wered above Egypt, and, oh, shame! above him,
the corning pharaoh, like pyramids.

And he could not tell how often in that year he had recalled the wrongs
which priests had inflicted. At school they had beaten him with sticks
till his back was swollen, or had tortured him with hunger till his
stomach and spine had grown together. At the maneuvers of the year
past, Herhor spoiled his whole plan, then put the blame on him, and
took away the command of an army corps. That same Herhor drew on Mm the
displeasure of his holiness because he had taken Sarah to his house,
and did not restore him to honor till the humiliated prince had passed
a couple of months in a voluntary exile.

It would seem that when he had been leader of a corps and was viceroy
the priests would cease tormenting him with their guardianship. But
just then they appeared with redoubled energy. They had made him
viceroy; for what purpose? to remove him from the pharaoh, and conclude
a shameful treaty with Assyria. They had used force in such form that
he betook himself to the temple as a penitent to obtain information
concerning the condition of the state; there they deceived him through
miracles and terrors, and gave thoroughly false explanations.

Next they interfered with his amusements, his women, his relations with
the pharaoh, his debts, and, finally, to humiliate and render him
ridiculous in the eyes of Egyptians, they made his first-born a Hebrew.

Where was the laborer, where the slave, where an Egyptian convict in
the quarries who had not the right to say, "I am better than thou, the
viceroy, for no son of mine is a Hebrew."

Feeling the weight of the insult, Ramses understood at the same time
that he could not avenge himself immediately. Hence he determined to
defer that affair to the future. In the school of the priests he had
learned self-command, in the court he had learned deceit and patience;
those qualities became a weapon and a shield to him in his battle with
the priesthood. Till he was ready he would lead them into error, and
when the moment came he would strike so hard that they would never rise
again.

It began to dawn. The heir fell asleep, and when he woke the first
person he saw was the steward of Sarah's villa.

"What of the Jewess?" asked the prince.

"According to thy command, worthiness, she washed the feet of her new
mistress," answered the official.

"Was she stubborn?"

"She was full of humility, but not adroit enou