"Live Thou forever!"
Tutmosis commanded to prepare twenty-five two-wheeled chariots of the
heavy cavalry, and ordered the volunteers to enter. Then he with
Kalippos mounted their horses, and soon the whole retinue turned toward
Memphis and vanished in a dust cloud.
When Hiram saw this from the window of a villa, he bowed before the pharaoh and whispered,
"Now for the first time I believe that Thou art not in conspiracy with the high priests."
"Wert Thou mad?" burst out the pharaoh.
"Pardon, sovereign, but the attack on the temple today was planned by the priests. How they drew thee into it, holiness, I do not understand to this moment."
It was five in the afternoon.
CHAPTER LXVI
AT that same hour to a minute, the priest, watching on the pylon of the temple of Ptah in Memphis, informed the high priests and nomarchs counseling in the hall, that the palace of the pharaoh was giving some signals.
"It seems that his holiness will beg us for peace," said one of the nomarchs, smiling.