"'Is it not thy secret, O my mother, which Prince Mœris shares with thee? Am I not right? Does not that Hebrew child,' I cried, rising, 'now stand before thee?'
"She shrieked, and fell insensible!
"At length I restored her to consciousness. I related all I have told you. Reluctantly, she confessed that all was true as I had seen it. I then, in a scene such as I hope never to pass through again, assured her I should refuse the throne and exile myself from Egypt. She implored me with strong appeals to keep the secret, and mount the throne. I firmly refused to do so, inasmuch as it would be an act of injustice, not only to Mœris, but to the Egyptians, to deceive them with a Hebrew ruler. She reminded me how, for sixty-one years, Prince Joseph had governed Egypt. 'Yes,' I said, 'but it was openly and without deceit; while my reign, would be a gross deception and usurpation.' But, O Sesostris, I cannot revive the scene. It has passed!—I have yielded! She showed me the letters of Prince Mœris. She implored me for her sake to keep the secret, and aid her in resisting the conspiracy of the viceroy. When I reflected that he had made my mother so long miserable, and now menaced her throne, I yielded to her entreaties to remain a few days at the head of the affairs that have been intrusted to my control, and to lead the army against Mœris, should he fulfil his menace to invade Lower Egypt. After that, I said, I shall refuse to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, and will retire from the Court."
"Not among the Hebrews?" I exclaimed.
"No, perhaps not. I have nothing in common with them. I can do them no good: I cannot yet consent to share their bondage. I shall seek my own family, for the queen has told me who they are. My mother, my own mother, Sesostris, shall again fold her child to her heart! I recollect her beautiful, tearful face, as seen in the vision of the pyramids. I have a brother, too, and a sister!"
"I know them both!" I cried, almost joyfully; though, dear mother, it was a sad joy I felt, to know that Remeses was a brother to Miriam and the ecclesiastic gold-caster. He became at once interested, and I told him all I knew about them, as I have you. He listened with deep attention, and seemed pleased. I also told him how often I had conversed, in the garden of flowers, with the venerable Amram, the father of Miriam.
"And my father also, you should add," he said, with a melancholy smile. "I knew it not, Sesostris; I believed him to be the husband of my nurse. Thinkest thou all this time he knew I was his son?"
"I doubt it not," I answered. "The eyes of your father and mother must naturally have been upon you from your childhood up. They must have witnessed all your career, and rejoiced in it, and kept the secret locked in their own humble hearts, lest you and the world should know it, and the glory they secretly saw you sharing, be taken away or resigned by you."
"I shall see them. They shall yet hear me say, mother, father, brother, sister, to each one of them. But, Sesostris, I must then bid them farewell forever, and Egypt also,—if the queen will permit me to go," he suddenly added, with bitter irony unusual with him; "for slaves must have no will but their master's."
I laid my arm kindly and sympathizingly upon his shoulder, and silently embraced him.