"Why?"
"Because a great misfortune would happen. If our lord hears that Lykon feigns insanity and pretends to be the pharaoh, he will fall into terrible anger. Naturally he will direct that anger against Herhor and Mefres. Maybe he will only abuse them in words, maybe he will imprison them, maybe he will kill them. Whatever he does, he will do it without proof, and what then? Egypt at present does not care to give offerings to the gods, but it will take the part of priests injured without reason. And what then? Well," added he, approaching his lips to Tutmosis' ear, "I think it would be the end of the dynasty."
"What am I to do?"
"One thing!" exclaimed Antefa. "Find Lykon, prove that Mefres and Herhor secreted him, and ordered him to counterfeit the pharaoh as insane. Thou must do this, if Thou wish to keep the favor of thy sovereign. Proofs as many proofs as possible! Egypt is not Assyria; Thou canst not act against high priests without the court, and no court will condemn them without tangible evidence. Where hast Thou the certainty that some one did not give the pharaoh an intoxicating potion? That would be simpler than to send out a man at night who knows neither the watchword, nor the palace, nor the garden. I have heard of Lykon from an authentic source, for I heard from Hiram. Still, I do not understand how Lykon could perform such miracles in Thebes."
"But but" interrupted Tutmosis, "where is Hiram?"
"Immediately after the wedding he went to Memphis, and in these last days he was in Hiten."
Tutmosis again was in trouble: "That night," thought he, "when they took a naked man to Eunana, the pharaoh said that he was going to see Hiram. But as Hiram was not in Thebes, then what? Well, his holiness knew not at the moment that of which he himself was talking."
Tutmosis returned home dazed. Not only did he fail to understand what he was to do in that unheard-of position, but even he knew not what to think of the position itself. His conviction while conversing with Niort's, that Lykon, the emissary of high priests, had appeared in the garden, was equaled now by his doubts as to whether the Greek had been there at all.
And if this was the case with Tutmosis the favorite, who saw Ramses at all times, what must it be in the hearts of strangers. The most devoted adherents of the pharaoh and his measures might hesitate on hearing from all sides that their sovereign was demented.
This was the first blow which the priests gave Ramses XIII Slight in itself, it involved results which were beyond reckoning.