"As long as it is your pleasure," Yubra answered, with downcast eyes and, Khnum fancied, with the same defiance with which he sang Aton's hymn in the pit.
"Look here, old man; I have spared you and not handed you over to the magistrates, but do you know what the lawful penalty is for what you have done? To be buried alive or thrown into the water with a stone round your neck."
"Well, let them put me to death for truth's sake."
"For what truth? Say plainly what possessed you to raise your hand against the holy Ushebti?"
"I have told you already."
"Surely you can take the trouble to say it again."
"I did it for my soul's sake. To save my soul. Here I am a slave, but there I shall be free."
He paused and then said in a changed voice: "There the wicked cease from troubling and the weary are at rest; the prisoners are at peace and do not hear the gaoler's voice; there the great and the small are equal and the slave is free from his master."
He paused again and asked:
"Do you know the parable of the rich and the poor?"