es sighed deeply and said with calmness,

"So ye see that it is not proper that my mother should salute me.
Rather I will go to her."

And he passed through a series of halls lined with marble, alabaster,
and wood, painted in bright colors, carved and gilded; behind him went
his immense suite. But when he came to the antechamber of his mother's
apartments, he made a sign to leave him. When he had passed the
antechamber, he stopped a while before the door, then knocked and
entered quietly.

In a chamber with bare walls, where in place of furniture there stood
only a low wooden couch and a broken pitcher holding water, all in sign
of mourning, Queen Niort's, the mother of the pharaoh, was sitting on a
stone. She was in a coarse shirt, barefoot; her face was smeared with
mud from the Nile, and in her tangled hair there were ashes.

When she saw Ramses, the worthy lady inclined so as to fall at his
feet. But the son seized her in his arms, and said with weeping,

"If thou, O mother, incline to the ground before me, I shall be forced
to go under the ground before thee."

The queen drew his head to her bosom, wiped away his tears with the
sleeve of her coarse shirt, and then, raising her hands, whispered,

"May all the gods, may the spirit of thy father and grandfather,
surround thee with blessing and solicitude. O Isis, I have never spared
offerings to thee, but today I make the greatest; I give my beloved son
to thee. Let this kingly son become thy son entirely, and may his
greatness and his glory increase thy divine inheritance."

The pharaoh embraced and kissed his mother repeatedly, then he seated
her on the wooden couch and sat on the stone himself.

"Has my father left commands to me?" inquired he.

"He begged thee only to remember him, but he said to the supreme
council, 'I leave you my heir, who is a lion and an eagle in one
person; obey him, and he will elevate Egypt to incomparable power.'."

"Dost Thou think that the priests will obey me?"

"Remember," answered the queen, "that the device of the pharaoh is a
serpent, and a serpent means prudence, which is silent, and no one
knows when it will bite mortally. If Thou take time as thy confederate,
Thou wilt accomplish everything."

"Herhor is tremendously haughty. Today he dared to put on the miter of
the holy Amenhotep. Of course I commanded him to set it aside. I will
remove him from the government, him and certain members of the supreme
council."