At sight of the heir, drums and fifes sounded, and the garrison raised a loud shout of welcome. When he found himself among warriors, the prince drew a deep breath, and stretched out his arms, like a man liberated from bondage. "Well," said he to Tutmosis, "women have tormented me, and those Jews-- O Cyrus! command to roast me on a slow fire at once, but put me not in the country a second time." "So it is," confirmed Tutmosis; "love is like honey. It must be taken by sips, a man must not swim in it. Brr! shudders pass over me when I think that thou hast passed nearly two months fed on kisses in the evening, dates in the morning, and asses' milk at midday." "Sarah is a very good girl," said Rameses. "I do not speak of her, but of those Jews who have settled down at that villa like papyrus in swamp land. Dost thou see, they are looking out at thee yet, and perhaps are sending greetings," said the flatterer. The prince turned to another side with displeasure, and Tutmosis winked joyfully at the officers, as if to tell them that Rameses would not leave their society very soon this time. The higher they ascended the Nile the denser on both banks were spectators, the more numerous were boats on the river, and the more did flowers, garlands, and bouquets float down; these had been thrown at the barge of the pharaoh. About five miles above Memphis there were multitudes of people with banners, with statues of gods, and with music; an immense roar was heard, like the sound of a tempest. "There is his holiness!" cried Tutmosis, delighted. One spectacle was presented to the eyes of the onlookers: in the middle of a broad bend in the river sailed the great barge of the pharaoh, rising in front like the breast of a swan. At the right and left sides of it, like two giant wings, pushed forward the countless boats of his subjects, and in the rear, like a rich fan, stretched the retinue of the ruler of Egypt. Every one living shouted, sang, clapped hands, and threw flowers at the feet of the lord whom no one even saw. It was enough that under that gilded canopy and those ostrich plumes waved a ruddy blue flag, denoting that the pharaoh was present. The people in the boats were as if drunk, the people on the shore as if mad. Every moment some boat struck or overturned a boat and some man fell into the water, out of which luckily the crocodiles had fled, frightened by the unparalleled uproar. On the banks men ran into one another, for no one paid heed to his neighbor, his father, or his child, but fixed his wild eyes on the gilded beak of the barge and the tent of the pharaoh. Even people who were trampled, whose ribs the wild crowd broke stupidly, and whose joints they put out, had no cry save this,-- "May he live through eternity, O our ruler!--Shine on, thou the sun of Egypt!"