"Those hucksters," said he in his heart, "consider me as one of themselves, nay more, they dare to hold up to me a bag of gold from afar so as to extort a treaty! I know not that any of the pharaohs admitted them to such confidence! I must change. The men who fall on their faces before the envoys of Assar may not say to me, 'Sign and Thou wilt get!' Stupid Phoenician rats, who steal into the pharaoh's palace and look on it as their own den a moment later!"
The longer he thought over it the more precisely he recalled the bearing of Hiram and Dagon, the greater the auger that seized him,
"How dare they how dare they lay conditions down to me? Hei, Tutmosis!" cried he.
His favorite stood before him immediately.
"What dost Thou command, my lord?"
"Send some one of the younger officers to Dagon to inform him that he has ceased to be my banker. He is too stupid for such a lofty position."
"But to whom dost Thou predestine the honor, holiness?"
"I know not at the moment. It will be necessary to find some one among Egyptian or Greek merchants. In the last resort we will turn to the priests."
Information of this resolve went through all the palaces, and before an hour it had reached Memphis. Throughout the whole city people said that the Phoenicians were in disfavor with the pharaoh. Towards evening the Egyptians had begun to break into the shops of the hated foreigners.
The priests drew a breath of relief. Herhor even made a visit to holy
Mefres and said to him,