"If earth-tillers do not need this sum, I do," said he, striking his fist on the arm of the chair.
"Holiness," replied Mefres, "Thou canst in the course of a year receive more than thirty thousand talents, and Egypt twice as much."
"How?"
"Very simply. Give command, sovereign, to expel the Phoenicians from
Egypt."
It seemed that the pharaoh would rush at the insolent high priest; he grew pale, his lips quivered, his eyes stared. But he restrained himself in one moment, and said, in a tone of wonderful calmness,
"Well, sufficient. If ye are able to give only such counsels I shall get on without them. The Phoenicians have our signatures that we will pay them our debts faithfully. Has this occurred to thee, Mefres?"
"Pardon, holiness, but at that moment other thoughts occupied me. Thy ancestors, not on papyrus, but on bronze and stone carved out the statement that the gifts made by them to the gods and the temples belonged and would belong forever to the gods and the temples."
"And to you priests," added the pharaoh, sneeringly.
"As much to us," replied the haughty high priest, "as the state belongs to thee, sovereign. We guard and increase those treasures; but we have not the right to spend them."
The pharaoh left the hall panting with anger, and went to his own cabinet. His position was presented to him with terrible distinctness. Of the hatred of the priests toward him he had no doubt any longer. Those were the same dignitaries who, giddy with pride, had the past year refused him the corps of Memphis, and who had made him viceroy only when it seemed to them that he had performed an act of penitence by withdrawing from the palace the very same who watched every movement of his, made reports regarding him, but did not tell him, the heir to the throne, even of the treaty with Assar, the very same dignitaries who had employed deceit against him in the temple of Hator, and who at the Soda Lakes slaughtered prisoners to whom he had promised freedom.