ing with us? Wilt Thou forgive his foul
reviling of miracles?" inquired Mefres. "Moreover this stripling has
insulted me grievously in my religious practices."

"Whoso speaks with a drunken man is himself an offender," said Sem. "To
tell the truth, ye had no right, worthy fathers, to speak with a man
who was not sober about important state questions. Ye committed a fault
in making a drunken man commander of an army. A leader must be sober."

"I bow down before thy wisdom," said Mefres; "still I vote to lay a
complaint against the heir before the supreme council."

"But I vote against a complaint," answered Sem, energetically. "The
council must learn of all acts of the viceroy, not through a complaint,
but through an ordinary report to it."

"I too am opposed to a complaint," said Mentezufis.

The high priest, Mefres, seeing that he had two votes against him,
yielded in the matter of a complaint. But he remembered the insult from
the prince and hid ill-will in his bosom.

CHAPTER XLI

BY advice of astrologers the headquarters were to move from Pi-Bast on
the seventh day of Hator. For that day was "good, good, good." Gods in
heaven and men on earth rejoiced at the victory of Ra over his enemies;
whoever came into the world on that day was destined to die at an
advanced age surrounded by reverence.

That was a favorable day for pregnant women, and people trading in
woven stuffs, but for toads and mice it was evil.

From the moment that he was appointed commander Ramses rushed to work
feverishly. He received each regiment as it arrived; he inspected its
weapons, its train, and its clothing. He greeted the recruits, and
encouraged them to diligent exercise at drilling, to the destruction of
their enemies and the glory of the pharaoh. He presided at every
military council, he was present at the examination of every spy, and
in proportion as tidings were brought in, he indicated on the map with
his own hand the movement of Egyptian armies and the positions of the
enemy.

He passed so swiftly from place to place that they looked for him
everywhere, and still he swooped on them suddenly like a falcon. In the
morning he was on the south of Pi-Bast and verified the list of
provisions; an hour later he was north of the city, and discovered that
a hundred and fifty men were lacking in the left regiment. In the
evening he overtook the advance guard, was at the crossing of an arm of
the Nile, and passed in review two h