"Well, dost Thou see," interrupted the high priest, "it is thy duty to act with us, not with Ramses."
"Does he wish war with Assyria," replied Pentuer, energetically, "or does he hinder priests from acquiring wisdom? He wishes to give the people every seventh day for rest, and later to give each family of earth-workers a small bit of land for subsistence. Do not tell me, worthiness, that the pharaoh wishes evil, for it has been verified on temple ground that a free man who has his own patch of earth labors incomparably better than one without freedom."
"I am not opposed to relieving common people," said Herhor, "but I am convinced that Ramses will do nothing for them."
"Surely not if you refuse him money."
"Even were we to give him a pyramid of gold and silver, and another of precious stones, he would do nothing that is a mad stripling whom the Assyrian ambassador, Sargon, never mentioned otherwise than as a frivolous youngster."
"The pharaoh has great capabilities."
"But he has no knowledge, and no skill," replied Herhor. "He barely visited the high school a little and left it at the earliest. Hence, today, in affairs of state he is like a blind person; he is like a child which puts out pieces boldly on a board, but has no idea how to play at draughts."
"Still he governs."
"Oh, Pentuer, what is his government?" interrupted the high priest, with laughter. "He has opened new military schools, he has increased the number of regiments, he is arming the whole people, he has promised holidays to working men. But how will he carry out his projects? Thou keepest far from him, hence knowest nothing; but I assure thee that he, when issuing orders, never stops to ask: Who will carry out this? What are the means? What will follow? It seems to thee that he governs. It is I who govern, I govern all the time, I, whom he dismissed. I am the cause that today fewer taxes come to the treasury, but I also prevent the rebellion of laborers; because of me they do not leave work on the canals, dams, and roadways. To sum up, I have twice restrained Assyria from declaring war on us, war which that madman was calling out by his military dispositions.
"Ramses govern! He merely rouses disorder. Thou hadst trial of his management in Lower Egypt: he drank, frolicked, brought in woman after woman, and pretended to occupy himself with administration of the province, but he understood nothing, absolutely nothing. What is worst of all, he became intimate with Phoenicians, with bankrupt nobles, and traitors of various kinds, who are urging him to ruin."