usand years in this
palace!"

Suddenly he heard a repressed voice,

"My son! O son!"

The pharaoh sprang up from his chair.

"Who art thou?" exclaimed he.

"I am, I Hast Thou forgotten me already?"

"O my son," said the voice again, "respect the will of the gods if Thou
wish to receive their blessed assistance O respect the gods, for
without their assistance the greatest power on earth is as dust and
shadows O respect the gods if Thou wish that the bitterness of thy
faults should not poison my existence in the happy region of the West."

The voice ceased, Ramses ordered to bring a light. One door of the room
was closed, at the other a guard stood. No stranger could enter there.

Anger and alarm tore the pharaoh's heart. "What was that? Had the shade
of his father spoken indeed to him, or was that voice only a new
priestly trick?"

But if the priests, notwithstanding thick walls, could speak to him
from a distance, they could overhear him. And then he, the lord of the
world, was like a wild beast caged in on all sides.

It is true that in the palace of the pharaoh secret listening was
common. Ramses had thought, however, that his cabinet was safe, and
that the insolence of priests had stopped at the threshold of the
supreme ruler.

"But if that was a spirit?"

He did not wish to sup, but betook himself to rest. It seemed to him
that he could not sleep; but weariness won the victory over irritation.

In a few hours bells and a light woke him. It was midnight and the
astrologer priest came to make a report on the position of the heavenly
bodies. The pharaoh heard the report, and said at the end of it,

"Couldst thou, revered prophet, make thy report to the worthy Sem
hereafter? He is my substitute in matters touching religion."

The astrologer wondered greatly at the indifference of his lord to
affair? of the heavens.

"Art them pleased, holiness," inquired he, "to refuse those indications
which the stars give to rulers?"

"Do they give them?" asked the pharaoh. "Tell what they promise me."

Clearly the astrologer had looked for the question, so he answered
directly,

"The horizon is darkened for the moment. The lord of light has not come
yet to the road of truth which leads to knowledge of the divine will.
But sooner or later he will find both long life and a happy reign
filled with glory."

"Aha! I thank thee, holy man. And as soon as I know what to seek I will
accommodate myself to the indicat