"Since his holiness is very ill. Very."

"Aha! my father is ill, and I meanwhile at the head of the army must
watch the desert lest the sand should run out of it. It is well that
Thou hast reminded me of this! Yes, his holiness must be very ill,
since the priests are so tender toward me. They show me everything and
speak of everything, except this, that Mefres has secreted Lykon."

"Tutmosis," said the prince on a sudden, "dost Thou think today that I
can reckon on the army?"

"We will go to death, only give the order."

"And dost Thou reckon on the nobles?"

"As on the army."

"That is well. Now we may render the rites to Patrokles."

CHAPTER XLVIII

In the course of those few months, during which Prince Ramses had
fulfilled the duties of viceroy of Lower Egypt, his holiness the
pharaoh had failed in health continually. The moment was approaching in
which the lord of eternity, who roused delight in human hearts, the
sovereign of Egypt, and of all lands on which the sun shone, had to
occupy a place at the side of his revered ancestors in the Libyan
catacombs which lie on the other side of the city Teb.

Not over advanced in age was this potentate, the equal of the gods, he
who gave life to his subjects, and had power to take from husbands
their wives whenever his heart so desired. But thirty and some years of
rule had so wearied him that he wished, of his own accord, to rest and
regain youth and beauty in that kingdom of the west, where each pharaoh
reigns without care through eternity over people who are so happy that
no man of them has ever wished to return to this earth from that
region.

Half a year earlier the holy lord had exercised every activity
connected with his office, on which rested the safety and prosperity of
all visible existence.

Barely had the cocks crowed in the morning when the priests roused the
sovereign with a hymn in honor of the rising sun. The pharaoh rose from
his bed and bathed in a gilded basin containing water fragrant with
roses. Then his divine body was rubbed with priceless perfumes amid the
murmur of prayers, which had the power of expelling evil spirits.

Thus purified and incensed by prophets, the lord went to a chapel,
removed a clay seal from the door and entered the sanctuary unattended,
where on a couch of ivory lay the miraculous image of Osiris. This
image bad the wondrous quality that every night the hands, feet and
head fall from it. These on a time had b