The mother shrugged her shoulders.
"And it is thou," answered she, with sadness, "who wishest to lead a corps? But Thou art a spoiled girl, not a man and a leader."
"How is that?" interrupted the prince, restraining himself with difficulty from an outburst.
"I cannot recognize my own son. I do not see in thee the future lord of Egypt. The dynasty in thy person will be like a Nile boat without a rudder. Thou wilt drive the priests from the court, but who will remain with thee? Who will be thy eye in the Lower and the Upper Country, who in foreign lands? But the pharaoh must see everything, whatever it be, on which fall the divine rays of Osiris."
"The priests will be my servants, not my ministers."
"They are the most faithful servants. Thanks to their prayers thy father reigns thirty-three years, and avoids war which might be fatal."
"To the priests?"
"To the pharaoh and the state!" interrupted the lady. "Knowest Thou what takes place in our treasury, from which in one day Thou takest ten talents and desirest fifteen more? Knowest Thou that were it not for the liberality of the priests, who on behalf of the treasury even take real jewels from the gods and put false ones in their places, the property of the pharaoh would be now in the hands of Phoenicians?"
"One fortunate war would overflow our treasury as the increase of the
Nile does our fields."
"No. Thou, Ramses, art such a child yet that we may not even reckon thy godless words as sinful. Occupy thyself, I beg, with thy Greek regiments, get rid of the Jew girl as quickly as may be, and leave politics to us."