spoke to you?"
"That was not a priest," said the man, with conviction. "That must
have been the god Num himself, for he came out of a fig-tree and he
had a ram's head on him."
"But didst thou see that he had a ram's head?"
"With permission I do not remember well whether I saw myself or
whether people told me. My eyes were affected by anxiety for my wife."
"Didst thou throw stones at the garden?"
"Why should I throw stones, lord of life and death? If I had hit my
wife, I should have made trouble for a week. If I had hit the warrior,
I should have got a blow of a fist in the belly that would have made
my tongue stick out, for I am nothing but an earth-worker, and he is a
warrior of our lord who lives through eternity."
The heir leaned out from behind the column. They led away Dutmoses,
and brought in Anup. He was a short fellow. On his shoulders were
scars from club-strokes.
"Tell me, Anup," began the official again, "how was it about that
attack on the garden of the heir to the throne?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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