"Because they will furnish arms to you and to Assyrians; they will furnish, also, supplies and information, and for everything they furnish they will make you pay ten prices. They will plunder the dead and wounded of both armies. They will buy slaves from your warriors and from the Assyrians. Is that little? Egypt and Assyria will ruin themselves, but the Phoenicians will build up new storehouses with wealth from both sides!"
"Who explained such wisdom to thee?" asked the prince, smiling.
"Do I not hear my father and our relatives and friends whispering of this, while they look around in dread lest some one may hear what they are saying? Besides, do I not know the Phoenicians? They lie prostrate before thee, but Thou dost not note their deceitful looks; often have I seen their eyes green with greed and yellow from anger. O lord, guard thyself from Phoenicians as from venomous serpents."
Ramses looked at Sarah, and involuntarily he compared her sincere love with the calculations of the Phoenician priestess, her outbursts of tenderness with the treacherous coldness of Kama.
"Indeed," thought he, "the Phoenicians are poisonous reptiles. But if Ramses the Great used a lion in war, why should I not use a serpent against the enemies of Egypt?"
And the more plastically he pictured to himself the perversity of Kama, the more did he desire her. At times heroic souls seek out danger.
He took farewell of Sarah, and suddenly, it is unknown for what reason, he remembered that Sargon had suspected him of taking part in the attack on his person.
The prince struck his forehead.
"Did that second self of mine," thought he, "arrange the attack on the ambassador? But if he did, who persuaded him? Was it Phoenicians? But if they wished to connect my person with such a vile business? Sarah says, justly, that they are scoundrels against whom I should guard myself always."
Straightway anger rose in him, and he determined to settle the question. Since evening was just coming, Ramses, without going home, went to Kama.