Time had dealt kindly with Alric; his clear skin showed no wrinkling, his mouth was still firm, his lips red, his hair (worn in the fashion of his youthful days) was thick and lustrous although it showed the touch of frost here and there, but there was in the stern firm face of the general no reminder of the merry captain of the guards.
“Have you heard my lord,” said one of the officers leaning forward, “that our King’s new ships are exciting the admiration of all foreign nations?”
“Why should they not?” cries another. “Who ever before had ships propelled at the same time by both oars and sails! each ship requiring thirty rowers and seventy sailors to man her?”
“Is it true,” asks another, “that an expedition is soon to be sent out to Punt to procure spice trees for our Botanical gardens?”
“Let us hope,” adds a handsome fellow, “that the ugly old Queen will not make this an opportunity to pay us another visit! never did I behold such a human monstrosity!”
“But I have later news still,” says another, taking as he speaks his cigarette from his lips and watching the smoke curl lazily up.
“Our chancellor of state has by the King’s command, ordered that the supply of straw shall no longer be brought to the brick yards hereafter, the Israelites must gather their own straw when the day’s stint is over.”
A man with a cynical face broke in upon his neighbor’s talk. “This is done,” he said, “to give these strangers less time for rest, and if possible weaken their bodily force.”
“It is true,” said another, “that they breed like lice and that the providing of grain and other produce for the consumption of the Israelites, depletes the granaries of Mizram at least one half.” “As for their appetites,” said Alric smiling, “I will not gainsay that they are a hearty people, and why should they not be hungry? Surely the bread of the laboring man should be sweet, but my dear Belthazur, I can not agree to the Lord Chancellor’s dictum as regards prolificness, for my wife Miriam is an Israelite, and no child has blessed our bed lo! these many years.”
“I did not know, my lord,” said the young officer blushing hotly, “that my Lady Miriam was an Israelite. I am from a distant Nome, and but a few years in the King’s service, and so I beg you, pardon me.”