"Sit down," interrupted the prince.
Both priests obeyed his command.
"I ask because in view of my plans I must know why the Libyan regiments were disbanded."
"Others too will be disbanded," caught up Mentezufis. "The supreme council desires to disband twenty thousand of the most expensive warriors, so that the treasury of his holiness may save four thousand talents yearly, without which want may soon threaten the court of the pharaoh."
"A thing which does not threaten the most wretched of Egyptian priests," added Ramses.
"Thou forgettest, worthiness, that it is not proper to call a priest wretched," replied Mentezufis. "And if want threatens none of them, the merit is found in their moderate style of living."
"In that case the statues drink the wine which is carried every day to the temples, while stone gods dress their wives in gold and jewels," jeered Ramses. "But no more about your abstemiousness. Not to fill the treasury of the pharaoh has the council of priests disbanded twenty thousand troops and opened the gates of Egypt to bandits."
"But why?"
"This is why: to please King Assar. And since his holiness would not agree to give Phoenicia to Assyria, ye wish to weaken the state in another way, by disbanding hired troops and rousing war on our western boundary."
"I take the gods to witness that Thou dost astonish us, worthiness," cried Mentezufis.