"My son," said the queen, "yields to the pressure of your counsels. But he does not wish force; he forbids you to use it."
"Ha! if that be the case," said the young priest of Set, "I will tell his holiness one other thing." He breathed a couple of times deeply, but still he finished in a stifled voice and with effort. "On the streets of Memphis the party of the priests is announcing, that."
"That what? Speak boldly," said the pharaoh.
"That thou, holiness, art insane, that Thou hast not the ordination of high priest, that Thou art not even made pharaoh, and that 'it is possible to exclude thee from the throne."
"That is just what I feared," whispered Niort's.
The pharaoh sprang up from his seat.
"Tutmosis!" cried he, in a voice in which his recovered energy was heard. "Take as many troops as Thou wishest; go to the temple of Ptah and bring me Herhor and Mefres, accused of high treason. If they are justified I will return my favor; in the opposite case."
"Hast Thou finished?" interrupted the queen.
This time the indignant pharaoh did not answer her, and the officials cried,
"Death to traitors! When has it begun that in Egypt a pharaoh must sacrifice faithful servants to beg for himself the favor of scoundrels?"