"They are pitiless with me," thought Ramses.
"Speak on, O Pentuer, sent down from heaven to us," said Mefres.
"So then, holy men," continued Pentuer, "we have learned of two misfortunes, the pharaoh's income has decreased, and his army is diminished."
"What need of an army?" grumbled the high priest, shaking his head contemptuously.
"And now, with the favor of the gods and your permission, I will explain why it has happened thus, why the treasury will decrease further, and troops be still fewer in the future."
The prince raised his head and looked at the speaker. He thought no longer now of the man put to death beneath the corridor.
Pentuer passed a number of steps along the amphitheatre, and after him the dignitaries.
"Do ye see at your feet that long, narrow strip of green with a broad triangular space at the end of it? On both sides of the strip lie limestone, granite, and, behind these, sandy places. In the middle of the green flows a stream, which in the triangular space is divided into a number of branches."
"That is the Nile! That is Egypt!" cried the priests.
"But look," interrupted Mefres, with emotion. "I will discover the river. Do ye see those two blue veins running from the elbow to the hand? Is not that the Nile and its canals, which begins opposite the Alabaster mountains and flows to Fayum? And look at the back of my hand: there are as many veins there as the sacred river has branches below Memphis. And do not my fingers remind you of the number of branches through which the Nile sends its waters to the sea?"