"Camp, opposite the Palaces of the Memnonia, Thebaïd.
"To the Queen Amense:
"Your Majesty,—I write from my pavilion pitched at the foot of the Libyan mountains. I need not forewarn you of the subject of this letter, when I assure you that within the hour I have received intelligence from Memphis, that you are about to abdicate your throne in favor of Remeses, your suppositious son. This intelligence does not surprise me. When I was in Lower Egypt, I saw through you and your policy. I perceived that while you feared me, you resolved to defeat my power over you. This purpose, to surrender the sceptre of the two Egypts, I can penetrate. You design, thereby, securely to place Remeses beyond my power to harm him, for that, being king, if I lift a finger he can destroy me. I admire your policy, and bow in homage to your diplomacy. But, O queen, both you and Remeses are in my power! Nay, do not flash your imperial eyes at this assertion. Hear me for a few moments.
"Your ready compliance with my demand, a few years ago, to create me viceroy of Thebes, led me to believe that my suspicions were true; that is, that Remeses was the son of one of your noble ladies, whom you had adopted. And when you made me admiral of your fleet, on my second demand, I was convinced that you feared the truth, and that it might be proven, with proper evidence, that Remeses was not your son. I set to work to obtain this evidence. You know that I have something of the sleuth-hound in my composition, and that once upon a track I will follow it to its termination, were it under the pyramid of Noachis itself. I employed emissaries. I bribed even your own courtiers. I ascertained who were of your court when your husband was killed in Ethiopia, thirty-five years ago. Three old lords and ladies still live, and have good memories when gold, and jewels, and promises of place dazzle their humid eyes. From them I learned, that about the time of the supposed birth of Remeses, you sent away, in one day, five of your ladies and maids of honor, to a distant country: yet not so quickly but that one of them dropped the secret, that you were not a real mother, and that the infant you called your own was the son of another woman. This secret was told to her brother who, in after years, was my master of horse. When, on one occasion, I was about to put him to death for cowardice in battle, he informed me that he held a great secret 'concerning the queen, Prince Remeses, and myself,' and that if I would pardon and restore him to his rank, he would divulge it, saying, that for fear it would be traced to him by your majesty if he ever spoke of it, he had never made it known to any man.
"Curiosity and instinct led me to pardon him. He then stated what I have above written,—that you feigned maternity, and, obtaining a male child from the Hebrew nurse of one of your ladies, who had given birth to it a few weeks before, you shut yourself up three months, and then palmed it upon the priests and people, as the heir of your throne and of the sceptre of the Pharaohs. The mother, the nurse, and the ladies who were parties to the transaction, were then all banished from Egypt.
"Instituting a thorough investigation, by dispatching galleys to Tyre, Carthage, Gades, and the isles of the sea, at length I was rewarded by the discovery of the port to which your women were carried. Two of them only were found alive. Those two are now in the city of On! When I was in Lower Egypt I saw them, and will name them: Thebia, of Pythom, and Nilia, of On. Your majesty perceives how exact I am: that I have my way clear as I advance. Methinks I can see you turn deadly white, and that with a shriek you let fall the papyrus! Take it up again, and resume the perusal. It is useless to shrink from the development of the truth. You may shut your eyes at noon, and say 'It is night,' but you cannot, by so doing, destroy the light of the sun. You may close your eyes—you may destroy this letter, or may read no further; but the truth will shine, nevertheless, with a brightness which will drive night itself before it!
"These venerable women, examined apart, told the same tale. It is as follows:
"'That you had approached the river on the morning of the festival of Isis (you see I am particular), to bathe, as your custom was, in the marble crescent at the foot of the gardens of your palace of Rhoda, where you now are residing. You had descended the steps into the water, and your women had taken your necklace, and other ornaments from you; and, robed in your bathing-dress, you were about to step into the river, when you descried a basket floating slowly past, close to the place where you stood. While you were looking at it, it lodged against a group of flags, near the statue of Nepth, just above you. Your maidens were lingering upon the bank, or walking near at hand, awaiting you, when, seeing Nilia not far off, you called to her, and said—
"'Seest thou the little baris of basket-work, O Nilia. Draw it in to the shore, and look what it contains.'
"The handmaiden obeyed you, aided by her companion, Thebia, and when you drew near and opened the lid, you beheld a beautiful child lying within it. It looked up into your face, and wept so piteously, that you took it up, deeply impressed by its beauty and helplessness, and the extraordinary manner in which it had come to you. You placed it in the arms of Thebia, and said to her: