"Ho! ho!" laughed the boatman, meanwhile, "but are they giving him drink! He will grow so thick that his wife must lengthen his belt for him."
The prince commanded to row to the mound. Meanwhile they had taken the man from the river, let him cough out water, and seized him a second time by the legs, in spite of the unearthly screams of his wife, who fell to biting the men who had seized her.
"Stop!" cried Ramses to those who were dragging the earth-tiller.
"Do your duty!" cried he of the sheepskin wig, in nasal tones. "Who art thou, insolent, who darest."
At that moment the prince gave him a blow on the forehead with his cane, which luckily was light. Still the owner of the stained tunic dropped to the earth, and feeling his wig and head, looked with misty eyes at the attacker.
"I divine," said he in a natural voice, "that I have the honor to converse with a notable person. May good humor always accompany thee, lord, and bile never spread through thy bones."
"What art Thou doing to this man?" interrupted Ramses.
"Thou inquirest," returned the man, speaking again in nasal tones, "like a foreigner unacquainted with the customs of the country and the people, to whom he speaks too freely. Know, then, that I am the collector of his worthiness Dagon, the first banker in Memphis. And if Thou hast not grown pale yet, know that the worthy Dagon is the agent and the friend of the erpatr, may he live through eternity! and that Thou hast committed violence on the lands of Prince Ramses; to this my people will testify."
"Then know this," interrupted the prince; but he stopped suddenly. "By what right art Thou torturing in this way one of the prince's earth- tillers?"
"Because he will not pay his rent, and the treasury of the heir is in need of it."