At this he took his mother by the hand, led her to the window, and pointed to a forest of spears held by infantry drilling in the courtyard.
This act of the pharaoh produced an unexpected effect. The queen's eyes, which a moment before gleamed with pride, were filled with tears. All at once she bent and kissed her son's hand, saying with emotion,
"Thou art, indeed, the son of Isis and Osiris, and I did well when I yielded thee to the goddess. Egypt at last has a ruler."
From that time the worthy lady never appealed to her son in any question. And when she was asked for protection, she answered,
"I am the servant of his holiness and I advise you to carry out his commands without resistance. All he does comes from inspiration of the gods. And who can oppose the gods?"
After breakfast the pharaoh was occupied in affairs of the ministry of war, and the treasury; about three in the afternoon, surrounded by a great suite, he went to the troops encamped outside Memphis, and reviewed them.
Indeed, the greatest changes had taken place in the military condition.
In less than two months his holiness had organized five new regiments, or rather he had reestablished those disbanded during the reign of his father. He dismissed officers addicted to drunkenness and gambling, also those who tortured warriors.
Into the military bureaus, where priests alone had held office, he introduced his most capable adjutants, who very soon mastered important documents relative to the army. He commanded to make a list of all men in the state who belonged to the military order, but who for years had not fulfilled any duty. He opened two new schools, one for the education of officers, and one for children of twelve years, and renewed a custom then in abeyance, that youths in the army should receive breakfast only after three hours' marching in line and in column.
Finally, no division of the army was permitted to dwell in villages, all must live in camps or in barracks. Each regiment had its fixed field of exercise, where for whole days the warriors hurled stones from slings or shot arrows from bows at marks from one to two hundred yards distant.