LETTER XXIII.
Palace of Rhoda.
My very dear Mother:
I embrace the first leisure I can command, since closing my last letter, to resume the subject which filled its pages.
This letter, however, I shall withhold, until I either have authority to send it to you, or circumstances render it expedient to destroy it; but in order to keep a record of the events now transpiring, I write them down in the shape of an epistle to my dear mother, so that hereafter, if it be necessary to refer to it for facts, there may be written evidence of them.
The letter of Prince Mœris, which the queen placed in my hands, was dated some years back, and, no doubt, on noticing this, my countenance betrayed surprise; for she said quickly—
"Read that first. I conceal nothing from you. You shall know from the beginning."
By permission of her majesty, I took a copy of the letter, and of the two that follow. It was dated—
"Castle of Bubastis, Pelusian Delta.
"To Amense, Queen:
"Your Majesty,—I address my letter to you from this petty castle, though, albeit, the stronghold of your kingdom seaward, over which you have made me governor. For a subject, this would be a post of honor. For me, the son of your husband's brother, your royal nephew, it is but an honorable exile from a court where you fear my presence. Honorable, do I say?—rather, dishonorable; for am I not a prince of the blood of the Pharaohs? But let this pass, your majesty. I do not insist upon any thing based upon mere lineage. I feel that I was aggrieved by the birth of Remeses. I see that you turn pale. Do not do so yet. You must read further before the blood wholly leaves your cheek. I repeat, I am aggrieved by the 'birth of Remeses.' You see I quote the last three words. Ere you close this letter, your majesty will know why I mark them thus. Your husband, the vicegerent of the Thisitic kingdom of the South, after leaving his capital, Thebes, at the head of a great army, died like a soldier descended from a line of a thousand warrior kings, in combat with the Ethiopian. I was then, for your majesty was without offspring, the heir to the throne of Egypt. I was the son of your husband's younger brother. Though but three years old when your lord was slain, I had learned the lesson that I was to be king of Egypt, when I became a man. But to the surprise of all men, of your council of priests, and your cabinet of statesmen, lo! you soon afterwards became a mother, when no evidences of this promise had been apparent! Nay, do not cast down this letter, O queen! Read it to the end! It is important you should know all.
"When I became of lawful maturity, it was whispered to me by a certain person, that there were suspicions that the queen had feigned maternity, and that she had adopted an infant of the wife of one of her lords, in order to prevent the son of her husband's brother from inheriting. It is true, your majesty, that my father, your lord's brother, loved you, as a maiden, and would have borne you from the palace of Pharaoh, your father, as his own. Yet why should your revenge extend to his son, after he married another princess? Why did you deceive Egypt, and supplant his son (myself), by imposing upon Egypt the infant Remeses, the child of a lord of your palace, whom no one knows, for you took care to send him, with an ample bribe of gold, to Carthage, or some other distant country. Now, your majesty knows whether this be true or not. I believe it to be so, and that the haughty, hypocritically meek Remeses, has no more right to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter than one of the children of the base Hebrews, or of an Egyptian swine-herd; and, by the gods, judging from his features, he might be a Ben Israel!
"I demand, therefore, that you make me viceroy of the Thebaïd. Unless you do so, I swear to your majesty, that I will agitate this suspicion, and fill all Egypt with the idea that your favorite Remeses is not your son. Whether I believe this or not, matters not. If there be any truth in it, your majesty knows, and will, no doubt, act accordingly.
"Your faithful nephew,
"Mœris, Prince."
When I had finished reading this extraordinary letter, I raised my eyes to the queen. She was intently observing its effect upon my countenance.
"Dared that man write thus to your majesty?" I cried, with the profoundest emotions of indignation.
"You have read," answered the queen, with a tremulous voice.
"And did not your majesty at once send and arrest the bold insulter and dangerous man?" I said.
She bit her lip, and said, in a hollow tone—
"Prince of Tyre, is he not this day viceroy of the Thebaïd?"
"Does your majesty mean that you yielded to his demand?"
"Yes."
"I marvel at it," said I, confounded at the acknowledgment. "If what he had said had been true—"
"Sesostris, falsehood often flies faster than truth. It can do as much mischief. The rumor of such a thing, false or true, would have shaken my throne, and destroyed the confidence of the mass of the people in Remeses when he came to the sceptre. I resolved to stifle it by giving Mœris what he asked."
I regarded the queen with sentiments of pity and sorrow. She said quickly—
"Read another letter from him." I did so. It was dated three years later, and demanded the command of the fleet, and its separation from the control of the general-in-chief of the armies. This general-in-chief was Remeses, dear mother. To the demand the queen yielded, and thereby erected the maritime arm of her kingdom into an independent service, acknowledging no superior authority but that of the throne. When I had ended the perusal of the letter, the queen placed in my hand a third missive from this powerful man.
"This is what I received but now," she gasped. "Read it, Sesostris, and give me your sympathy."
It bore date—
"Camp, opposite the Palaces of the Memnonia, Thebaïd.
"To the Queen Amense:
"Your Majesty,—I write from my pavilion pitched at the foot of the Libyan mountains. I need not forewarn you of the subject of this letter, when I assure you that within the hour I have received intelligence from Memphis, that you are about to abdicate your throne in favor of Remeses, your suppositious son. This intelligence does not surprise me. When I was in Lower Egypt, I saw through you and your policy. I perceived that while you feared me, you resolved to defeat my power over you. This purpose, to surrender the sceptre of the two Egypts, I can penetrate. You design, thereby, securely to place Remeses beyond my power to harm him, for that, being king, if I lift a finger he can destroy me. I admire your policy, and bow in homage to your diplomacy. But, O queen, both you and Remeses are in my power! Nay, do not flash your imperial eyes at this assertion. Hear me for a few moments.
"Your ready compliance with my demand, a few years ago, to create me viceroy of Thebes, led me to believe that my suspicions were true; that is, that Remeses was the son of one of your noble ladies, whom you had adopted. And when you made me admiral of your fleet, on my second demand, I was convinced that you feared the truth, and that it might be proven, with proper evidence, that Remeses was not your son. I set to work to obtain this evidence. You know that I have something of the sleuth-hound in my composition, and that once upon a track I will follow it to its termination, were it under the pyramid of Noachis itself. I employed emissaries. I bribed even your own courtiers. I ascertained who were of your court when your husband was killed in Ethiopia, thirty-five years ago. Three old lords and ladies still live, and have good memories when gold, and jewels, and promises of place dazzle their humid eyes. From them I learned, that about the time of the supposed birth of Remeses, you sent away, in one day, five of your ladies and maids of honor, to a distant country: yet not so quickly but that one of them dropped the secret, that you were not a real mother, and that the infant you called your own was the son of another woman. This secret was told to her brother who, in after years, was my master of horse. When, on one occasion, I was about to put him to death for cowardice in battle, he informed me that he held a great secret 'concerning the queen, Prince Remeses, and myself,' and that if I would pardon and restore him to his rank, he would divulge it, saying, that for fear it would be traced to him by your majesty if he ever spoke of it, he had never made it known to any man.
"Curiosity and instinct led me to pardon him. He then stated what I have above written,—that you feigned maternity, and, obtaining a male child from the Hebrew nurse of one of your ladies, who had given birth to it a few weeks before, you shut yourself up three months, and then palmed it upon the priests and people, as the heir of your throne and of the sceptre of the Pharaohs. The mother, the nurse, and the ladies who were parties to the transaction, were then all banished from Egypt.
"Instituting a thorough investigation, by dispatching galleys to Tyre, Carthage, Gades, and the isles of the sea, at length I was rewarded by the discovery of the port to which your women were carried. Two of them only were found alive. Those two are now in the city of On! When I was in Lower Egypt I saw them, and will name them: Thebia, of Pythom, and Nilia, of On. Your majesty perceives how exact I am: that I have my way clear as I advance. Methinks I can see you turn deadly white, and that with a shriek you let fall the papyrus! Take it up again, and resume the perusal. It is useless to shrink from the development of the truth. You may shut your eyes at noon, and say 'It is night,' but you cannot, by so doing, destroy the light of the sun. You may close your eyes—you may destroy this letter, or may read no further; but the truth will shine, nevertheless, with a brightness which will drive night itself before it!
"These venerable women, examined apart, told the same tale. It is as follows:
"'That you had approached the river on the morning of the festival of Isis (you see I am particular), to bathe, as your custom was, in the marble crescent at the foot of the gardens of your palace of Rhoda, where you now are residing. You had descended the steps into the water, and your women had taken your necklace, and other ornaments from you; and, robed in your bathing-dress, you were about to step into the river, when you descried a basket floating slowly past, close to the place where you stood. While you were looking at it, it lodged against a group of flags, near the statue of Nepth, just above you. Your maidens were lingering upon the bank, or walking near at hand, awaiting you, when, seeing Nilia not far off, you called to her, and said—
"'Seest thou the little baris of basket-work, O Nilia. Draw it in to the shore, and look what it contains.'
"The handmaiden obeyed you, aided by her companion, Thebia, and when you drew near and opened the lid, you beheld a beautiful child lying within it. It looked up into your face, and wept so piteously, that you took it up, deeply impressed by its beauty and helplessness, and the extraordinary manner in which it had come to you. You placed it in the arms of Thebia, and said to her:
"'This child is sent to me by Nilus, the deity of this great river of Egypt. I will adopt it as my own, for it has no father but the river, no mother but this little ark of flags and bitumen in which it has floated to my feet.'
"You then gave the lovely babe many kisses, tenderly soothed its cries, and was so happy with the prize, that you hastened to leave the river. But before you did so, the wind blew aside its mantle, and you discovered that it was a Hebrew male child, for the Egyptians do not circumcise their infants. This discovery was made also by the two women, Nilia and Thebia, and you said:
"'It is one of the Hebrews' children.'
"It was at the time when your father's edict for the destruction of all the male children of this Syrian race was in existence. You deliberated what to do with it, when its wailing tones moved your heart, and you said to them:
"'It shall still be mine! Let us keep the secret! I will raise it as my son! Its parents think it has perished, for they could not have hoped to save it by committing it to this frail bark, and it can never know its origin!'
"That child, O queen, is Remeses! Of this I have certain evidence. The two women say, you ordered the little ark to be taken in charge by your chief of the baths. In verification of the account, the ark still exists, and I have seen it.
"It is not necessary for me to add more. I have written enough to show you the power I hold over you, and over this Remeses-Mosis. His very name signifies 'Taken out of the water,' and was given to him by yourself, as if the gods would make you the means of your own conviction.
"Now, O queen, who intendeth to place a degraded Hebrew upon the throne of Egypt, I, Mœris, write this epistle warning you, that unless you revoke your purpose, and publicly adopt me as your son, and convey to me the two crowns, I will proclaim through all Egypt your shame, and the true history of this Remeses! I could have excused you had he proved to be the son of one of your ladies, as the report was; but an Hebrew! He deserves death, and you to forfeit your crown! But I will make these terms with your majesty:—if you will call a council of your hierarchy and adopt me as your son, that I may be your heir, and will abdicate in my favor, I will conceal what I know from the Egyptians; and more still, I will make Remeses governor over Goshen, and lord of all his people under my rule. Is not this liberal?
"If you refuse my terms, I will descend upon Lower Egypt with my fleet, declare your throne vacant, Remeses a slave, and seize the sceptre! Once in my power, your favorite Remeses shall die an ignominious death, and you shall remain a prisoner for life in the castle of Bubastis.
"I dispatch a special courier—my master of horse—whose sister was your lady in waiting at the finding of Remeses. Unless I have a reply in the affirmative, for which my courier will delay six hours, you shall hear me knocking at the gates of Rhoda with the head of my spear!
"Mœris,
"Nephew and heir of Amense, Queen of Egypt."
When, my dear mother, I had finished reading this extraordinary letter, I held it unrolled in my hands for a few moments, stupefied, as it were, with amazement. My eyes sought the face of the queen. It was rigid as iron—white as alabaster; but her regards were riveted upon my countenance.
"Your majesty," I said, hardly knowing what to say, "what fable is this of the daring and impious Prince of Thebes—?"
She interrupted me with—
"What dost thou think, O Sesostris? If it be a fable, is it not, in such a man's hand, as dangerous as truth? Dare I let him circulate such a tale throughout Egypt? Can I let it reach the ears of Remeses?"
"Why not, O queen?" I asked. "If it is false, it can be shown to be so; and my friend Remeses is too great and wise to heed it. Is it by so improbable and artfully framed a story as this, you are made unhappy; and for this you resign your crown and hasten to secure Remeses in power?"
"Is it not enough?"
"No, O wise and virtuous lady!" I answered, with indignant feelings against Mœris, and sympathy for her womanly fears; "my advice to you is, to defy the malice and wickedness of the viceroy, inform Remeses of these letters—nay, let him read them—assemble your army, and meet him with open war. A row of galleys sunk across the Rile will stop his fleet; and if he land, your soldiers, with Remeses at their head, will drive him back to his city of a hundred gates, and—"
Again the queen interrupted me:
"No, no! I cannot tell Remeses! He must never know of these letters!" she almost shrieked.
"Has Remeses any suspicion of the tale they tell?" I asked.
"No. He knows no other mother. If he hears this story, he will investigate it to the last, to show me that he would prove it false in the mouth of Mœris."
"And this he ought to do, your majesty," I said, firmly.
"Prince Sesostris, dost thou believe he could prove it false?" she demanded, in a mysterious and strange tone.
"Undoubtedly," I answered; though, my dear mother, I could not wholly resist the recollection, which forced itself upon me most sharply and painfully, of the resemblance I had noticed between Remeses and the Hebrew people. But I banished the idea it suggested, regarding it more probable for an Egyptian and Hebrew to look alike, than for Remeses to have been born a Hebrew, and adopted by Pharaoh's daughter. Nevertheless, there was apparent to myself a want of fulness in my tones when I answered her "undoubtedly."
The queen came close up to me, and said in a deep, terrible whisper, looking first wildly around her, to see if any one overheard her,—
"He cannot prove it false!"
"You mean, O queen," said I, "that though Remeses cannot prove it false, it nevertheless is false?"
"No. It cannot be proven false, because it is TRUE!" she answered, as if her voice came from within a sarcophagus.
"True?" I repeated, with horror.
"True, O prince! It is impossible for me to conceal or prevaricate. I promised to confide in you; but I have kept back till the last the whole truth! I can do so no longer!" She caught by my arm to sustain her tottering form.
"Is not Remeses, then, your son?" I cried.
"No."
"Is he a Hebrew?"
"Yes."
"Then this letter of Mœris is all true?"
"All, as to the fact that Remeses is a Hebrew!"
Such was the rapid colloquy which followed. O my dear mother, no mortal can estimate the amount of agony which overwhelmed my soul at this intelligence! I sank upon the pedestal of a statue near me, and covering my face with my hands, burst into tears. The queen did not speak, but suffered my paroxysm of grief and mortification to exhaust itself. At length I raised my head. I felt for her—felt, oh how profoundly, for the unhappy Remeses—ignorant of his calamity, and engaged, even then, in the vigils and rites which were to prepare him to ascend the throne! I could now understand all that had been inexplicable in the queen's conduct, unravel her mysterious language, see the motive of all her acts. I no longer marvelled that she, loving Remeses with all a mother's love, trembled before Mœris and his secret, and gave him all he demanded as the price of silence. But when he asked for her throne as the bribe for secrecy, it was more than her spirit could bear; and unable alone, unaided, to meet him in his demand, she sought counsel of me and sympathy; and little by little made known to me, as I have narrated, the secret she would have sacrificed her life to conceal, if she could thereby have concealed it forever from Remeses.
"Poor, noble, unhappy Remeses!" I ejaculated.
"He must never know it!" she cried, passionately.
"It will be known to him," I answered, sorrowfully "If you refuse Prince Mœris's demand, he will write another such missive as this, and dispatch it to Remeses. The prince, if I may, from love, still call him so, will, as you have said, examine the matter. Mœris will refer him to the ladies Nilia and Thebia. He will then come to you—"
"To me?" she cried, with a shudder.
"To you, O queen, and ask of you if Prince Mœris and these women relate the truth."
"He would not believe—he would not believe it—so far as to come to me. He would not insult me by making such a demand of me!"
"He may be forced to it. Circumstances may overcome him, so that he will feel that he must appeal to you. He would refuse to ascend the throne of Egypt, so high is his integrity, if there were a doubt as to his legitimate right to it."
"O prince, counsel me! What shall I do?" she cried, wringing her hands, and looking towards me in the most appealing and helpless manner.
"I know not how to counsel your majesty," I replied, greatly distressed, my heart bleeding both for her and Remeses, who, I felt, sooner or later, must come to the truth of the dreadful rumor; and also from my knowledge of the perfect uprightness and justice of his character, as well as his firmness, that he would investigate it until he either disproved or verified it.
At length, after a long and painful interval of embarrassment, the queen, of her own will, said to me—
"Sesostris, I meant no wrong. I loved the weeping babe, in its desolate state, and no sooner did I take it up than it smiled, and won my heart. You know the fine appearance of Remeses as a man; judge you therefore how lovely he was when an infant three months old. I was childless. My husband had been a few weeks dead, and this infant seemed to be sent to me in part to fill up the place made void in my affections. That it was a Hebrew child did not move me. I had always opposed the cruel edict of the king, my father; and felt that, to save this child of the oppressed Hebrews, would in some degree, atone for the death of so many who were destroyed in obedience to his orders. Thus I was influenced by a threefold motive—to save the infant, to adopt a son, to atone for evil."
"Good and lawful motives, O queen," I said, interested in her narrative, so touchingly told as to deeply affect me.
"I did not believe I was doing evil. I at once, at the suggestion of one of my maids, sent a Hebrew girl, who was gazing upon us from afar, to call a nurse from the Hebrew women for the child. She brought one, comely and gentle in manner, whom I took with me to the palace; and, after instructing her to keep the matter a secret, suffered her to take the child home, for she lived in a garden, not far above the palace, upon the island, her father being a cultivator of flowers for the priests. The tenderness of this Hebrew woman towards the beautiful babe pleased me, and, after I had, in a public manner, acknowledged the child, even as Mœris's letter states, I let it remain with her until it grew to be three years old, when I commanded her to bring it to the palace to remain; for although I had seen it almost daily, I now desired to have it wholly in my possession. From that time he has been brought up in my own palace, as my son, and educated as prince of the empire and heir to the throne. For all my care and affection, he has repaid me with the profoundest devotion, and tenderest attachment. At first, seeing he was very fond of his Hebrew nurse, I jealously forbade her again to visit him, so that I might be the sole object of his attachment. He soon forgot her, and from his fourth year has known no love but mine. When he came to manhood, I had him instructed in the art of war, and made him general of the army of the pyramids. By the greatest philosophers and sages he was taught geometry, astrology, architecture, physics, mythology, and the knowledge of all science. I have spared no care to educate him in all the learning of the Egyptians. With all his wisdom and vast knowledge, he is as docile and gentle in disposition as a child: ever dutifully submissive to my will, the voice which has led armies by its battle-cry, melts into tenderness in my presence. Ah, prince, never mother loved a son as I have loved him!"
"I pity you, O queen, with all my heart," said I, warmly.
"Oh, what shall I do? What shall I reply to Mœris?"
"I know not how to counsel you!" I said, embarrassed by this appeal.
"I will then act. His courier shall not go back unanswered. I will defy him!" A new spirit seemed all at once to animate her.
She clapped her hands. A page entered.
"Bid the Theban courier enter. His answer is ready." The master of horse came haughtily in, a cloud of impatience yet upon his brow.
"Go back to thy master, and say to him, that Amense is still queen of Egypt, and wears both the crowns of her fathers, and that she will defend them. Say, that I defy him, and fear him not!"
The courier looked amazed, bowed with a slight gesture of obeisance, and left the presence.
No sooner had the valves of the door closed upon him, than she said—
"It is done! The arrow is drawn from the quiver, and set to the bowstring. There is nothing left but to defy him, and trust the gods to aid the just cause. Remeses will be crowned king, ere Mœris can get my message and return a letter to him. There are but five days more to the end of the forty. Three days afterwards is the coronation. That is nine from to-day. It will take twelve or more days for a message to go and come from the camp of Mœris. Three days! Time enough to make or mar an empire. Sesostris, this prince of Typhon, this haughty Mœris, shall yet be confounded!"
Thus speaking, the queen, whose whole powers were aroused by despair linked with affection, laid her hand in mine, bade me good-night—for it was now moonlight, so long had we discoursed—and begged me come in the morning and breakfast with her.
Here, in the quiet of my chamber, dear mother, I have made a record of this extraordinary interview. The letter I shall preserve unless it be necessary to destroy it; but I shall not send it to you until the seal of secrecy is removed.
What can I say? How can I realize that Remeses is a Hebrew? How little he suspects the truth! Will he hear it? If he does; but it is useless to speculate upon the consequences. I pray that he may be well crowned before Mœris can do him any mischief; for, son of Misr, or son of Abram, he is worthy of the throne of Egypt, and will wield its sceptre with wisdom and justice, beyond that of any of the proud Pharaohs. The attachment of the queen is natural. I deeply feel for her. The conduct of Mœris is also natural. What will be his course? Farewell, dear mother.
Your affectionate son,
Sesostris