But the serenity of morning scattered the visions which circled above the heated head of the heir, and the succeeding days changed greatly his ideas of the inflexible interests of Egypt.
The visit of the prince to the prison was not fruitless. The investigating official made a report to the supreme judge immediately, the judge looked over the case again, examined some of the accused himself, and in the course of some days liberated the greater number; the remainder he brought to trial as quickly as possible.
When he who had complained of the damage done the prince's property did not appear, though summoned in the hall of the court and on the market- place, the case was dropped, and the rest of the accused were set at liberty.
One of the judges remarked, it is true, that according to law the prince's overseer should be prosecuted for false complaint, and, in case of conviction, suffer the punishment which threatened the defendants. This question too they passed over in silence.
The overseer disappeared from the eyes of justice, he was sent by the heir to the province of Takeus, and soon the whole box of documents in the case vanished it was unknown whither.
On hearing this, Prince Ramses went to the grand secretary and asked with a smile,
"Well, worthy lord, the innocent are liberated, the documents concerning them have been destroyed sacrilegiously, and still the dignity of the government has not been exposed to danger."
"My prince," answered the grand secretary, with his usual coolness, "I did not understand that Thou offerest complaints with one hand and wishest to withdraw them with the other. Worthiness, Thou wert offended by the rabble; hence it was thy affair to punish it. If Thou hast forgiven it, the state has nothing to answer."
"The state! the state!" repeated the prince. "We are the state," added he, blinking.
"Yes, the state is the pharaoh and his most faithful servants," added the secretary.