ying iniquities: whoever
was discovered oppressing the people, no matter whether he were court
official or feudal lord--was instantly deprived of his functions,
and replaced by an administrator of tried integrity. Ramses boasts,
moreover, in an idyllic manner, of having planted trees everywhere, and
of having built arbours wherein the people might sit in the shade in the
open air; while women might go to and fro where they would in security,
no one daring to insult them on the way. The Shardanian and Libyan
mercenaries were restricted to the castles which they garrisoned, and
were subjected to such a severe discipline that no one had any cause of
complaint against these armed barbarians settled in the heart of Egypt.
"I have," continues the king, "lifted up every miserable one out of his
misfortune, I have granted life to him, I have saved him from the mighty
who were oppressing him, and have secured rest for every one in his own
town." The details of the description are exaggerated, but the general
import of it is true. Egypt had recovered the peace and prosperity of
which it had been deprived for at least half a century, that is, since
the death of Minephtah. The king, however, was not in such a happy
condition as his people, and court intrigues embittered the later years
of his life. One of his sons, whose name is unknown to us, but who is
designated in the official records by the nickname of Pentauirit, formed
a conspiracy against him. His mother, Tii, who was a woman of secondary
rank, took it into her head to secure the crown for him, to the
detriment of the children of Queen Isit. An extensive plot was hatched
in which scribes, officers of the guard, priests, and officials in
high place, both natives and foreigners, were involved. A resort to
the supernatural was at first attempted, and the superintendent of the
Herds, a certain Panhuibaunu, who was deeply versed in magic, undertook
to cast a spell upon the Pharaoh, if he could only procure certain
conjuring books of which he was not possessed. These were found to be
in the royal library. He managed to introduce himself under cover of the
night into the harem, where he manufactured certain waxen figures, of
which some were to excite the hate of his wives against their husband,
while others would cause him to waste away and finally perish. A traitor
betrayed several of the conspirators, who, being subjected to the
torture, informed upon others, and these at length b