Remeses regarded her with surprise, and said, sternly yet not cruelly—
"What dost thou wish? Why dost thou fly from thy taskmaster?"
"When I cast down my load and took up my mother's, who was ready to die, he struck me because I could not take both together. I would have done it, O lord prince, but had not the strength."
"Go back to thy task, young woman. Thou shalt not be punished for a kind act to thy mother. The gods forbid we should destroy all filial ties, even among our slaves." This last sentence was spoken rather with his own mind than addressed to any one. "What is this I hear?" he continued, speaking to the sub-officer, who, seeing his slave seek the protection of Remeses, had stopped, a short distance off, expecting to have her sent back to him. "Didst thou strike this Hebrew girl?"
"She is wilful and intractable, your highness," answered the man humbly, "and—"
"Is there not a law forbidding blows to be given to the females of this people? You will deliver your rod of office to my chief servant here, and are no longer a taskmaster. It shall be known, that it is the will of the queen that women shall have light tasks, that they be treated leniently, and not made to suffer the punishment of blows."
The man, with a downcast face, came forward, and placed his rod in the hands of the chief servant, who was the captain of the twelve footmen of the prince's chariot, and who, at a glance from his master, broke it, and cast the pieces upon the ground. "Now go, and bring hither the basket. I will see what are the burdens you place upon the weak, and, henceforth, they shall be proportioned to the strength of the bearer."
The man returned several hundred yards along the road, and after several strenuous efforts, with great difficulty lifted the basket, and placed it at the prince's feet. To the amazement of all about him he stooped to raise the wicker-basket of leeks from the ground. Putting forth his strength he lifted it, for he is a man of great vigor, but immediately setting it down again, he said, with indignation flashing from his eyes, as he addressed the disgraced taskmaster—
"Seest thou what thou wouldst compel this frail child to bear upon her head? Thou art cruel and barbarous! Bind him! He shall go to prison."
"My lord, I am not alone—"