t Nitager, for example? Nitager is a
master, Ramses is a mere apprentice."

"Then what will be the end of this hatred between him and you?"
inquired Pentuer.

"Hatred!" repeated Herhor. "Could I hate a frivolous fellow, who,
moreover, is surrounded, like a deer in a ravine by hunters! But I must
confess that his rule is so full of danger that if Ramses had a
brother, or if Nitager were younger, we should set aside the present
pharaoh."

"And thou, worthiness, would become his heir!" burst out Pentuer.

Herhor was by no means offended.

"Pentuer Thou hast grown marvelously dull since thy entry into politics
on thy own account," replied he, shrugging his shoulders. "Of course,
if the country were without a pharaoh, it would be my duty to become
one by virtue of my office of high priest of Amon, and chief of the
supreme council. But what is the office to me? Have I not had more
power for a number of years than the pharaoh? Or do I not today, though
I am a minister of war in disgrace, carry out in this state whatever I
think needful?

"Those same high priests, treasurers, judges, nomarchs, and even
generals who avoid me at present, must carry out every secret order of
the council furnished with my seal. Is there a man in Egypt who would
dare refuse obedience to those orders? Wouldst thou, for instance, dare
oppose them?"

Pentuer hung his head.

If in spite of the death of Ramses XII the supreme privy council of
priests had maintained itself, Ramses XIII must either yield or fight a
life-and-death battle.

The pharaoh had on his side all the people, all the army, many priests,
and the majority of the civil dignitaries. The council could reckon on
hardly two thousand adherents, on its treasures and on its incomparably
wise organization. The forces were utterly unequal, but the issue of
the battle was very doubtful.

"Then ye have determined to destroy the pharaoh?" asked Pentuer.

"Not at all. We only wish to save the state." "In that case what should
Ramses XIII do?" "What he will do I know not. But I know what his
father did," answered Herhor. "Ramses XII began to govern in the same
impetuous and tyrannical fashion, but when money failed him, and his
most zealous adherents began to despise him, he turned to the gods. He
surrounded himself with priests, he learned from them, nay, he even
married a daughter of the high priest Amenhotep. And, after a few
years, he went so far that he became himself not only a p