venturer came like a thief to Egypt, and put on the
members of the supreme council a treaty so shameful that we should be
justified in signing it only after we had lost battles, lost all our
regiments and both capitals. And to think that this was done by one
man, most assuredly a spy of King Assar! And our sages let themselves
be so charmed by his eloquence, that, when the pharaoh would not let
them give up Phoenicia, they disbanded regiments in every case, and
caused war on our western boundary. Have we ever heard of a deed like
this?" continued Ramses, no longer master of himself. "When it was just
the time to raise the army to three hundred thousand and hurry on to
Nineveh, those pious maniacs discharged twenty thousand men and fired
their own dwelling-house."

Mefres, still and pale, listened to these jeers. At last he said,

"I know not, worthy lord, from what source Thou hast taken thy
information. May it be as pure as the hearts of the highest counselors!
But let us suppose that Thou art right, that some Chaldean priest had
power to bring the council to sign a burdensome treaty with Assyria. If
it happened thus, whence knowest Thou that that priest was not an envoy
of the gods, who through his lips forewarned us of dangers hanging over
Egypt?"

"How do the Chaldeans enjoy your confidence to such a degree?" asked
the viceroy.

"The Chaldean priests are elder brothers of the Egyptians," interrupted
Mentezufis.

"Then perhaps the Assyrian king is the master of the pharaoh?"

"Blaspheme not, worthiness," said Mefres, severely. "Thou art pushing
into the most sacred things frivolously, and to do that has proved
perilous to men who were greater than Thou art."

"Well, I will not do so. But how is a man to know that one Chaldean is
an envoy of the gods, and another a spy of King Assar?"

"By miracles," answered Mefres. "If, at thy command, prince, this room
should fill with spirits, if unseen powers were to bear thee in the
air, we should know that Thou wert an agent of the immortals, and
should respect thy counsel."

Ramses shrugged his shoulders. "I, too, have seen spirits: a young girl
made them. And I saw a juggler lying in the air in the amphitheatre."

"But Thou didst not see the fine strings which his four assistants had
in their teeth," put in Mentezufis.

The prince laughed again, and, remembering what Tutmosis had told him
about the devotions of Mefres, he said in a jeering tone,

"In the days o