ring Ramses' stay in the temple of Hator the Phoenicians, seized by a
panic, passed their days in prayer and refused credit to every man. But
after Hiram's interview with the viceroy caution deserted the
Phoenicians, and they began to make loans to Egyptian lords more
liberally than at any time earlier.

Such abundance of gold and goods as there was in Lower Egypt, and,
above all, such small per cent the oldest men could not remember.

The severe and wise priests turned attention to the madness of the
upper classes; but they were mistaken in estimating the cause of it,
and the holy Mentezufis, who sent a report every few days to Herhor.
stated that the heir, wearied by religious practices in the temple, was
amusing himself to madness, and with him the entire aristocracy.

The worthy minister did not even answer these statements, which showed
that he considered the rioting of the prince as quite natural and
perhaps even useful.

With such mental conditions around him Ramses enjoyed much freedom.
Almost every evening when his attendants had drunk too much wine and
had begun to lose consciousness, the prince slipped out of the palace.
Hidden by the dark burnous of an officer, he hurried through the empty
streets and out beyond the city to the gardens of the temple of
Astaroth. There he found the bench before that small villa, and, hidden
among the trees, listened to the song of Kama's worshipper, and dreamed
of the priestess.

The moon rose later and later, drawing near its renewal. The nights
were dark, the effects of light were gone; but in spite of this Ramses
continued to see that brightness of the first night, and he heard the
passionate strophes of the Greek singer.

More than once he rose from his bench to go directly to Kama's
dwelling, but shame seized him. He felt that it did not become the heir
of Egypt to show himself in the house of a priestess who was visited by
any pilgrim who gave a bountiful offering to the temple. What was more
striking, he feared lest the sight of Kama surrounded by pitchers and
unsuccessful admirers might extinguish the wonderful picture in the
moonlight.

When Dagon had sent her to turn away the prince's wrath, Kama seemed
attractive, but not a maiden for whom a man might lose his head
straightway. But when he, a leader of armies and a viceroy, was forced
for the first time in life to sit outside the house of a woman, when
the night roused him to imaginings, and when he heard t