o indebted to Hiram in spite of those lessons which he
had received in the temple. Meanwhile the holy fathers were silent and
did not even show themselves.

"What does this mean?" asked the prince one day of Tutmosis; "the
priests do not reproach us? We have never indulged in such excesses
before. Music is sounding from morning till evening; we drink,
beginning with sunrise, and we fall asleep with women in our arms or
pitchers at our heads."

"Why should they reproach us?" answered the indignant Tutmosis. "Are we
not sojourning in the city of Astarte, [Astaroth] for whom amusement is
the most pleasing service, and love the most coveted sacrifice?
Moreover the priests understand that after such privations and fasts
rest is due thee."

"Have they said anything?" asked the prince, with disquiet.

"Yes, more than once. Only yesterday the holy Mefres smiled, and said
that amusement attracted a young man like thee more than religion or
the labor of ruling a state."

Ramses fell to thinking,

"So the priests looked on him as a frivolous stripling, though he,
thanks to Sarah, would become a father today or to-morrow. But they
would have a surprise when he spoke to them in his own manner."

In truth the prince reproached himself somewhat. From the time that he
left the temple of Hator he had not occupied himself one day with the
affairs of Habu. The priests might suppose that he was either entirely
satisfied with Pentuer's explanations, or that he was tired of
interfering in government.

"So much the better!" whispered he. "So much the better!"

Under the influence of the endless intrigues of those around him, or
suspicious of those intrigues, the instinct to deceive began in his
young spirit to rouse itself. Ramses felt that the priests did not
divine the subject of his conversation with Hiram, nor the plans which
were forming in his head. It sufficed those blinded persons, that he
was amusing himself; from this they inferred that the management of the
state would remain in their hands forever.

"Have the gods so darkened their minds," thought Ramses, "that they do
not even ask themselves why Hiram gave me a loan so considerable? And
perhaps that crafty Tyrian has been able to lull their suspicious
hearts? So much the better! So much the better!"

He had a marvelously agreeable feeling when he thought that the priests
had blundered. He determined to keep them in that blunder for the
future; hence he amused himsel