ery evening to
Kama, who received with increasing favor his courting and his presents.

Such was the condition of mind in the higher circles, when on a certain
night the holy Mentezufis rushed to the prince's dwelling, and declared
that he must see the viceroy immediately.

The courtiers answered that one of his women was visiting their lord,
and that they would not disturb him. But when Mentezufis insisted with
increasing emphasis, they called out Ramses.

The prince appeared after a time, and was not even angry.

"What is this?" asked he of the priest. "Are we at war, that Thou
takest the trouble to visit me at an hour like the present?"

Mentezufis looked diligently at the prince, and sighed deeply.

"Has the prince not gone out all the evening?" inquired he.

"Not a step."

"Can I give a priest's word for this?"

The heir was astonished.

"It seems to me," answered he, haughtily, "that thy word is not needed,
since I have given mine. What does this mean?"

They withdrew to a special chamber.

"Dost Thou know, lord," asked the excited priest, "what has happened,
perhaps an hour since? Some young men attacked the worthy Sargon and
clubbed him."

"Who were they? Where did this happen?"

"At the villa of a Phoenician priestess named Kama," answered
Mentezufis, watching the face of the heir sharply.

"Daring fellows," said the prince, shrugging his shoulders, "to attack
such a stalwart man! I suppose that more than one bone was broken in
that struggle."

"But to attack an ambassador! Consider, worthy lord, an ambassador
protected by the majesty of Assyria and Egypt," said the priest.

"Ho! ho!" laughed the prince. "Then King Assar sends ambassadors even
to Phoenician dancers?"

Mentezufis was confused. All at once he tapped his forehead, and cried
out also, with laughter,

"See, prince, what a simple man I am, unfamiliar with ceremonies. I
forgot that Sargon, strolling about in the night near the house of a
suspected woman, is not an ambassador, but an ordinary person."

After a while he added,

"In every case something evil has happened. Sargon may conceive a
dislike for us."

"Priest! O priest!" cried Ramses, shaking his head. "Thou hast
forgotten this, a thing of much more importance, that Egypt has no need
to fear or even care for the good or bad feeling toward her, not merely
of Sargon, but King Assar."

Mentezufis was so confused by the appositeness of the remark, that,
instead of an