"I demand, therefore, that you make me viceroy of the Thebaïd. Unless you do so, I swear to your majesty, that I will agitate this suspicion, and fill all Egypt with the idea that your favorite Remeses is not your son. Whether I believe this or not, matters not. If there be any truth in it, _your majesty knows_, and will, no doubt, act accordingly. "Your faithful nephew, "MŒRIS, Prince." When I had finished reading this extraordinary letter, I raised my eyes to the queen. She was intently observing its effect upon my countenance. "Dared that man write thus to your majesty?" I cried, with the profoundest emotions of indignation. "You have read," answered the queen, with a tremulous voice. "And did not your majesty at once send and arrest the bold insulter and dangerous man?" I said. She bit her lip, and said, in a hollow tone-- "Prince of Tyre, is he not this day viceroy of the Thebaïd?" "Does your majesty mean that you yielded to his demand?" "Yes." "I marvel at it," said I, confounded at the acknowledgment. "If what he had said had been true--" "Sesostris, falsehood often flies faster than truth. It can do as much mischief. The rumor of such a thing, false or true, would have shaken my throne, and destroyed the confidence of the mass of the people in Remeses when he came to the sceptre. I resolved to stifle it by giving Mœris what he asked." I regarded the queen with sentiments of pity and sorrow. She said quickly-- "Read another letter from him." I did so. It was dated three years later, and demanded the command of the fleet, and its separation from the control of the general-in-chief of the armies. This general-in-chief was Remeses, dear mother. To the demand the queen yielded, and thereby erected the maritime arm of her kingdom into an independent service, acknowledging no superior authority but that of the throne. When I had ended the perusal of the letter, the queen placed in my hand a third missive from this powerful man. "This is what I received but now," she gasped. "Read it, Sesostris, and give me your sympathy." It bore date-- "CAMP, OPPOSITE THE PALACES OF THE MEMNONIA, THEBAÏD. "TO THE QUEEN AMENSE: