“Remember, Master, that you hold the King’s seal. Let an answer be sent to Idernes under the White Seal, bidding him wait on you.”
Then I rose and spoke.
“O Peroa,” I said, “as it chances I am the bearer of the private signet of the Great King, which all men must obey in the north and in the south, in the east and in the west, wherever the sun shines over the dominions of the King. Look on it,” and taking the ancient White Seal from about my neck, I handed it to him.
He looked and the Councillors looked. Then they said almost with one voice,
“It is the White Seal, the very signet of the Great Kings of the East,” and they bowed before the dreadful thing.
“How you came by this we do not know, Shabaka,” said Peroa. “That can be inquired of afterwards. Yet in truth it seems to be the old Signet of signets, that which has come down from father to son for countless generations, that which the King of kings carries on his person and affixes to his private orders and to the greatest documents of State, which afterwards can never be recalled, that of which a copy is emblazoned on his banner.”
“It is,” I answered, “and from the King’s person it came to me for a while. If any doubt, let the impress be brought, that is furnished to all the officers throughout the Empire, and let the seal be set in the impress.”
Now one of the officers rose and went to bring the impress which was in his keeping, but Peroa continued,
“If this be the true seal, how would you use it, Shabaka, to help us in our present trouble?”
“Thus, Prince,” I answered. “I would send a command under the seal to Idernes to wait upon the holder of the seal here in Memphis. He will suspect a trap and will not come until he has gathered a great army. Then he will come, but meanwhile, you, Prince, can also collect an army.”