"On what do ye live then?"
"On begging, or on that which we earn from some earthworker. In this sore distress we revolted three times, and desired to go home. But the officers and scribes either promised to give something or commanded to beat us."
"For the noise made in my honor?" put in the prince, laughing.
"Thy worthiness speaks truth. Yesterday the revolt was greatest, for which the worthy nomarch Sofra gave command to take the tenth man. Every tenth man was clubbed, and I got the most, for I am big and have three mouths to feed, my own, my wife's, and my daughter's. When I was clubbed I broke away from them to fall down, O lord, in thy presence, and tell thee our sorrows. Beat us if we are guilty, but let the scribes give us that which is due, for we are dying of hunger, we, our wives, and our children."
"This man is possessed!" exclaimed Sofra. "Be pleased, lord, to see the damage he has wrought here. I would not take ten talents for those dishes, pitchers, and tables."
Among the guests, who now were recovering their senses, a muttering began.
"This is a bandit!" said they. "Look at him, really a Hyksos. Boiling up in him is the cursed blood of his ancestors, the men who invaded and ruined Egypt. Such costly furniture, such splendid vessels, broken into fragments!"
"The loss caused the state by one rebellion of unpaid laborers is greater than the value of these vessels," said Ramses.
"Sacred words! They should be written on monuments," said some among the guests. "Rebellion takes people from their labor and grieves the heart of his holiness. It is not proper that laborers should be unpaid for two months in succession."
The prince looked with contempt on those courtiers, changeable as clouds; he turned then to the nomarch.