he had only made half of his allotted tale of bricks.

"Loose him," said the Prince quietly.

"Who are you that give me orders?" asked the head overseer, who was
helping to hold the lad while the guards flogged him. "Begone, lest I
serve you as I serve this idle fellow."

Seti looked at him, and as he looked his lips turned white.

"Tell him," he said to me.

"You dog!" I gasped. "Do you know who it is to whom you dare to speak
thus?"

"No, nor care. Lay on, guard."

The Prince, whose robes were hidden by a wide-sleeved cloak of common
stuff and make, threw the cloak open revealing beneath it the pectoral
he had worn in the Court, a beautiful thing of gold whereon were
inscribed his royal names and titles in black and red enamel. Also he
held up his right hand on which was a signet of Pharaoh's that he wore
as his commissioner. The men stared, then one of them who was more
learned than the rest cried:

"By the gods! this is his Highness the Prince of Egypt!" at which words
all of them fell upon their faces.

"Rise," said Seti to the lad who looked at him, forgetting his pain in
his wonderment, "and tell me why you have not delivered your tale of
bricks."

"Sir," sobbed the boy in bad Egyptian, "for two reasons. First, because
I am a cripple, see," and he held up his left arm which was withered and
thin as a mummy's, "and therefore cannot work quickly. Secondly, because
my mother, whose only child I am, is a widow and lies sick in bed, so
that there are no women or children in our home who can go out to gather
straw for me, as Pharaoh has commanded that we should do. Therefore
I must spend many hours in searching for straw, since I have no means
wherewith to pay others to do this for me."

"Ana," said the Prince, "write down this youth's name with the place of
his abode, and if his tale prove true, see that his wants and those of
his mother are relieved before we depart from Goshen. Write down also
the names of this overseer and his fellows and command them to report
themselves at my camp to-morrow at sunrise, when their case shall be
considered. Say to the lad also that, being one afflicted by the gods,
Pharaoh frees him from the making of bricks and all other labour of the
State."

Now while I did these things the overseer and his companions beat their
heads upon the ground and prayed for mercy, being cowards as the cruel
always are. His Highness answered them never a word, but only looked
at them with