The Pharaoh And The Priest Part 156

"As thou wishest," answered Herhor with indifference. But in his heart he added: "The pious Mefres begins at last to show his claws and teeth. He desires to become only overseer of the labyrinth, and his ward, Lykon, he would make only--pharaoh! Indeed, to satisfy the greed of my a.s.sistants the G.o.ds would have to make ten Egypts."

When both dignitaries had left the vault, Herhor, in the night, returned on foot to the temple of Isis where he had a dwelling, but Mefres commanded to make ready a couple of litters on horses. In one of these the younger priests placed the sleeping Lykon with a bag on his head; in the other the high priest himself took his place and, surrounded by a party of hors.e.m.e.n went at a sharp trot in the direction of Fayum.

On the night between the 14th and 15th Paofi the high priest Samentu, according to the promise given Rameses, entered the labyrinth by a corridor known to himself only. He had in his hand a bundle of torches, one of which was burning, and on his back he carried tools in a small basket.

Samentu pa.s.sed very easily from hall to hall, from corridor to corridor, pus.h.i.+ng back with a touch stone slabs in columns and in walls where there were secret doors. Sometimes he hesitated, but then he read mysterious signs on the walls and compared them with signs on the beads which he bore on his neck.

After a journey of half an hour he found himself in the treasure room,--whence by pus.h.i.+ng aside a slab in the pavement he reached a hall in the lower story. The hall was s.p.a.cious and its ceiling rested on a number of short thick columns.

Samentu put down his basket and, lighting two torches, began by the light of them to read inscriptions on the walls.

"Despite my wretched figure," declared one inscription, "I am a real son of the G.o.ds, for my anger is terrible.

"In the open air I turn to a column of fire, and I am lightning.

Confined I am thunder and destruction, and no building can resist me.

"Nothing can weaken me but sacred water which takes my force away. But my anger is roused as well by the smallest spark as by a flame.

"In my presence everything is twisted and broken. I am like Typhon, who overturns the highest trees and lifts rocks from their places."

"In one word, every temple has its secret which others do not know,"

thought Samentu.

He opened one column and took a large pot from it. The pot had a cover sealed with wax, also an opening through which pa.s.sed a long slender cord; it was unknown where this cord ended inside the column.

Samentu cut off a piece, touched the torch with it and saw that the cord gave out a hiss and burned quickly. Then with a knife he removed the cover very carefully and saw inside the pot as it were sand and pebbles of an ashen color. He took out a couple of the pebbles and going aside touched them with the torch. In one moment a flame burst forth and the pebbles vanished leaving thick smoke behind and a disagreeable odor. Samentu took some of the ash-colored sand, poured it on the pavement, put in the middle of it a piece of the cord which he had found at the pot, covered all with a heavy stone. Then he touched the cord with his torch, the cord burned and after a while the stone sprang up in a flame.

"I have that son of the G.o.ds now!" said Samentu smiling. "The treasure will not be lost."

He went from column to column to open slabs and take out hidden pots.

In each pot was a cord which Samentu cut, the pots he left at one side.

"Well," said the priest, "his holiness might give me half these treasures and make my son a nomarch--and surely he will do so, for he is a magnanimous sovereign."

When he had rendered the lower hall safe in this way Samentu returned to the treasure chamber, and hence went to the upper hall. There also were various inscriptions on the walls, numerous columns and in them pots provided with cords and filled with kernels which burst when fire touched them. Samentu cut the cords, removed the pots from the interior of the columns, and tied up in a rag one pinch of the sand.

Then being wearied he sat down to rest. Six of his torches were burnt now. The night must have been nearing its end.

"I never should have supposed," said he to himself, "that those priests had such a wonderful agent. Why, with it they could overturn a.s.syrian fortresses! Well, we will not tell our own pupils everything either."

The wearied man fell to thinking. Now he was certain that he would hold the highest position in Egypt, a position higher than that held by Herhor. What would he do? Very much. He would secure wealth and wisdom to his posterity. He would try to gain their secrets from all the temples and this would increase his power immensely; he would secure to Egypt preeminence above a.s.syria.

The young pharaoh jeered at the G.o.ds, that would facilitate to Samentu the establishment of the wors.h.i.+p of one G.o.d, Osiris, for example; and the union of Phnicians, Jews, Greeks, and Libyans in one state with Egypt.

Together they would make the ca.n.a.l to join the Red Sea and the Mediterranean. Along that ca.n.a.l they would build fortresses and concentrate a numerous army--all the trade with unknown nations of the Orient and the West would fall into the hands of Egyptians.

They would require an Egyptian fleet and Egyptian sailors. But above all was the need to crush a.s.syria, which was growing each year more dangerous. It was imperative to stop priestly greed and excesses. Let priests be sages, let them have a sufficiency, but let them serve the state instead of using it for their own profit as at present.

"In the month Hator," thought Samentu, "I shall be ruler of Egypt! The young lord loves women and warriors too well to labor at governing.

And if he has no son, then my son, my son--"

He came to himself. One more torch had burnt out; it was high time to leave those underground chambers.

He rose, took his basket and left the hall above the treasure.

"I need no a.s.sistance," thought he, laughing. "I have secured everything--I alone--I, the despised priest of Set!"

He had pa.s.sed a number of tens of chambers and corridors when he halted on a sudden. It seemed to him that on the pavement of the hall to which he was going he saw a small streak of light.

In one moment such dreadful fear seized the man that he put out his torch. But the streak of light on the pavement had vanished. Samentu strained his hearing, but he heard only the throbbing of his own temples.

"That only seemed to me!" said he.

With a trembling hand he took out of the basket a small vessel in which punk was burning slowly, and he lighted the torch again.

"I am very drowsy," thought he. Looking around the chamber he went to a wall in which a door was hidden. He pushed a nail; the door did not slip back. A second, a third pressure--no effect.

"What does this mean?" thought Samentu in amazement.

He forgot now the streak of light. It seemed to him that a new thing, unheard of, had met him. He had opened in his life so many hundreds of secret doors, he had opened so many in the labyrinth, that he could not understand simply the present resistance. Terror seized him a second time. He ran from wall to wall and tried secret doors everywhere. At last one opened. He found himself in an immense hall, filled as usual with columns. His torch lighted barely a part of the s.p.a.ce, the remainder of it was lost in thick darkness.

The darkness, the forest of columns, and above all the strangeness of the hall gave the priest confidence. At the bottom of his fear a spark of naive hope was roused then. It seemed to him that since he did not know the place himself no one else knew it, and that no man would meet him in that labyrinth.

He was pacified somewhat and felt that his legs were bending under him; so he sat down. But again he sprang up and looked around, as if to learn whether danger was really threatening, and whence. From which of those dark corners would it come out to rush at him?

Samentu was acquainted as no other man in Egypt with subterranean places, with going astray, and with darkness. He had pa.s.sed also through many alarms in his life. But that which he experienced then was something perfectly new and so terrible that the priest feared to give its own name to it.

At last, with great effort, he collected his thoughts, and said,--

"If indeed I have seen a light--if indeed some one has closed the doors, I am betrayed. In that case what?"

"Death!" whispered a voice hidden in the bottom of his soul somewhere.

"Death?"

Sweat came out on his face, his breath stopped. All at once the madness of fear mastered him. He ran through the chamber and struck his fist against the wall, seeking an exit. He forgot where he was and how he had got there; he lost his direction, and even the power of taking bearings with the bead-string.

All at once he felt that in him were two persons, so to speak: one really bewildered, the other wise and self-possessed. This wise man explained to himself that all might be imagination, that no one had discovered him, that no one was searching, and that he could escape if he would recover somewhat. But the first, the bewildered man, would not listen to the voice of wisdom; on the contrary, he gained on his internal antagonist every moment.

Oh, if he could only hide in some column! Let them seek then-- Though surely no one would seek, and no one would find him, while self-command would come again to him.

"What can happen to me here?" said he, shrugging his shoulders. "If I calm myself they can chase me through the whole labyrinth. To cut off all the roads there would have to be many thousand persons, and to indicate what cell I am in a miracle would be needed! But let us suppose that they seize me. Then what? I will take this little vial here, put it to my lips, and in one moment I shall flee away so that no one could catch me--not even a divinity."

But in spite of reasoning, such terrible fear seized the man again that he put out the torch a second time, and trembling, his teeth chattering, he pushed up to one of the columns.

"How was it possible--how could I decide to come in here?" thought Samentu. "Had I not food to eat, a place on which to lay my head? It is a simple thing, I am discovered! The labyrinth has a mult.i.tude of overseers as watchful as dogs, and only a child, or an idiot, would think of deceiving them. Property--power! Where is the treasure for which it would be worth while for a man to give one day of his life?

And here, I, a man in the bloom of existence, have exposed myself."

It seemed to him that he heard heavy knocking. He sprang up and in the depth of the chamber he saw a gleam of light.