nd who had no more effect upon me than the painted
figures in the frescoes. I heard in the distance, muttering and
complaining low, the nations upon whose heads I wipe my sandals or
which I lift by their hair, as I am represented doing on the symbolical
_bassi-relievi_ of the palaces, and in my cold breast, as strong as that
of a basalt god, I never heard the beat of my own heart. It seemed to me
that there was nowhere on earth a being like myself, a being who could
move me. In vain I brought back from my expeditions into foreign lands
choice virgins and women famous for their beauty in their own country; I
cast them aside like flowers, after having breathed their scent for a
moment. None inspired me with a desire to see her again. When they were
present, I scarce glanced at them; when they were absent, I immediately
forgot them. Twea, Taia, Amense, Hont-Reche, whom I have kept to avoid
the disgust of having to find others who the next day would have been as
indifferent as themselves, have never been, when in my arms, aught but
vain phantoms, perfumed and graceful forms, beings of another race with
whom my nature could not mingle any more than the leopard can mate with
the gazelle, the dweller in the air with the dweller in the waters. I
had come to think that, placed by the gods apart from and above all
mortals, I was never to share either their pains or their joys. Fearful
weariness, like that which no doubt tires the mummies, who, wrapped up
in their bands, wait in their caves in the depths of the hypogea until
the soul shall have finished the cycle of migrations,--a fearful
weariness had fallen upon me on my throne; for I often remained with my
hands on my knees like a granite colossus, thinking of the impossible,
the infinite, the eternal. How many a time have I thought of raising the
veil of Isis, at the risk of falling blasted at the feet of the goddess.
Perhaps, I said to myself, that mysterious face is the one I have been
dreaming of, the one which is to inspire me with love. If earth refuses
me happiness, I shall climb to heaven. But I saw you; I felt a strange,
unaccustomed sensation; I understood that there existed outside myself a
being necessary, imperious, and fatal to me, whom I could not live
without, and who possessed the power of making me unhappy. I was a king,
almost a god, and you, O Tahoser, have made of me a man."

Never, perhaps, had the Pharaoh uttered so long a speech; usually a
word, a gesture