The Yoke Part 11

When the priest finished, the king was sitting upright, his face flushed with feeling.

"Sedition!" he exclaimed; "organized rebellion in the very heart of my realm!"

He paused for a s.p.a.ce and thrust back the heavy fringes of his cowl with a gesture of peevish impatience.

"What evil humor possesses Egypt?" he burst forth irritably. "Hardly have I overthrown an invader before my people break out. I quiet them in one place and they revolt in another. Must I turn a spear upon mine own?"

"Well," he cried, stamping his foot, when the three before him kept silence, "have ye no word to say?"

His eyes rested on Har-hat, with an imperious expectation in them. The fan-bearer bent low before he answered.

"With thy gracious permission, O Son of Ptah," he said, "I would suggest that it were wise to cool an insurrection in the simmering.

The disaffection seems to be of great extent. But the Rameside army a.s.sembled on the ground might check an open insurrection. Furthermore, thou hast seen the salutary effect of thy visit to Tape when she forgot her duty to her sovereign. Thy presence in the Delta would undoubtedly expedite the suppression of the rebellion likewise."

"O, aye," Meneptah declared. "I must go to Tanis. It seems that I must hasten hither and thither over Egypt pursuing sedition like a scent-hunting jackal. Mayhap if I were divided like Osiris[1] and a bit of me scattered in each nome, I might preserve peace. But it goes sore against me to drag the army with me. Hast thou any simpler plan to offer, holy Father?"

The old priest s.h.i.+fted a little before he answered.

"The mysteries of the faith are in possession of Mesu," he began at last. "The writing saith he hath exerted great influence over the bond-people--in truth he hath entered a peaceful land and stirred it up--and time is but needed to bring the unrest to open warfare. Thou, O Meneptah, and thou, O Rameses, and thou, O Har-hat, each being of the brotherhood--ye know that we hold the faith by scant tenure in the respect of the people. Ye know the perversity of humanity. Obedience and piety are not in them. Though they never knew a faith save the faith of their fathers, we must pursue them with a gad, tickle them with processions and awe them with manifestations. So if it were to come over the spirit of this Hebrew to betray the mysteries, to scout the faith and overturn the G.o.ds, he would have rabble Egypt following at his heels.

"As the writing saith, he hath the destruction of the state in mind, and his own aggrandizement. He but beginneth on the faith because he seeth in that a rift wherein to put the lever that shall pry the whole state asunder. So with two and a half millions of Hebrews and a horde of renegade Egyptians to combat, I fear the Rameside army might spill more good blood than is worth wasting on a mongrel mult.i.tude. The rabble without a leader is harmless. Cut off the head of the monster, and there is neither might nor danger in the trunk. Put away Mesu, and the insurrection will subside utterly."

The priest paused and Meneptah stroked the polished coping of the panel before him with a nervous hand. There was complete silence for a moment, broken at last by the king.

"Mesu, though a Hebrew, an infidel and a malefactor, is a prince of the realm, my foster-brother--Neferari's favorite son. I can not rid myself of him on provocation as yet misty and indirect."

"Nay," he added after another pause, "he shall not die by hand of mine." The prelate raised his head and met the eyes of the king.

After he read what lay therein, the dissatisfaction that had begun to show on his ancient face faded.

The Pharaoh settled back into his seat and his brow cleared as if the problem had been settled. But suddenly he sat up.

"What have I profited by this council? Shall I take the army or leave it distributed over Egypt?" He stopped abruptly and turned to the crown prince. "Help us, my Rameses," he said in a softer tone. "We had well-nigh forgotten thee."

Rameses raised himself from the back of his cathedra, against which he lounged, and moved a step forward.

"A word, my father," he said calmly. "Thy perplexity hath not been untangled for thee, nor even a thread pulled which shall start it raveling. The priesthood can kill Mesu," he said to Loi, "and it will do them no hurt. And thou, my father, canst countenance it and seem no worse than any other monarch that loved his throne. Thus ye will decapitate the monster. But there be creatures in the desert which, losing one head, grow another. Mesu is not of such exalted or supernatural villainy that they can not fill his place. Wilt thou execute Israel one by one as it raises up a leader against thee? Nay; and wilt thou play the barbarian and put two and a half million at once to the sword?"

The trio looked uncomfortable, none more so than the Pharaoh. The prince went on mercilessly.

"Are the Hebrews warriors? Wouldst thou go against a host of trowel-wielding slaves with an army that levels lances only against free-born men? And yet, wilt thou wait till all Israel shall crowd into thy presence and defy thee before thou actest? And again, wilt thou descend on them with arms now when they may with Justice cry 'What have we done to thee?' Thou art beset, my father."

The Pharaoh opened his lips as if to answer, but the level eye of the prince silenced him.

"Thou hast not fathomed the Hebrew's capabilities, my father," Rameses continued. "In him is a wealth, a power, a magnificence that thy fathers and mine built up for thee, and the time is ripe for the garnering of thy profit. What monarch of the sister nations hath two and a half millions of hereditary slaves--not tributary folk nor prisoners of war--but slaves that are his as his cattle and his flocks are his? What monarch before thee had them? None anywhere, at any time. Thou art rich in bond-people beyond any monarch since the G.o.ds reigned."

The chagrin died on the Pharaoh's face and he wore an expectant look.

The prince continued in even tones.

"By use, they have fitted themselves to the limits laid upon them by the great Rameses. The feeble have died and the frames of the st.u.r.dy have become like bra.s.s. They have bred like beetles in the Nile mud for numbers. Ignorant of their value, thou hast been indifferent to their existence. Forgetting them was pampering them. They have lived on the bounty of Egypt for four hundred years and, save for the wise inflictions of a year or two by the older Pharaohs, they have flourished unmolested. How they repay thee, thou seest by this writing. Now, by the G.o.ds, turn the face of a master upon them.

Remove the soft driver, Atsu, and put one in his stead who is worthy the office. Tickle them to alacrity and obedience with the lash--yoke them--load them--fill thy ca.n.a.ls, thy quarries, thy mines with them--"

He broke off and moved forward a step squarely facing the Pharaoh.

"Thou hast thine artist--that demi-G.o.d Mentu, in whom there is supernatural genius for architecture as well as sculpture. Make him thy murket[2] as well, and with him dost thou know what thou canst do with these slaves? Thou canst rear Karnak in every herdsman's village; thou canst carve the twin of Ipsambul in every rock-front that faces the Nile; thou canst erect a pyramid tomb for thee that shall make an infant of Khufu; thou canst build a highway from Syene to Tanis and line it with sisters of the Sphinx; thou canst write the name of Meneptah above every other name on the world's monuments and it shall endure as long as stone and bronze shall last and tradition go on from lip to lip!"

The prince paused abruptly. Meneptah was on his feet, almost in tears at the contemplation of his pictured greatness.

"Mark ye!" the prince began again. His arm shot out and fell and the flash of its jewels made it look like a bolt of lightning. "I would not fall heir to Israel--and if these things are done in thy lifetime I must build my monuments with prisoners of war!"

The old hierarch, who had been nervously rubbing the arm of his chair during the last of the prince's speech, broke the dead silence with an awed whisper.

"Ah, then spake the Incomparable Pharaoh!"

Meneptah put out his hand, smiling.

"No more. The way is shown, I follow, O my Rameses!"

[1] Osiris--the great G.o.d of Egypt, was overcome by Set, his body divided and scattered over the valley of the Nile. Isis, wife of Osiris, gathered up the remains and buried them at This or Abydos.

[2] Murket--the royal architect, an exalted office usually held by princes of the realm.

CHAPTER VI

THE LADY MIRIAM

Meanwhile the scribe of the "double house of life," and the son of the royal sculptor were taking comfort on the palace-top beneath the subdued light of a hooded lamp.

The pair had spoken of all Memphis and its gossip; had given account of themselves and had caught up with the present time in the succession of events.

"Hotep, at thy lofty notch of favor, one must have the wisdom of Toth,"

Kenkenes observed, adding with a laugh, "mark thou, I have compared thee with no mortal."

Hotep shook his head.

"Nay, any man may fill my position so he but knows when to hold his tongue and what to say when he wags it."

"O, aye," the sculptor admitted in good-natured irony. "Those be simple qualifications and easy to combine."

The scribe smiled.

"Mine is no arduous labor now. During my years of apprentices.h.i.+p I was sorely put to it, but now I have only to wait upon the king and look to it that mine underlings are not idle. If another war should come--if any manner of difficulty should arise in matters of state, I doubt not mine would be a heavy lot."

The young man spoke of war and fellows.h.i.+p with a monarch as if he had been a lady's page and gossiped of fans and new perfumes.