"You love Him more than the truth?"
"More."
"Go to Him, then, to the tempter, the son of perdition, the devil!"
"It's you who are the devil!" she cried, raising her hand as though she would strike him.
The dumb man rushed up to her, seized her by the arm and raised a knife over her.
"Leave her alone!" Ptamose said, and the old man drew back.
Suddenly there was a sound of bleating, low as the weeping of a child but old and feeble: it was the Ram. Ptamose looked at the animal and the animal at him and they seemed to understand each other.
"The Great One foretells woe, woe to the earth with its bleating!" the old man exclaimed, raising his eyes to Dio. "Go up—you will see what He is doing. It has begun already and will not end until He comes!"
Then he glanced at the dumb priest and said:
"Take her upstairs and don't molest her, you answer for her with your life!"