The Pharaoh and the Priest: An Historical Novel of Ancient Egypt

by Bolesław Prus

  CHAPTER XVI

  Thus seemed those moments of approach between Sarah and her princelylover, which were rare enough withal. For after he had given thosecommands to Patrokles and the steward, Rameses spent the greater partof the day away from the villa, generally in a boat or sailing on theNile. He caught with a net fish which swam in thousands in the blessedriver, or he went into swamps, and hidden among lofty lotus stemsbrought down with arrows wild birds, which circling in noisy flockswere as numerous as flies are. But even at those times ambitiousthoughts did not desert him; so he turned the hunting into a kind ofpredicting or soothsaying. More than once, when he saw a flock ofyellow geese upon the water, he drew his bow and said, "If I hit Ishall be like Rameses the Great."

  The arrow made a low whistle, and the stricken bird, fluttering itswings, gave out cries so painful that there was a movement in thewhole swampy region. Clouds of geese, ducks, and storks rose in theair, and making a great circle above their dying comrade, dropped downto other places.

  When there was silence again, the prince pushed his boat farther,with caution guiding himself by the movement of reeds or the brokencalls of birds, and when in the green growth he saw a spot of clearwater and a new flock, he drew his bow again, and said,--

  "If I hit I shall be pharaoh; if I miss--"

  This time the arrow struck the water, and bounding a number of timesalong its surface, disappeared among lotuses. The excited prince sentmore and more arrows, killing birds or only frightening flocks ofthem. From the villa they knew where he was by the noisy cloud ofbirds which rose from time to time and circled above the boat in whichhe was sailing.

  When toward evening he returned to the villa wearied, Sarah waited onthe threshold with a bronze basin, a pitcher of light wine, and agarland of roses. The prince smiled at her, stroked her face, butlooking into her eyes, which were full of tenderness, he thought,--

  "Would she beat Egyptian people, like her relatives who lookfrightened all the time? Oh, my mother is right not to trust Jews,though Sarah may be different from others."

  Once, returning unexpectedly, he saw in the space before the villa acrowd of naked children playing joyously. All were yellow, and atsight of him they vanished with cries like wild geese from a swampymeadow. Before he reached the terrace they were gone, not a trace wasleft.

  "Who are those little things," asked he, "who rushed away from me?"

  "Those are children of my servants," replied Sarah.

  "Of Jews?"

  "Of my brothers."

  "Gods, what a numerous people!" laughed Rameses. "And who is thatagain?" added he, pointing to a man who looked timidly from beyond thewall.

  "That is Aod, son of Barak, my relative. He wants to serve thee, lord.May I take him?"

  The prince shrugged his shoulders.

  "This is thy place," answered he; "take those who please thee. But ifthese people increase so, they will soon master Memphis."

  "Thou canst not endure my brethren," whispered Sarah, as she droppedto his feet frightened.

  The prince looked at her with astonishment.

  "I do not even think of them," answered he, proudly.

  These little happenings, which fell on Sarah's soul like drops offire, did not change Rameses with regard to her. He was kind and asfond as he had been, though his eyes turned more frequently to theother bank of the river, and rested on the mighty pylons of hisfather's palace.

  Soon he discovered that others were yearning because he was in abanishment of his own choosing. A certain day from the opposite shorea stately royal barge pushed out into the river; it crossed the Nilefrom Memphis, and then circled near the prince's villa, so near thatRameses could recognize the persons in it. In fact he recognizedbeneath the purple baldachin his mother among court ladies, andopposite, on a low stool, the vice-pharaoh, Herhor. They did not looktoward the villa, it is true, but the prince divined that they sawhim.

  "Ha! ha!" thought he. "My worthy mother and his worthiness theminister would be glad to entice me hence before his holiness returnsto Memphis."

  The month Tobi (the end of October and beginning of November) came.The Nile had fallen a distance equalling the stature of a man, andone-half in addition, uncovering daily new strips of black clammyearth. Wherever the water withdrew a narrow plough appeared drawn bytwo oxen. Behind the plough went a naked ploughman, at the side of theoxen a driver with a short club, and behind him a sower, who, wadingto his ankles in earth, carried wheat in an apron, and scattered italmost in handfuls.

  The most beautiful season of the year was beginning in Egypt,--thewinter. Heat did not go beyond 70 deg. Fahrenheit; the earth was coveredquickly with emerald green, from out which sprang narcissus andviolets. The odor of them came forth oftener and oftener amid the odorof earth and water.

  A number of times the barge bearing the worthy lady Nikotris and thevice-pharaoh Herhor appeared near Sarah's dwelling. Each time theprince saw his mother conversing with the minister joyously, andconvinced himself that they refrained ostentatiously from lookingtoward him, as if to show indifference.

  "Wait!" whispered he, in anger, "I will show you that life does notannoy me, either."

  So when one day, shortly before sunset, the queen's gilded bargeappeared with a purple tent having ostrich plumes on each of its fourcorners, Rameses gave command to prepare a boat for two persons, andtold Sarah that he would sail with her.

  "O Jehovah!" cried she, clasping her hands. "But thy mother is there,and the viceroy!"

  "But in this boat will be the heir to the throne. Take thy harp,Sarah."

  "And the harp, too?" cried Sarah. "But if her worthiness were to speakto thee! I should throw myself into the river."

  "Be not a child," replied Rameses, laughing. "My mother and hisworthiness love songs immensely. Thou mayest even win their favor ifthou sing some splendid song of the Hebrews. Let there be love in it."

  "I know no song of that kind," answered Sarah, in whom the prince'swords had roused hope of some sort. Her song might please thosepowerful rulers, and then what?

  On the royal barge they saw that the heir to the throne was sitting ina simple boat and rowing.

  "Dost thou see, worthiness," whispered the queen to the minister,"that he is rowing toward us with his Jewess?"

  "The heir has borne himself with such correctness toward his warriorsand his people, and has shown so much compunction in withdrawing fromthe limits of the palace, that his mother may forgive small errors,"answered Herhor.

  "Oh, if he were not sitting in that boat, I would give command tobreak it!" said the worthy lady.

  "For what reason?" asked the minister. "The prince would be nodescendant of high priests and pharaohs if he did not break throughrestraints which the law, alas, puts on him, or perhaps our mistakencustoms. He has given proof in every case that in serious junctures heis able to command himself. He is even able to recognise hiserrors,--a rare power and priceless in an heir to the throne of Egypt.The very fact that the prince wishes to rouse our curiosity with hisfavorite shows that the position in which he finds himself pains him;besides, his reasons are among the noblest."

  "But the Jewess!" whispered the lady, crushing her feather fanbetween her fingers.

  "At present I am quite at rest regarding her," continued Herhor. "Sheis shapely, but dull; she never thinks of using influence on theprince, nor could she do so. Shut up in a cage which is notover-costly, she takes no gifts, and will not even see any one. Intime, perhaps, she might learn to make use of her position even to theextent of decreasing the heir's treasury by some talents. Before thatday comes, however, Rameses will be tired of her."

  "May the all-knowing Amon speak through thy mouth," said the lady.

  "The prince, I am sure of this, has not grown wild over a favorite, ashappens often to young lords in Egypt. One keen, intriguing woman maystrip a man of property and health, nay, bring him to the hall ofjudgment. The prince is amused with her as a grown-up man might beamused with a slave girl. And Sarah is pregnant."
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  "Is that true?" cried the queen. "How dost thou know?"

  "It is not known to his worthiness the heir, or even to Sarah," saidHerhor, smiling. "We must know everything. This secret, however, wasnot difficult to get at. With Sarah is her relative Tafet, anincomparable gossip."

  "Have they summoned a physician already?"

  "Sarah knows nothing of this, I repeat, but the worthy Tafet, fromfear lest the prince might grow indifferent to her foster child, wouldbe glad to twist the neck of this secret. But we do not let her. Thatwill be the prince's child also."

  "But if it is a son? Thou knowest that he may make trouble," put inthe lady.

  "All is foreseen," replied Herhor. "If the child is a daughter, wewill give her a dowry and the education proper for young ladies ofhigh station. If a son, he will become a Jew--"

  "Oh, my grandson, a Jew!"

  "Do not take thy heart too soon from him. Our envoys declare that thepeople of Israel are beginning to desire a king. Before the childmatures their desires will ripen, and then--we may give them a ruler,and of good blood indeed."

  "Thou art like an eagle which takes in East and West at a glance,"said the queen, eying the minister with amazement. "I feel that myrepulsion for this maiden begins to grow weaker."

  "The least drop of the pharaoh's blood should raise itself abovenations, like a star above the earth," added Herhor.

  At that moment the heir's boat moved at a few tens of paces from theroyal barge, and the queen, shielded by her fan, looked at Sarahthrough its feathers.

  "In truth the girl is shapely," whispered Queen Nikotris.

  "Thou art saying those words for the second time, worthy lady."

  "So thou hast noted that?" laughed her worthiness.

  Herhor dropped his eyes.

  In the boat was heard a harp, and Sarah began a hymn, with tremblingvoice,--

  "How great is Jehovah, O Israel! how great is Jehovah, thy God."

  "A most beautiful voice," whispered the queen.

  The high priest listened with attention.

  "His days have no beginning," sang Sarah, "and His dwelling has nolimit. The eternal heavens change beneath His eye, like a garmentwhich a man puts on his body and then casts away from him. The starsflash up, and are quenched, like sparks from fuel, and the earth islike a brick which a traveller touches once with his foot while goingever farther.

  "How great is thy Lord, O Israel! There is no being who can say toHim, 'Do this!' there is no womb which could have given birth to Him.He created the bottomless deeps above which He moves when He wishes.He brings light out of darkness, and from the dust of the earth Hecreates living things which have voices.

  "For Him savage lions are as locusts, the immense elephant He looks onas nothing, before Him the whale is as weak as an infant.

  "His tricolored bow divides the heavens into two parts and rests onthe ends of the earth plain. Where are the gates which could equal Himin loftiness? Nations are in terror at the thunder of His chariot, andthere is naught beneath the sun which could stand His flashing arrows.

  "His breath is the north wind at midnight, which freshens trees whenwithering, His anger is like the chamsin which burns what it touches.

  "When He stretches His hands above the waters, they are petrified. Hepours the sea into new places, as a woman pours out leaven. He rendsthe earth as if it were old linen, and clothes in silvery snow thenaked tops of mountains.

  "In a grain of wheat He hides one hundred other grains, and causesbirds to incubate. From the drowsy chrysalis He leads to life a goldenbutterfly, and makes men's bodies wait in tombs until the day ofresurrection."

  The rowers, absorbed in the song, raised their oars, and the purplebarge dropped slowly down with the sweep of the river. All at onceHerhor rose, and commanded,--

  "Turn now toward Memphis!"

  The oars fell; the barge turned where it stood, and raised the waterwith noise. After it followed Sarah's hymn decreasing gradually,--

  "He sees the movement of hearts, the silent hidden ways on which passthe innermost thoughts in men's breasts. But no man can gaze into Hisheart and spy out His purposes.

  "Before the gleam of His garments mighty spirits hide their faces.Before His glance the gods of great cities and nations turn aside andshrink like withering leaves.

  "He is power, He is life, He is wisdom. He is thy Lord, thy God, OIsrael!"

  "Why command, worthiness, to turn away our barge?" asked the worthyNikotris.

  "Lady, dost thou know that hymn?" asked Herhor, in a languageunderstood by priests alone. "That stupid girl is singing in themiddle of the Nile a prayer permitted only in the most secret recessesof our temples."

  "Is that blasphemy then?"

  "There is no priest in the barge except me," replied the minister. "Ihave not heard the hymn, and if I had I should forget it. Still I amafraid that the gods will lay hands on that girl yet."

  "But whence does she know that awful prayer, for Rameses could nothave taught it to her?"

  "The prince is not to blame. But forget not, lady, that the Jews havetaken from our Egypt many such treasures. That is why, among allnations on earth, we consider them alone as sacrilegious."

  The queen seized the hand of the high priest.

  "But my son--will no evil strike him?" whispered she, looking into hiseyes.

  "I say, worthiness, that no evil will happen to any one. I heard notthe hymn, and I know nothing. The prince must be separated from thatJewess."

  "But separated mildly; is that not the way?" asked the mother.

  "In the mildest way possible and the simplest, but separation isimperative. It seemed to me," continued the high priest, as if tohimself, "that I foresaw everything. Everything save an action forblasphemy, which threatens the heir while he is with that strangewoman."

  Herhor thought awhile, and added,--

  "Yes, worthy lady! It is possible to laugh at many of our prejudices;still the son of a pharaoh should not be connected with a Jewess."