"I know not how to counsel your majesty," I replied, greatly distressed, my heart bleeding both for her and Remeses, who, I felt, sooner or later, must come to the truth of the dreadful rumor; and also from my knowledge of the perfect uprightness and justice of his character, as well as his firmness, that he would investigate it until he either disproved or verified it. At length, after a long and painful interval of embarrassment, the queen, of her own will, said to me-- "Sesostris, I meant no wrong. I loved the weeping babe, in its desolate state, and no sooner did I take it up than it smiled, and won my heart. You know the fine appearance of Remeses as a man; judge you therefore how lovely he was when an infant three months old. I was childless. My husband had been a few weeks dead, and this infant seemed to be sent to me in part to fill up the place made void in my affections. That it was a Hebrew child did not move me. I had always opposed the cruel edict of the king, my father; and felt that, to save this child of the oppressed Hebrews, would in some degree, atone for the death of so many who were destroyed in obedience to his orders. Thus I was influenced by a threefold motive--to save the infant, to adopt a son, to atone for evil." "Good and lawful motives, O queen," I said, interested in her narrative, so touchingly told as to deeply affect me. "I did not believe I was doing evil. I at once, at the suggestion of one of my maids, sent a Hebrew girl, who was gazing upon us from afar, to call a nurse from the Hebrew women for the child. She brought one, comely and gentle in manner, whom I took with me to the palace; and, after instructing her to keep the matter a secret, suffered her to take the child home, for she lived in a garden, not far above the palace, upon the island, her father being a cultivator of flowers for the priests. The tenderness of this Hebrew woman towards the beautiful babe pleased me, and, after I had, in a public manner, acknowledged the child, even as Mœris's letter states, I let it remain with her until it grew to be three years old, when I commanded her to bring it to the palace to remain; for although I had seen it almost daily, I now desired to have it wholly in my possession. From that time he has been brought up in my own palace, as my son, and educated as prince of the empire and heir to the throne. For all my care and affection, he has repaid me with the profoundest devotion, and tenderest attachment. At first, seeing he was very fond of his Hebrew nurse, I jealously forbade her again to visit him, so that I might be the sole object of his attachment. He soon forgot her, and from his fourth year has known no love but mine. When he came to manhood, I had him instructed in the art of war, and made him general of the army of the pyramids. By the greatest philosophers and sages he was taught geometry, astrology, architecture, physics, mythology, and the knowledge of all science. I