CHAPTER XV
The next day Rameses sent his black men with commands to Memphis, andabout midday came a great boat toward Sarah's house from the directionof the city. The boat was filled with Greek soldiers in lofty helmetsand gleaming breastplates.
At command sixteen men armed with shields and short darts landed andstood in two ranks. They were ready to march to the house, when asecond messenger from the prince detained them. He commanded thesoldiers to remain at the shore, and summoned only their leader,Patrokles.
They halted and stood without movement, like two rows of columnscovered with glittering armor. After the messenger went Patrokles ina helmet with plumes, wearing a purple tunic over which he had gildedarmor ornamented on the breast with the picture of a woman's headbristling with serpents instead of hair.
The prince received the famous general at the garden gate. He did notsmile as usual, did not even answer the low bow of Patrokles, but saidcoldly,--
"Worthiness, tell the Greek warriors that I will not review them untiltheir lord, his holiness, appoints me leader a second time. They havelost that honor by uttering in dramshops shouts worthy of drunkards.These shouts offend me. I call attention also to this, worthiness,that the Greek regiments do not show sufficient discipline. In publicplaces the soldiers of this corps discuss politics and a certainpossible war. This looks like treason to the state. Only the pharaohand members of his supreme council may speak of such matters. But we,soldiers and servants of our lord, whatever position we occupy, mayonly execute the commands of our most gracious ruler, and be silent atall times. I beg thee to communicate these considerations to myregiments, and I wish all success to thee, worthiness."
"It will be as commanded, worthiness," answered the Greek.
He turned on his heel, and standing erect moved with a rattle towardthe boat. He knew about these discussions of the soldiers in thedramshops, and understood straightway that something disagreeable hadhappened to the heir, whom the troops worshipped. Therefore, when hehad reached the handful of armed men on the bank, he assumed a veryangry mien, and, waving his hands with rage, cried,--
"Valiant Greek soldiers! mangy dogs, may the leprosy consume you! If,from this time on, any Greek mentions the name of the heir to thethrone in a dramshop, I will break a pitcher on his head, cram thepieces down his throat, and then drive him out of the regiment! Oneand another of you will herd swine for Egyptian earth-workers, andhens will lay eggs in your helmets. Such is the fate waiting forstupid soldiers who know not how to keep their tongues quiet. Andnow--to the left! to the rear! turn! and march to the boat, may theplague strike you! A soldier of his holiness should drink first of allto the health of the pharaoh and the prosperity of the worthy ministerof war, Herhor,--may they live through eternity!"
"May they live through eternity!" repeated the soldiers.
All took their places in the boat, looking gloomy. But when nearMemphis Patrokles smoothed out his wrinkled forehead and commandedthem to sing the song of that priest's daughter who so loved soldiersthat she put a doll in her bed and passed the whole night in the boothof the sentries. Keeping time to this song, they always marched best,and moved the oars with most nimbleness.
In the evening another boat approached Sarah's dwelling, out of whichcame the chief steward of the prince's property.
Rameses received this official at the garden gate also. Perhaps he didthis through sternness, or perhaps not to constrain the man to enterthe house of his mistress and a Jewess.
"I wished," said the heir, "to see thee and to say that among mypeople certain improper conversations circulate concerning decrease ofrent, or something of that kind. I wish those people to know that Iwill not decrease rents. But should any man in spite of warningspersist in his folly and talk about rents, he will receive blows ofcanes."
"Perhaps it would be better if he paid a line,--an uten or a drachma,whatever is commanded, worthiness," said the chief steward.
"Yes; but the worst offender might be beaten."
"I make bold to offer a remark, worthiness," said the steward in a lowtone, inclining continually, "that the earth-workers, roused by someunknown person, really did talk for a time about decrease of rent. Butsome days ago they ceased on a sudden."
"In that case we might withhold the blows of canes," said Rameses.
"Unless as preventive means," put in the steward.
"Would it not be too bad to spoil the canes?"
"We shall never lack articles of that sort."
"But with moderation in every case. I do not wish it to go to hisholiness that I torture men without need. For rebellious conversationwe must beat and take fines in money, but when there is no cause forpunishment we may be magnanimous."
"I understand," answered the steward, looking into the eyes ofRameses.
"Let them cry out as much as they like if they do not whisperblasphemy."
These talks with Patrokles and the steward were reported throughoutEgypt.
After the steward's departure, the prince yawned and looking aroundwith a tired glance, he said to himself,--
"I have done all I could, but now, if I can, I will do nothing."
At that moment, from the direction of the outhouses, low groans andthe sound of frequent blows reached the prince. Rameses turned hishead, and saw that the overseer of the workmen, Ezechiel, son ofReuben, was beating some subordinate with a cane, pacifying himmeanwhile,--
"Be quiet! be silent, low beast!"
The beaten workman, lying on the ground, closed his mouth with hishand so as not to cry.
At first the prince rushed like a panther toward the outhouses.Suddenly he halted.
"What am I to do?" whispered he. "This is Sarah's place, and the Jewis her relative."
He bit his lips, and disappeared among the trees, the more readilysince the flogging was finished.
"Is this the management of the humble Jews?" thought Rameses. "Is thisthe way? That man looks at me as a frightened dog might, but he beatsthe workmen. Are the Hebrews all like him?"
And for the first time the thought was roused in the prince's soul,that under the guise of kindness Sarah, too, might conceal falsehood.
Certain changes had indeed taken place in Sarah; above all, moralchanges.
From the moment when she met Rameses in the valley of the desert hehad pleased her, but that feeling grew silent immediately beneath theinfluence of the stunning news that the shapely youth was a son of thepharaoh and heir to the throne of Egypt. When Tutmosis bargained withGideon to take her to the prince's house, Sarah fell into a state ofbewilderment.
She would not renounce Rameses for any treasure, nor at the cost oflife, but one could not say that she loved him at that time. Lovedemands freedom and time to give forth its most beautiful blossoms;neither freedom nor time had been left to her. She made theacquaintance of the prince on a certain day; the following day theytook her away almost without consulting her wishes, and bore her tothat villa opposite Memphis. In a couple of days she became theprince's favorite, astonished, frightened, not understanding what hadtaken place with her.
Moreover, before she could make herself used to the new impressions,the Jewess was disturbed by ill-will from surrounding people; then thevisit of unknown ladies; finally, that attack on the villa.
Then, because Rameses took her part and wished to rush on the rioters,she was still more terrified. She lost presence of mind at the thoughtthat she was in the hands of a man of such power and so violent, who,if it suited him, had the right to shed blood, to slay people.
Sarah fell into despair for the moment: it seemed to her that shewould go mad. She heard the terrible commands of the prince whosummoned the servants to arms. But at that very moment a slight thingtook place, one little word was heard which sobered Sarah, and gave anew turn to her feelings.
The prince, thinking that she was wounded, drew the bandage from herhead; but when he saw the bruise, he cried,--
"That is only a blue spot! How that blue spot changes the face!"
At these words Sarah forgot pain and fear. New alarm seized her: soshe had changed to such a degree that it astonished the prince, but hewas only astonished.
The blue spot disappeared in a couple of days, but feelings unknown upto that time remained in Sarah's soul and increased there. She beganto be jealous of the prince, and to fear that he would reject her.
And still another anxiety tortured the Jewess. She felt herself aservant, a slave in respect to Rameses. She was and wished to be hisfaithful servant, his devoted slave, as inseparable as his shadow, butat the same time she desired that he, at least when he fondled her,should not treat her as though he were lord and master.
She was his indeed, but he was hers also. Why does he not show, then,that he belonged to her, even in some degree? But with every word andmotion he makes her understand that a certain gulf is between them.What kind of gulf? Has she not held him in her embraces? Has he notkissed her lips and bosom?
A certain day the prince came to her with a dog. He stayed only acouple of hours; but during that entire interval the dog lay at hisfeet in Sarah's place, and when she wished to sit there the doggrowled. And the prince laughed and thrust his fingers into the hairof that unclean creature, as he had into her hair. And the dog lookedinto the prince's eyes just as she had,--with this difference,perhaps, that he looked with more confidence.
She could not pacify herself, and she hated the clever beast which wastaking a part of the tenderness due to her, paying no attentionwhatever to her, and bearing itself with an intimacy towards its lordthat she did not dare to claim. She would have been unable to havesuch an indifferent mien, or to look in another direction if theprince's hand had rested on her head.
Not long before this incident the prince mentioned dancers a secondtime. Then Sarah burst out angrily,--
"How did he permit himself to be familiar with those naked, shamelesswomen? And Jehovah looking down from high heaven did not hurl Histhunders at those monstrous creatures!"
It is true that Rameses told her that she was dearer than all else tohim, but these words did not pacify Sarah; they only produced thiseffect,--that she determined not to think of aught beyond her love.
What would come on the morrow? Never mind. And when at the feet of theprince she sang that hymn about those sufferings which pursue mankindfrom the cradle to the grave, she described in it the state of her ownsoul, and her last hope, which was Jehovah.
That day Rameses was with her; hence she had enough, she had all thehappiness which life could give. But just there began for Sarah thegreatest bitterness.
The prince lived under one roof with her, he walked with her in thegarden, and sometimes went out on the Nile in a boat with her. But hewas not more accessible by the width of one hair than when he was onthe other side of the river, within the limits of the pharaoh'spalace.
He was with her, but his mind was in some other place, Sarah could noteven divine where. He embraced her, or toyed with her hair, but helooked toward the city, at those immense many-colored pylons of thepharaoh's palace, or at some unknown object.
At times he did not even answer her questions, or he looked at hersuddenly as if roused from sleep, or as if he wondered that he saw herthere beside him.
The Pharaoh and the Priest: An Historical Novel of Ancient Egypt Page 19