LETTER XXV.
Palace of Remeses, City of On.
My dearest Mother:
Your courier reached me yesterday with your important letter, advising me of the refusal of the King of Cyprus to receive your ambassador, or release your subjects; and that you only await my return to declare war. I shall not fail to respond to your call, and will next week leave Egypt for Syria. I have not yet visited the Thebaïd, and the superb temples of Upper Egypt, nor seen the wonderful Labyrinth, nor the Cataracts; but I hope at some future day to revisit this interesting land. I feel, indeed, rejoiced to go away now, as the painful and extraordinary events connected with Remeses have cast a gloom over all things here, and changed all my plans.
But I will resume the narrative, interrupted by the abrupt ending of my last letter. That, with the preceding, as well as this, I shall now send to you, as the seal of secrecy is removed from them, by the publicity which has been given to all the events by Remeses.
To return, dear mother, to the account of the scenes which the magicians presented to his vision, in the black marble chamber of the pyramid.
"I now," continued Remeses, "beheld the excited mother reach the presence of the princess, trying to calm the wild tumult of hope and fear in her maternal bosom; and to her, I saw the princess, after many inquiries, commit the charge of the infant.
"'I shall adopt this child, O nurse,' she said; 'bring it, therefore, to the palace daily that I may see it. Take as faithful care of it as if it were your own, and you shall be rewarded with my favor, as well as with a nurse's wages.'
"The joyful Hebrew woman tried to repress her happiness, and trembled so, that the princess said—
"'Thou art awkward. Carry it tenderly; and see that thou keep this secret closely, or I shall take the boy away from thee, woman, and also punish thee. What is thy name?'
"'Jochebeda,' she answered.
"'And thy husband's?'
"'Amram, your majesty,' she replied.
"I saw her, O Sesostris, when she had well got out of the princess's sight, clasp, by stealth, her recovered child to her bosom, while words of tenderness were in her mouth, and her eyes streaming with tears of gratitude and wonder.
"That child, O Sesostris, was myself!" suddenly exclaimed Remeses. "Of this you have already been convinced. I saw the scene before me, rapidly change from day to night, and months and years fly by like a cloud, or like a fleet of ships leaving no trace of their track on the closing waters. Through all I saw myself, from the infant of three years old, taken into the palace from my Hebrew mother, to the boy of twelve—to the youth of twenty! Like the cycle of fate, that scene rolled by before my eyes, until I saw myself, that is, the Hebrew boy, in every scene of my life up to the very moment then present. Then, with a sound of mournful music, the Nile and its scenes slowly faded from before my vision, and I was alone! The whole fearful history had terminated in me, and left me standing there in solitude, to reflect upon what I had seen.
"Housing myself from my stupor of amazement, I staggered back, and sunk in horror upon the stone bench. I know not how long I lay there, but I was at length aroused by a hand upon my shoulder; I looked up and beheld the magician with the emblem of life, and the emerald-tipped wand. He said—
"'My son, thou hast read the past of thy life! Wilt thou still be King of Egypt?'
"'By what power hast thou opened the gates of the past? How hast thou known all this?' I cried, with a heart of despair.
"'Dost thou believe?'
"'As if the open Book of Thoth lay before me! I doubt not,' I answered.
"'Wilt thou be King of Egypt?' again asked another voice. A third, in another direction, took it up, and every subterranean echo of the vaulted pyramid seemed to take up the cry. I rushed from the hall, not knowing whither I went. Doors seemed to open before me, as if by magic, and I at length found myself emerging, guided by the magician, into the open night. The granite valves of the gate closed behind me, and I was alone, in the quadrangle of the great temple of Thoth. The stars shone down upon me like mocking eyes, watching me. I fled onward, as if I would fly from myself—I feared to reflect. I passed the sphinx, the pylones, the obelisks; and ran along the avenue of the Lake of the Dead, until I reached the Nile. I crossed it in a boat that I found upon the shore, and without having formed any clear idea of what I ought to do, sought the palace, and gained my mother's ante-room. Did I say 'my mother,' Sesostris? I meant the good queen. I sent in a page to say I wished to see her. In surprise at my return, before the forty days were fulfilled, she came to the door hurriedly, in her night-robe, and opened it. I entered as calmly as I could, and did not refuse her kiss, though I knew I was but a Hebrew! One night's scenes, dreadful as they were, O Sesostris, could not wholly break the ties of a lifetime of filial love and reverence. I closed the door, secured it in silence, and then sat down, weary with what I had undergone; and, as she came near and knelt by me, and laid her hand against my forehead, and asked me 'if I were ill, and hence had left the temple,' I was overcome with her kindness; and when the reflection forced itself upon me that I could no more call her mother, or be entitled to these acts of maternal solicitude, I gave way to the strong current of emotion, and fell upon her shoulder, weeping as heartily as she had seen me weep when lying in the little ark a helpless infant.
"During this brief moment, a suspicion flashed across my mind, that the magicians might have produced this as a part of my trial as a prince;—that it was not real, but that by their wonderful arts of magic they had made it appear so to my vision. I seized upon this idea, as a man drowning in the Nile grasps at a floating flower.
"'Mother,' I said, 'I am ill. I am also very sorrowful!'
"'The tasks and toils of thy initiation, my son, have been too great for thee. Thy face is haggard and thy looks unnatural. What is thy sorrow?'
"'I have had a vision, or what was like a dream, my mother. I saw an infant, in this vision, before me, placed in an ark, and set adrift upon the Nile. Lo, after being borne by the current some ways, it was espied by a princess who was bathing, whose maids, at her command, brought it to her. It contained a circumcised Hebrew child. The princess, being childless, adopted it, and educated it, and declared it to be her son. She placed him next to her in the kingdom, and was about to resign to him the crown, when—'
"Here my mother, whose face I had earnestly regarded, became pale and trembled all over. She seized my hands and gasped—
"'Tell me, Remeses, tell me, was this a dream, or hast thou heard it?'
"'I saw it, my mother, in a vision, in the subterranean chamber of the pyramids. It was one of those scenes of magic which the arts of the magi know how to produce.'
"'Dost thou believe it?' she cried.
"'Is it not thy secret, O my mother, which Prince Mœris shares with thee? Am I not right? Does not that Hebrew child,' I cried, rising, 'now stand before thee?'
"She shrieked, and fell insensible!
"At length I restored her to consciousness. I related all I have told you. Reluctantly, she confessed that all was true as I had seen it. I then, in a scene such as I hope never to pass through again, assured her I should refuse the throne and exile myself from Egypt. She implored me with strong appeals to keep the secret, and mount the throne. I firmly refused to do so, inasmuch as it would be an act of injustice, not only to Mœris, but to the Egyptians, to deceive them with a Hebrew ruler. She reminded me how, for sixty-one years, Prince Joseph had governed Egypt. 'Yes,' I said, 'but it was openly and without deceit; while my reign, would be a gross deception and usurpation.' But, O Sesostris, I cannot revive the scene. It has passed!—I have yielded! She showed me the letters of Prince Mœris. She implored me for her sake to keep the secret, and aid her in resisting the conspiracy of the viceroy. When I reflected that he had made my mother so long miserable, and now menaced her throne, I yielded to her entreaties to remain a few days at the head of the affairs that have been intrusted to my control, and to lead the army against Mœris, should he fulfil his menace to invade Lower Egypt. After that, I said, I shall refuse to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, and will retire from the Court."
"Not among the Hebrews?" I exclaimed.
"No, perhaps not. I have nothing in common with them. I can do them no good: I cannot yet consent to share their bondage. I shall seek my own family, for the queen has told me who they are. My mother, my own mother, Sesostris, shall again fold her child to her heart! I recollect her beautiful, tearful face, as seen in the vision of the pyramids. I have a brother, too, and a sister!"
"I know them both!" I cried, almost joyfully; though, dear mother, it was a sad joy I felt, to know that Remeses was a brother to Miriam and the ecclesiastic gold-caster. He became at once interested, and I told him all I knew about them, as I have you. He listened with deep attention, and seemed pleased. I also told him how often I had conversed, in the garden of flowers, with the venerable Amram, the father of Miriam.
"And my father also, you should add," he said, with a melancholy smile. "I knew it not, Sesostris; I believed him to be the husband of my nurse. Thinkest thou all this time he knew I was his son?"
"I doubt it not," I answered. "The eyes of your father and mother must naturally have been upon you from your childhood up. They must have witnessed all your career, and rejoiced in it, and kept the secret locked in their own humble hearts, lest you and the world should know it, and the glory they secretly saw you sharing, be taken away or resigned by you."
"I shall see them. They shall yet hear me say, mother, father, brother, sister, to each one of them. But, Sesostris, I must then bid them farewell forever, and Egypt also,—if the queen will permit me to go," he suddenly added, with bitter irony unusual with him; "for slaves must have no will but their master's."
I laid my arm kindly and sympathizingly upon his shoulder, and silently embraced him.
"I feel for you, O Remeses, with all my heart," I said.
"I know you do, O prince: I am sure that you do. But let us terminate this subject. My mother's—I mean, alas! the queen's desire shall be gratified. I will, for a few days, continue as I am, but no more return to the temples. My initiation is over. Without doubt the priests of the hierarchy will seek to put me to death, when they learn that a Hebrew has been initiated into all their learning and mysteries. It will be necessary for me to leave Egypt."
"Then let Tyre, O prince, be thy asylum—thy future home!" I cried. "There the Hebrew is not in bondage, and is a Syrian among Syrians. There you shall have a palace and retinue, and be served as becomes your wisdom and greatness. My mother Epiphia will welcome you with pleasure, for she has already learned to honor you, from my letters. Our city is about to go to war with the King of Cyprus, and my mother has written, urging me to return. Twelve galleys will await me at Pelusium, in a fortnight hence, to escort my own to Tyre. Consent, O Remeses, to go with me."
"Noble prince," he exclaimed, deeply moved, "how can I thank you! It is the greatest consolation, in this my sorrow and humiliation, to know that you do not withdraw from me your friendship; that you can still esteem me as a man! Sesostris, I thank you. I will accept your offer, if my—that is, the queen, will change her mind, and permit me to address a letter, by a swift courier, to Prince Mœris. In it I will briefly say that I am informed of my true lineage, and that if he will quietly wait the succession, and be submissive to the queen, and withhold his army from Memphis, I will, within three days after obtaining his affirmative reply, leave Egypt for a foreign land. Such a course will prove the best in the end for him and Egypt, and I have no doubt he will consent to adopt it. How extraordinary that this wily man should so long have kept the secret with which he so terribly menaced my—the queen!"
I approved of the course suggested. Remeses soon afterwards sought the queen; and at the end of four hours he returned to me, looking very weary and pale, yet smiling, saying—
"It is achieved! It was a fearful struggle! The queen has consented! Indeed, she seems heart-broken, spirit-crushed! This discovery, against which her soul has so long battled, has left her prostrate, almost wrecked! For her sake I bore up and hid my own unfathomable sorrow. She has, at my solicitation, consented that I shall not only write to Prince Mœris, inserting a clause enjoining silence as to my birth, but her own courier shall be its bearer, signifying her wish for conciliation. The letter was written in her presence, the clause for silence introduced, and the courier is already gone with it."
While Remeses was speaking, a page entered and informed him that the queen wished to see him. He found her ill with a feverish pulse. She called him to her, and said—
"My son, I am about to die! This blow is too heavy for me to bear! I shall never recover! It was my wish to leave you firmly seated upon my throne; but the gods have decreed otherwise. Call a council of the hierarchy. I must not be faithless to my ancestors, and leave a vacant throne. You have advised me to adopt Prince Mœris. I can do no otherwise. For this act, assemble my councils, both of state and of the priesthood."
"I obeyed," said Remeses, when he subsequently related what passed. "The next day the councils met in one session, and the queen, supported upon her couch, presided. Briefly she announced her intention of adopting Mœris-Mento,—giving his full name,—as her son, and the next in succession to the throne, their consent being obtained. Then came up the question, 'why Prince Remeses declined?' Being present, I answered that it was my intention to retire from the court, visit foreign lands, and leave the government of Egypt in the hands of Mœris. At the earnest request of the queen I made no allusion to the secret. The united councils yielded their assent, and the royal secretary drew up the papers in due form, which the queen, supported by me, signed. A courier was then dispatched with a copy of the instrument to the prince. The cabinet was soon afterwards dismissed, and I was left alone with the queen, who soon became very ill."
Thus far, my dearest mother, had I written in this letter five days ago, when the chief chamberlain came hastening to my room, in great terror, saying that the queen was dying! I lost not a moment in following him to her apartments. Ever since the meeting of the council she had been growing worse, and all the skill of her physicians could not abate the disease, which was pronounced inflammation of the brain. She had been for two days wildly delirious, calling upon Remeses not to leave her, and accusing the gods of seeking to put upon her a stranger for her own son! At length her ravings and her fever ceased, and she rapidly failed. When I entered, I found Remeses kneeling by her side, his manly head bowed upon her couch, and tears falling upon her cold hand, held in his. Her mind was clear now, but I could see that the azure circle of death girdled her eyes, and that the light of the soul within was expiring. Her whole attention was fixed upon Remeses, to whom she kept saying, in a faint whisper, and with a smile, "My son, my son, my own son! call me mother!"
"Mother, O my mother!" he exclaimed, in his strong anguish, "I cannot part with thee! Thou hast been a mother to me indeed!"
As I entered, her gaze turned towards me.
"It is the Prince of Tyre! I thought it was the others!"
"What others, my mother?" asked Remeses.
"They will soon come. I commanded him to bring them all. I must see them ere I die. But the Prince of Tyre is welcome!" And she smiled upon me, and gave me her other hand to kiss. It was cold as ivory! I also knelt by her, and sorrowfully watched her sharpening features, which the chisel of Death seemed shaping into the marble majesty of a god.
At this moment the door opened, and I saw, ushered in by a Hebrew page, the venerable head gardener, Amram; the young Hebrew ecclesiastic; Miriam the papyrus writer; and, leaning upon her arm, a dignified and still beautiful dame of fifty-five. I could not be mistaken—this last was the mother of Remeses.
"Cause all persons to go forth the chamber," cried the queen at the sight, her voice recovering in part its strength. She glanced at me to remain.
"Come hither, Amram," she said, "and lead to my bedside thy wife. Remeses, behold thy mother and father! Mother, embrace thy son! Since he can be no longer mine, I will return him to thee forever!" Her voice was veiled with tears. Remeses rose, and turning to his mother, who looked worthy of him, said:
"My mother, I acknowledge thee to be my mother! Give me thy blessing, as thou hast often done in my infancy."
He tenderly and respectfully embraced her, and then pressing his father's hand to his lips, he knelt before them. They were deeply moved, and instead of blessing him, wept upon him with silent joy.
"Are there not two more—a brother, a sister?" said Remeses, his fine face radiant with that ineffable beauty which shines from benevolence and the performance of a holy duty. I then led forward Miriam, whom he regarded with admiring surprise (for she looked like a queen in her own right), and then tenderly embraced, saying to me, "Though I have lost a kingdom, O Sesostris, I have gained a sister, which no crown could bestow upon me." Then, when he saw the noble and princely looking priest, he cried, as he folded him to his breast—
"This is, indeed, my brother!"
The whole scene was touching and interesting beyond the power of my pen to describe, my dear mother. The dying queen smiled with serene pleasure, and waving her hand, Remeses led first his mother, and then his father, and in succession his sister and brother, to her couch. Upon the heads of each she laid her hand, but longest upon the mother's, saying:
"Love him—be kind to him—he has no mother now but thee! Love him for my sake—you cannot but love him for his own! If I took thy babe, O mother, I return thee a man and a prince worthy to rule a nation, and in whom my eyes, closing upon the present, and seeing far into the future, behold a leader of thy people—a prince to thy nation. Born to a throne, he shall yet reign king of armies and leader of hosts, who I see follow him obedient to his will and submissive to the rod of his power. Remeses, I die! Kiss me!"
The noble Hebrew reverently bent over her lips, as if in an act of worship; and when he lifted his face, there remained a statue of clay. The Queen of Egypt was no more!
Sesostris
I closed, dear mother, my account of the death of the great and good Queen Amense (which I wrote the day following that sad event), in order to accompany Remeses to the chief embalmers. As I passed through the streets, I saw that the whole population was in mourning. Women went with dishevelled hair, men ceased to shave their heads and beards, and all the signs of woe for death, which I have before described, were visible. By the laws of Egypt, not even a king can be embalmed in his own palace. Remeses, on reaching the suburb of the embalmers, was received into the house of the chief, and here he gave directions as to the fashion of the case and sarcophagus, and the pattern of the funeral car, and of the baris in which it was to cross the Nile to the pyramid which, I have already said, she has been, since the first year of her reign, erecting for her burial-place—placing a casing of vast stones, brought down from the quarries near Elephantis, each year.
I will not delay to describe the ceremonies of preparation, nor the embalmment and burial of the august lady whose demise has cast a pall over Egypt. Your assurance that it would take you five months to get ready your war-fleet against Cyprus, and the desire of Remeses that I delay until the eighty days' mourning for the queen were over, induced me to remain. It is now four days since her burial in the centre of her stately pyramid, with the most imposing and gorgeous rites ever known at the entombment of a monarch. Prince Mœris was chief mourner! I have omitted to state that he readily acceded to the conditions proposed in the letter of Remeses, and when the courier followed, conveying to him the fact that he had been adopted and declared her heir by the queen, he addressed a frank and friendly letter to Remeses; for it is easy for him to assume any character his interest prompts. As soon as the intelligence of the death of the queen reached him, he hastened to Memphis. Here he had an interview with Remeses, whom he treated with courtesy, and offered the supervision of that part of Egypt where the Hebrew shepherds dwell; for I have learned that in a valley, which leads from Raamses to the Sea of Arabia, there are hundreds of Hebrews who, like their ancestors, keep vast flocks and herds belonging to the crown, but out of which they are allowed a tenth for their subsistence. Over this pastoral domain, embracing about twenty thousand shepherds, the prospective Pharaoh proposed to place Remeses. I felt that it was intended as an insult; but Remeses viewed it as an evidence of kindness on the part of one who knows not how to be noble or great.
The interment of the queen past, there is nothing to detain either Remeses or myself longer in Egypt. By her bounty he is rich, and has given to his parents a large treasure, which will enable them to be at ease; and besides, the queen gave to them and to Aaron (this is the name of the elder brother of Remeses), and his sister, the right of citizenship. Mœris, the day of the queen's burial, virtually ascended the throne. His coronation, however, will not take place until after he has passed through the forty days' novitiate.
And now, my dear mother, you will be surprised to learn that, the information of the Hebrew birth of Remeses (who has modestly dropped his first Egyptian name and adheres only to the second, which is Mosis, or Moses, as the Hebrews pronounce it), was wickedly conveyed, with large bribes, to the magicians by Prince Mœris himself; and that, upon this information and influence, they recalled from the past, which, like the future, is open to their magical art, the scenes of his life, and presented them before his vision.
Wonderful, incomprehensible, dear mother, above all things I have seen in Egypt, is the mysterious power of these magicians and sorcerers. Originally of the priestly order, they have advanced into deeper and deeper mysteries, until the hierarchy of the regular temple-worship fear them, and deny their ecclesiastical character, saying, "that they have climbed so high the mountains of Osiris, that they have fallen headlong over their summits into the dark realms of Typhon, and owe their dread power to his auspices."
Whatever be the source of their powerful art, dear mother, there is no doubt of its reality. Not even all the invocations, sacrifices, oblations, prayers, libations, and exercises of the regular priesthood can compete with these magicians and sorcerers. They can convert day into night! destroy the shadow of an obelisk! fill the air with a shower of sand, or of flowers! convert their rods into vines that bear grapes! and walk with living asps as if they were almond or acacia rods! They can present before the inquirer, the face or scene in a distant land that is desired to be beheld! They can remove blocks of porphyry by a touch of the finger, and make a feather heavy as gold! They can cause invisible music in the air, and foretell the rain! And when extraordinary motives and rewards are brought to bear upon them, they can, by their united skill and necromantic art, aided by sorcery, reproduce the past, as in the case of Remeses!
These powerful, yet dreaded and hated men, have for ages been an appendage to the crown, and call themselves the "servants of the Pharaohs." The kings of Egypt, who have protected, favored, and sought their assistance, have also trembled at their power. Without question they are aided by the evil genii; and perform their works through the agency of the spirit of evil.
This, dear mother, will be the last letter I shall write you from Egypt. Accompanied by Remeses, I shall to-morrow embark in my galley for Pelusium. My friend, the Admiral Pathromenes, will accompany us to the mouth of the Eastern Nile. I ought to say that King Mœris, now Pharaoh-elect, has extended towards me marked civilities, and seeks for a continuance of friendly intercourse. I shall bear a royal letter from him to your majesty, expressive of his respect for you, and his desire to perpetuate the alliance. But I have no love for the man! If I can, I will raise an army in Phœnicia, after I see the King of Cyprus chained to the poop of my galley, and, placing Remeses at the head, invade Egypt, call the Hebrews to arms, and, overturning the throne of Mœris, place my friend in his seat. Did not the dying queen prophesy that he was born to rule? It is over Egypt he will yet wield the sceptre! I will do my part, dear mother, to fulfil the prophecy.
To the lovely Princess Thamonda convey my devotions, and assure her that I shall make war against Cyprus more successfully, with her heart wedded to mine, than alone. Warn her, dear mother, that I shall claim her hand as soon as I return, and that Remeses will be the groom-friend whom I shall honor with the high place of witness and chief guest at our nuptials.
Farewell, dear mother.
Remeses desires to unite with me in affectionate regards to you.
Your son,
Sesostris
[Here the correspondence of the Prince of Tyre with the Queen Epiphia terminates.]