eople said that Ramses XIII had gone mad, and wished to sell
Egypt to Phoenicians; in Memphis they explained that the priests wished
to poison the pharaoh and bring in Assyrians. The common people, as
well in the north as the south, felt an instinctive attraction toward
the pharaoh. But the force of the people was passive and tottering.
When an agitator of the government spoke, the people were ready to
attack a temple and beat priests, but when a procession appeared they
fell on their faces and were timid while listening to accounts of
disasters which threatened Egypt in that very month of Paofi.

The terrified nobles and nomarchs had assembled at Memphis to implore
the pharaoh for rescue from the rebelling multitude. But since Ramses
enjoined on them patience, and did not attack the rabble, the magnates
began to take counsel with the adherents of the priesthood.

It is true that Herhor was silent, or enjoined patience also; but other
high priests proved to the nobles that Ramses was a maniac, and hinted
at the need of deposing him.

In Memphis itself two parties were facing each other. The godless who
drank, made an uproar, threw mud at temples and even at statues, and
the pious, mainly old men and women who prayed on the streets,
prophesied misfortune aloud and implored all the divinities for rescue.
The godless committed outrages daily; each day among the pious health
returned to some sick man or cripple. But for a wonder neither party,
in spite of roused passions, worked harm on the other, and still
greater wonder neither party resorted to violence, which came from
this, that each was disturbed by direction, and according to plans
framed in higher circles.

The pharaoh, not having collected all his troops and all his proofs
against the priests, did not give the order yet for a final attack on
the temples; the priests seemed waiting for something. It was evident,
however, that they did not feel so weak as in the first moments after
the voting by delegates. Ramses himself became thoughtful when men
reported from every side that people on the lands of the priests did
not mix in disturbances at all, but were working.

"What does this mean?" asked the pharaoh of himself. "Do the shaven
heads think that I dare not touch temples, or have they means of
defense quite unknown to me?"

On the 19th of Paofi a police official informed Ramses that the night
before people had begun to break the walls inclosing the temple of