"What are these hopes?" I inquired, feeling that henceforth Mœris and I were mortal foes. "Didst thou, O prince," said I, as he returned to his seat by me, which he had left, in the excitement of his narrative, to pace the floor, "suspect the secret?" "No," he answered gloomily; "no, Sesostris; nor do I now know what it can be; neither have I the least idea, unless--" Here he colored, and looked confused. "Unless what?" I asked, painfully interested. "Unless Mœris be the son of the Prince of the Thebaïd, and I the son of the brother of Pharaoh. In other words, that Mœris and Remeses have changed places, and that Mœris knows or suspects the fact." "A most extraordinary idea!" I exclaimed; yet at the same time, I must confess that I was forcibly reminded of what I have before alluded to, dear mother, the total absence of all likeness between Remeses and his mother, Amense. "What can possibly have suggested to your mind such a strange conjecture?" I added. "A mystery, my dear Sesostris," he said, "calls into exercise the whole machinery of suspicion, and all the talent of investigation; and a hundred things, which before had only an ordinary signification, under its wand, take an importance and meaning wholly new. Irresistibly, my mother's anxiety to impress upon me that she had been 'all a mother could be to a son,' in connection with her whole manner, and especially her uncalled for reiterations of affection for me, and of appeals to my devotion to her;--all this rushed upon my memory, and with a dizzy brain, and a heart full of anguish, under the dreadful suspicion, I cried, 'Why must not Prince Mœris be made angry? Why may he not be prevented from doing thee harm?' "'I have told you,' she replied, with a deadly pallor. 'Remeses, your roused spirit alarms me for us three.' "'But I must oppose, and if necessary destroy him,' I said, in my emotion, 'who destroys my mother's peace.' "'Yes, I am thy mother. Thou art a son to me. I know thou wilt protect me from this prince-nephew,' she said, in broken sentences. 'He shall not come between me and thee, and the throne.' "'He has no claim to the throne. He does not aspire to it in your lifetime,' I said; 'and if I hold it after, I will take care of my own crown. My mother, fear not Prince Mœris. Let his secret perish with him.' "'And thou, also, Remeses!' she said, passionately. "'I, my mother?' I repeated. A spirit of severe investigation then came upon me, strengthened by my suspicion. "'My mother, Queen Amense,' I said, with the deepest emotion, and, O Sesostris, with fear and dread, 'a fearful suspicion has taken hold upon me! _Am_ I thy SON?'