ting tone. "And think'st thou then, oh, foolish son, that I
should have undertaken such a dangerous game without due consideration?
Phanes may tell the Persians what he likes, he can never prove his point.
I, the father, Ladice the mother must know best whether Nitetis is our
child or not. We call her so, who dare aver the contrary? If it please
Phanes to betray our land to any other enemy beside the Persians, let
him; I fear nothing! Thou wouldst have me ruin a man who has been my
friend, to whom I owe much gratitude, who has served me long and
faithfully; and this without offence from his side. Rather will I shelter
him from thy revenge, knowing as I do the impure source from which it
springs."

"My father!"

"Thou desirest the ruin of this man, because he hindered thee from taking
forcible possession of the granddaughter of Rhodopis, and because thine
own incapacity moved me to place him in thy room as commander of the
troops. Ah! thou growest pale! Verily, I owe Phanes thanks for confiding
to me your vile intentions, and so enabling me to bind my friends and
supporters, to whom Rhodopis is precious, more firmly to my throne."

"And is it thus thou speakest of these strangers, my father? dost thou
thus forget the ancient glory of Egypt? Despise me, if thou wilt; I know
thou lovest me not; but say not that to be great we need the help of
strangers! Look back on our history! Were we not greatest when our gates
were closed to the stranger, when we depended on ourselves and our own
strength, and lived according to the ancient laws of our ancestors and
our gods? Those days beheld the most distant lands subjugated by Rameses,
and heard Egypt celebrated in the whole world as its first and greatest
nation. What are we now? The king himself calls beggars and foreigners
the supporters of his throne, and devises a petty stratagem to secure the
friendship of a power over whom we were victorious before the Nile was
infested by these strangers. Egypt was then a mighty Queen in glorious
apparel; she is now a painted woman decked out in tinsel!"

[Rameses the Great, son of Sethos, reigned over Egypt 1394-1328 B.
C. He was called Sesostris by the Greeks; see Lepsius (Chron. d.
Aegypter, p. 538.) on the manner in which this confusion of names
arose. Egypt attained the zenith of her power under this king,
whose army, according to Diodorus (I. 53-58). consisted of 600,000
foot and 24,000 horsemen, 27,000 chariots an