"I saw him too; but that was a trick, while Mefres wishes to be borne above the earth really on the wings of his devotion."
"Unheard-of buffoonery! What do the other priests say to this?"
"Perhaps in our sacred papyruses there is mention that in old times there were prophets among us who had the gift of suspending themselves in the air; so the desires of Mefres do not astonish priests nowadays. And since, as is known to thee, subordinates among us see whatever pleases superiors, some holy men claim that during prayer Mefres really rises a couple of fingers high above the pavement."
"Ha! ha! ha! And with this great secret the whole court is occupied, and we, like laborers or earth-diggers, do not even suspect that miracles are wrought at one side of us. A wretched fate to be heir to the throne of Egypt!" laughed the viceroy.
When he grew calm, at the repeated request of Tutmosis, he commanded to transfer Sarah from the servants' house to Kama's first villa. The servants were delighted at this change; all the serving and slave women, and even the scribes conducted Sarah to her new dwelling with music and shouts of pleasure.
The Phoenician woman, when she heard the uproar, asked the reason; and when they told her that Sarah had been restored to the favor of the prince, and that from the servants' house she had been transferred to the villa, the enraged ex-priestess sent for Ramses.
The prince came.
"Dost Thou treat me in this way?" screamed she, losing control of her temper. "Thou didst promise that I should be thy first woman, but before the moon traversed half the heavens thy promise was broken. Perhaps Thou thinkest that the vengeance of Astaroth will fall on the priestess alone, and not reach to princes."
"Tell thy Astaroth," replied Ramses, calmly, "not to threaten princes, or she may go herself to the servants' house."
"I understand!" exclaimed Kama. "I shall go to the servants' house, perhaps even to prison, while Thou wilt spend nights with thy Jewess. Because I have left the gods for thee I have drawn down a curse on my own head. Because I left them I know no rest for a moment; I have lost my youth for thee, my life, my soul even, and this is the pay which Thou givest me."