"But the priests are performing religious services in secret for the return of health to the pharaoh. I know this to a certainty.'"'
The prince was astonished.
"How! my father seriously ill, the priests are praying for him, but tell me nothing?"
"They say that the illness of his holiness may last a year."
"Oh, Thou hearest fables and art disturbing me. Better tell me about the Phoenicians."
"I have heard," said Tutmosis, "only what every one has heard, that while in the temple Thou wert convinced of the harm done by Phoenicians, and didst bind thyself to expel them."
"In the temple?" repeated the heir. "But who knows what that is of which I convinced myself in the temple, and what I decided to do?"
Tutmosis shrugged his shoulders, and was silent.
"Was there treason, too, in the temple?" thought the prince. "Summon Dagon in every case," said he, aloud. "I must know the source of these lies, and by the gods, I will end them."
"Thou wilt do well, for all Egypt is frightened. Even today there is no one to lend money, and if those reports continue all commerce will cease. Our aristocracy have fallen into trouble from which none see the issue, and even thy court is in want. A month hence the same thing may happen in the palace of his holiness."