"'But this is where my own elevation involves your depression,' I answered. 'It cannot be!' "'I am firm and immovable, my son, in my purpose,' she replied. 'Your thirty-fifth birthday will soon arrive. That is the age at which Horus, the son of Isis, was crowned. It is a number of good omen, and I wish you to prepare for your coronation, by performing all the rites and sacrifices, that the religion and laws of Egypt require of a prince who is about to ascend the throne of the Pharaohs.' "'Mother, my dearly honored mother!' I said, kneeling to her, 'forgive me, but I must firmly decline the throne while you sit thereon. You are ill at ease in your mind to-day. Some deep grief, which you conceal from me, preys upon you. It is not because you are old that you would abdicate the throne to me, who am not yet old or wise enough to rule this mighty nation; but you have some secret, painful reason, which I beg you to reveal to me.' "My words seemed to inflict pain upon her. She rose to her feet, and paced the apartment twice across in troubled reflection. Then she came to my side, and said impressively, placing her trembling grasp upon my arm: "'Remeses, if I reveal to thee the secret of my heart, wilt thou then consent to be king?' "'If I perceive, my mother,' I answered, 'that necessity demands my acceptance of the crown before my time, I will not refuse it.' "'If your views of necessity do not influence you, O my son,' she said earnestly, and with a sudden gush of tears, 'let my affection, my happiness, my peace of mind, plead with you!' "'Please, my beloved mother, to make known to me the circumstances under which you are moved to this unusual step,' I said. "'Not unusual,' she replied. 'I have consulted the book of the reigns of the Pharaohs, in the hall of Books, in the temple of Thoth. Within two thousand years, not less than seven kings and three queens have resigned the sceptre of Egypt to children or adopted heirs. The Queen Nitocris resigned to her adopted son, Myrtæus; Chomæphtha, after reigning eleven years, weary with the weight of the crown, resigned it to her nephew, Sœconiosochus. Did not Phruron-Nilus, the great monarch, decide to abdicate in favor of Amuthantæus, his son, when sudden death only prevented his retirement? The crowns of Egypt are _mine_, my son, by the laws of the gods, and of the ancestral kings from whom I have inherited them. I will not wait for the god of death to remove them from my head; but with my own hands I would put them upon thy brow! It must be done soon,--_now_! or neither thou nor I will hold rule long in Egypt!' "I begged my mother to explain her mysterious words. "'Come, sit by me. Be calm, Remeses! Listen with your usual meekness and reverence to me when I speak.' I obeyed her, and she thus began: