beneath his robe, and said
quickly,

"Guess what I have in my hand, worthiness."

"What?" repeated Ramses, with astonishment.

"Guess quickly and truly," insisted the priest, "for if Thou art
mistaken two of thy regiments perish."

"Thou hast a ring," said the heir, who had grown joyous.

Mentezufis opened his hand; there was a bit of papyrus in it.

"But what have I now?" asked the priest again.

"A ring."

"Well, not a ring, but an amulet of the divine Hator. Dost see, lord,
that is a battle? In time of battle Fate holds out her hand every
moment, and commands us to guess at the very quickest the surprise
enclosed in it. We succeed, or we fail; but woe to the man who fails
oftener than he guesses; and a hundredfold more to those on whom Fate
turns her back and forces into blunders."

"But still I believe, and I feel here," cried the heir, striking his
breast, "that Assyria must be trampled."

"Oh, that the god Amon might speak through thy mouth," said Mentezufis.
"What Thou sayst is true; Assyria will be humbled, perhaps even with
thy hands, but not immediately not immediately."

The priest took farewell; Ramses remained alone. In his head and his
heart raged a hurricane.

"So Hiram was right in saying that they deceive us," thought he. "I am
certain now that our priests have made a treaty with the Chaldeans
which his holiness will be forced to sanction. Has anyone ever heard of
a thing so monstrous? He, the lord of the living, and of the western
world, must sign a treaty invented by intriguers!"

Breath failed him.

"The holy Mentezufis has betrayed himself. It is true, then, that in
case of need Egypt can put forth an army of half a million? I did not
even dream of such forces. Still they think that I fear their fables
about fate, which commands us to solve riddles. Only let me have two
hundred thousand men, trained like Greek and Libyan regiments, and I
would undertake to solve all riddles on earth and in the heavens."

"That is a hot head," thought the worthy Mentezufis, while returning to
his cell, "a woman hunter, an adventurer, but strong. After the weak
pharaoh of today he reminds us rather of Ramses the Great. In ten years
the stars may change; he will ripen and crush Assyria. Of Nineveh there
will remain only ruins, sacred Babylon will find its true place, and
the one supreme God, the God of Egyptian and Chaldean prophets, will
reign from the Libyan desert to the sacred Ganges."

"If our