"He did. He said it was known, however, to Prince Mœris, who held it over you as a power of evil."
"Did Remeses suspect its nature?" she demanded.
"He informed me that he once had a suspicion which your majesty removed."
"Yes," she said, with a strange, cold smile, "he fancied that Mœris's secret was, that he was the true heir of the throne—my son; and that Remeses was the nephew of Pharaoh, not himself! Was it not an extraordinary idea, prince?" she asked me with the same icy irony that was unaccountable to me. "Who could ever doubt that Remeses is my own son?"
"No one, your majesty," I answered, seeing she looked to me for a reply.
"Surely no one! Dost thou not mark how like our eyes are? And then our voices are much on the same key, though his, as becomes a man, is deeper. His smile, is it not mine? Nay, no one could say we are not mother and son, could they, O Prince of Tyre? How strange, is it not, that Remeses should have conceived such an idea?"
"He had probably heard, your majesty, traditions of infant sons of kings having been interchanged; and as he could not account for the Prince of Thebes' influence over you by a secret, on any other reasonable grounds, he ventured this supposition."
"But he never will doubt again, O Sesostris!" she cried in an earnest manner; "no one now could make him suspect, a second time, he is not my son! Oh no, never! never! Could they, think you, my lord prince?"
"No, madam," I answered; her singular manner and language wholly surprising me, and leading me to fear that she was not at all well; that her nerves had been too severely tried by the intelligence, whatsoever its nature was, which she had received from Prince Mœris. "Your majesty, I hope, has had no evil tidings," I added, glancing at the letter she still grasped.
"Oh, evil! All evil, all!" she cried, with anguish in her looks. "Prince Sesostris!" she all at once exclaimed, "you can be trusted! I need sympathy. I cannot have it unless I reveal to you my terrible secret! I know I can confide in you. My heart will break unless I rest the weight which oppresses it upon another heart!"