"For example, thirty thousand talents."
"Immediately?"
"No, in the course of a year."
"Thou wilt have it, holiness," answered Hiram, without hesitation.
The pharaoh was astonished at this liberality.
"But must I give you a pledge?"
"Only for form's sake," replied the Phoenician. "Give us, holiness, the quarries in pledge, so as not to rouse the suspicions of priests. Were it not for them, Thou wouldst have all Phoenicia without pledge or paper."
"But the canal? Am I to sign a treaty at once?" asked Ramses.
"Not at all. Thou wilt make, O holiness, a treaty when it pleases thee."
It seemed to the pharaoh that he was uplifted in the air. At that moment it seemed to him that he had tasted for the first time the sweetness of regal power, and tasted it, thanks to the Phoenicians.