"The highest wisdom is speaking through thy lips, erpatr," said the official. "I was commanded to find the most guilty, hence I have summoned those whom I have found so; but it is not in my power to return them liberty."
"Why?"
"Look, most worthy, on that box. It is full of papyruses on which are written the details of the case. A judge in Memphis receives a report on the progress of the case daily, and reports to his holiness. What would become of the labor of so many learned scribes and great men if the accused were set free?"
"But they are innocent!" cried the prince.
"There was an attack, therefore an offence. Where there is an offence there must be offenders. Whoever has fallen once into the hands of power, and is described in acts, cannot get free without some result. In an inn a man drinks and pays; at a fair he sells something and receives; in a field he sows and harvests; at graves he receives blessings from his deceased ancestors. How, then, could any one after he has come to a court return with nothing, like a traveler stopping half-way on his journey and turning back his steps homeward without attaining his object?"
"Thou speakest wisely," answered the heir. "But tell me, has not his holiness the right to free these people?"
The official crossed his arms on his breast and bent his head,
"He is equal to the gods, he can do what he wishes; liberate accused, nay, condemned men, and destroy even the documents of a case, things which if done by a common man would be sacrilege."
The prince took farewell of the official, and said to the overseer, "Give the accused better food at my expense." Then he sailed, greatly irritated, to the other bank, stretching forth his hands toward the palace continually, as if begging the pharaoh to destroy the case.
But that day his holiness had many religious ceremonies and a counsel with the ministers, hence the heir could not see him. The prince went immediately to the grand secretary, who next to the minister of war had most significance at the court of the pharaoh. That ancient official, a priest at one of the temples in Memphis, received the prince politely but coldly, and when he had heard him he answered,