hat they have not acted in the same way with my worthy
father? He has trusted them entirely during thirty and some years; he
has bowed down before miracles, given abundant offerings to the gods,
for this result, that his property and power should pass into the hands
of ambitious tricksters! And no one has opened his eyes. For the
pharaoh cannot, like me, enter Phoenician temples at night, and
absolutely no one has admission to his holiness.

"But who will assure me today that the priests are not striving to
overthrow the throne, as Hiram said? Even my father informed me that
the Phoenicians are most truthful wherever they have an interest to be
so. Assuredly it is their interest not to be expelled from Egypt, and
not to fall under the power of Assyria. The Assyrians are a herd of
raging lions! Wherever they pass through a country nothing is left
except ruins and dead bodies, as after a fire."

All at once Ramses raised his head; from a distance came the sound of
flutes and horns.

"What does this mean?" inquired he of Tutmosis.

"Great news!" replied the courtier, with a smile. "The Asiatics are
welcoming a famous pilgrim from Babylon."

"From Baby Ion? Who is he?"

"His name is Sargon."

"Sargon?" repeated the prince. "Sargon? Ha! ha!" laughed the prince.
"What is he?"

"He must be a great dignitary at the court of King Assar. He brings
with him ten elephants, a herd of most beautiful steeds of the desert,
crowds of slaves and servants."

"But why has he come?"

"To bow down before the wonderful goddess Astaroth, who is honored by
all Asia," answered Tutmosis.

"Ha! ha! ha!" laughed the prince, recalling what Hiram had said of the
coming of the Assyrian ambassador, Sargon. "Ha! ha! ha! Sargon, a
relative of King Assar, has become all at once such a devotee that for
whole months he goes on a difficult journey only to do honor in Pi-Bast
to the goddess Astaroth. But in Nineveh he could have found greater
gods and more learned priests. Ha! ha! ha!"

Tutmosis looked at the prince with astonishment.

"What has happened to thee, Erpatr?" asked he.

"Here is a miracle not described, I think, in the chronicles of any
temple. But think, Tutmosis: When Thou art most occupied with the
problem of catching the thief who is always plundering thee, that same
thief puts his hand again into thy casket before thy eyes, in presence
of a thousand witnesses. Ha! ha! ha! Sargon, a pious pilgrim!"

"I understand nothing,"