"I know of whom Thou art speaking, worthiness, for Thou wert always prejudiced against."
"Against whom?"
"Against whom I divine. But I thought that after the agreement with
Herhor, after a long stay in the temple."
"What of the temple? In the temple, and in the whole country, for that matter, I have convinced myself of one thing, that the very best lands, the most active population, and immense wealth are not the property of the pharaoh."
"Quieter! quieter!" whispered Tutmosis.
"But I am quiet always; I have a calm face at all times, so let me speak even here; besides, I should have the right to say, even in the supreme council, that in this Egypt, which belongs entirely to my father, I, his heir and viceroy, had to borrow a hundred talents from a petty prince of Tyre. Is this not a shame?"
"But how did this come to thy mind today?" asked Tutmosis, wishing to put an end to the perilous conversation as quickly as possible.
"How?" answered the prince; and he grew silent, to sink again into meditation.
"It would not mean so much," thought he, "if they deceived me alone; I am only heir to the pharaoh, and not admitted to all secrets. But who will assure me that they have not acted in the same way with my worthy father? He has trusted them entirely during thirty and some years; he has bowed down before miracles, given abundant offerings to the gods, for this result, that his property and power should pass into the hands of ambitious tricksters! And no one has opened his eyes. For the pharaoh cannot, like me, enter Phoenician temples at night, and absolutely no one has admission to his holiness.
"But who will assure me today that the priests are not striving to overthrow the throne, as Hiram said? Even my father informed me that the Phoenicians are most truthful wherever they have an interest to be so. Assuredly it is their interest not to be expelled from Egypt, and not to fall under the power of Assyria. The Assyrians are a herd of raging lions! Wherever they pass through a country nothing is left except ruins and dead bodies, as after a fire."