the battle. For a man deprived of means loses daring easily; from
an impoverished king his armies turn away as well as his dignitaries
and his subjects. But if thou, sovereign, have our gold and our agents,
with thy army and thy generals Thou wilt have as much trouble with the
priests as an elephant with a scorpion. Thou wilt barely set thy foot
on them and they will be crushed beneath it. But this is not my affair.
The high priest Samentu is waiting in the garden, he whom Thou hast
summoned. I withdraw; it is his hour. But I refuse not the money.
Command me to the extent of thirty thousand talents."

He fell on his face again and then withdrew, promising that Samentu
would present himself straightway.

In half an hour the high priest appeared. As became one who honored Set
he did not shave his red beard and shaggy hair; he had a severe face,
but eyes full of intellect. He bowed without excessive humility and met
the soul-piercing gaze of the pharaoh with calmness.

"Be seated," said the pharaoh.

The high priest sat on the floor.

"Thou pleasest me," said Ramses. "Thou hast the bearing and the face of
a Hyksos, and they are the most valiant troops in my army." Then he
inquired, on a sudden,

"Art Thou the man who informed Hiram of the treaty of our priests with
Assyria?"

"I am," replied Samentu, without dropping his eyes.

"Didst Thou share in that iniquity?"

"I did not. I overheard the conditions. In the temples, as in thy
palaces, holiness, the walls are honeycombed with passages through
which it is possible to hear on the summit of pylons what is said in
the cellars."

"And from subterranean places it is possible to converse with persons
in upper chambers?" asked the pharaoh.

"And imitate voices from the gods," added the priest seriously.

The pharaoh smiled. Then the supposition was correct that it was not
the spirit of his father, but priests who spoke to him and to his
mother.

"Why didst Thou confide to Phoenicians a great secret of the state?"
inquired Ramses.

"Because I wished to prevent a shameful treaty which was as harmful to
us as to Phoenicia."

"Thou mightst have forewarned some Egyptian dignitary."

"Whom?" inquired the priest. "Men who were powerless before Herhor; or
who would complain of me to him and expose me to death and tortures? I
confided it to Hiram, for he meets dignitaries of ours whom I never
see."

"But why did Herhor and Mefres conclude such a treaty?" inquired