He interrupted me--"Call me not 'prince,' call me by my name--that, at least, is left me! But I am a slave!" "No--not to me! You are a descendant of kings! Are not Prince Abraham, Isaac, and the great Prince Jacob your ancestors? I am not an Egyptian any more than thyself," I answered him. "True, true! I must not forget that! I thank thee, O prince, for reminding me of this. A slave in Egypt may be a freeman in Tyre!" "That is true also," I said. "May I ask, O Remeses, why you have left the temples and are here; and how you heard this intelligence, which you bear up under like a god?" "I am calm now; but, Sesostris, I have passed through a sirocco of the soul! You shall hear all. Come and sit here." I placed myself by the table opposite to him. He then began as follows: "I need not describe to you, O my friend, the nature of the rites and ceremonies, nor the character of the mysteries which I have been in contact with, for five-and-thirty days; let it be enough for your curiosity to know, that beneath all the splendor of our polytheism is hidden the mystery, known to the 'sons of the Lord of heaven, of One God. This truth is guarded by the mystics, as a mystery, not as a doctrine; and is of no value to them nor to the world: it is as if the sun were forever shrouded in impenetrable clouds. I have learned it only darkly; but this is not to my purpose now, my friend: perhaps at another time we will discourse of these things. I had passed my decreed days and nights, at all the shrines which the laws for kings direct when, last night, I was borne across the Nile by a company of the mystics, who left me at the entrance of the avenue leading to the sphinx that is before Cheops and Chephres. There twelve other ecclesiastical mystics took me in charge. We marched together, six on each side of me, in profound silence; till, on passing the lion facing the sphinx, their leader cried-- "'Let the king be as a lion in strength and majesty!' "The rest answered with one voice-- "'And may his enemies be as lambs beneath his paws!' "At the small temple, between the feet of the sphinx, three priests stood, one of whom sprinkled my head with sacred water; the second, with his little finger that had been dipped in the blood of a cock which he had sacrificed, touched my forehead; and the third waved incense before me;--while from within came a low, plaintive chant of voices and instruments, invoking the gods in a hymn on my behalf. The whole scene was solemn and impressive. "I was then conducted to the pylon of the great temple before the pyramids. As I passed beneath the gate, the twelve priests left me; and twenty-four others, dressed in white robes and bearing torches, took me in charge, and conducted me at a slow march across the great quadrangle, leading me to a dark portal which descended, as I was told, to the base of the pyramid, down to the 'hall of all the mysteries of the earth.'"