"I dispatch a special courier--my master of horse--_whose sister was your lady in waiting at the finding of Remeses_. Unless I have a reply in the affirmative, for which my courier will delay six hours, you shall hear me knocking at the gates of Rhoda with the head of my spear! MŒRIS, "NEPHEW AND HEIR OF AMENSE, QUEEN OF EGYPT." When, my dear mother, I had finished reading this extraordinary letter, I held it unrolled in my hands for a few moments, stupefied, as it were, with amazement. My eyes sought the face of the queen. It was rigid as iron--white as alabaster; but her regards were riveted upon my countenance. "Your majesty," I said, hardly knowing what to say, "what fable is this of the daring and impious Prince of Thebes--?" She interrupted me with-- "What dost thou think, O Sesostris? If it be a fable, is it not, in such a man's hand, as dangerous as truth? Dare I let him circulate such a tale throughout Egypt? _Can_ I let it reach the ears of Remeses?" "Why not, O queen?" I asked. "If it is false, it can be shown to be so; and my friend Remeses is too great and wise to heed it. Is it by so improbable and artfully framed a story as this, you are made unhappy; and for this you resign your crown and hasten to secure Remeses in power?" "Is it not enough?" "No, O wise and virtuous lady!" I answered, with indignant feelings against Mœris, and sympathy for her womanly fears; "my advice to you is, to defy the malice and wickedness of the viceroy, inform Remeses of these letters--nay, let him read them--assemble your army, and meet him with open war. A row of galleys sunk across the Rile will stop his fleet; and if he land, your soldiers, with Remeses at their head, will drive him back to his city of a hundred gates, and--" Again the queen interrupted me: "No, no! I cannot tell Remeses! He must never know of these letters!" she almost shrieked. "Has Remeses any suspicion of the tale they tell?" I asked. "No. He knows no other mother. If he hears this story, he will investigate it to the last, to show me that he would prove it false in the mouth of Mœris." "And this he ought to do, your majesty," I said, firmly. "Prince Sesostris, dost thou believe he could prove it false?" she demanded, in a mysterious and strange tone. "Undoubtedly," I answered; though, my dear mother, I could not wholly resist the recollection, which forced itself upon me most sharply and painfully, of the resemblance I had noticed between Remeses and the Hebrew people. But I banished the idea it suggested, regarding it more probable for an Egyptian and Hebrew to look alike, than for Remeses to have been born a Hebrew, and adopted by Pharaoh's daughter. Nevertheless, there was apparent to myself a want of fulness in my tones when I answered her "undoubtedly." The queen came close up to me, and said in a deep, terrible whisper, looking first wildly around her, to see if any one overheard her,-- "_He cannot prove it false!_"