He advanced and stood before him.  Then Pharaoh lifted from his head the double crown he wore and for a moment set it on the brow of Amenmeses, saying as he replaced it on his own head: 

“By this act and token do I name and constitute you, Amenmeses, to be Royal Prince of Egypt in place of my son, Prince Seti, deposed.  Withdraw, Royal Prince of Egypt.  I have spoken.”

“Life!  Blood!  Strength!” cried all the company bowing before Pharaoh, all save the Prince Seti who neither bowed nor stirred.  Only he cried: 

“And I have heard.  Will Pharaoh be pleased to declare whether with my royal heritage he takes my life?  If so, let it be here and now.  My cousin Amenmeses wears a sword.”

“Nay, Son,” answered Meneptah sadly, “your life is left to you and with it all your private rank and your possessions whatsoever and wherever they may be.”

“Let Pharaoh’s will be done,” replied Seti indifferently, “in this as in all things.  Pharaoh spares my life until such time as Amenmeses his successor shall fill his place, when it shall be taken.”

Meneptah started; this thought was new to him.

“Stand forth, Amenmeses,” he cried, “and swear now the threefold oath that may not be broken.  Swear by Amon, by Ptah, and by Osiris, god of death, that never will you attempt to harm the Prince Seti, your cousin, either in body or in such state and prerogative as remain to him.  Let Roi, the head-priest of Amon, administer the oath now before us all.”

So Roi spoke the oath in the ancient form, which was terrible even to hear, and Amenmeses, unwillingly enough as I thought, repeated it after him, adding however these words at the end, “All these things I swear and all these penalties in this world and the world to be I invoke upon my head, provided only that when the time comes the Prince Seti leaves me in peace upon the throne to which it has pleased Pharaoh to decree to me.”

Now some there murmured that this was not enough, since in their hearts there were few who did not love Seti and grieve to see him thus stripped of his royal heritage because his judgment differed from that of Pharaoh over a matter of State policy.  But Seti only laughed and said scornfully: 

“Let be, for of what value are such oaths?  Pharaoh on the throne is above all oaths who must make answer to the gods only and from the hearts of some the gods are far away.  Let Amenmeses not fear that I shall quarrel with him over this matter of a crown, I who in truth have never longed for the pomp and cares of royalty and who, deprived of these, still possess all that I can desire.  I go my way henceforward as one of many, a noble of Egypt—­no more, and if in a day to come it pleases the Pharaoh to be to shorten my wanderings, I am not sure that even then I shall grieve so very much, who am content to accept the judgment of the gods, as in the end he must do also.  Yet, Pharaoh my father, before we part I ask leave to speak the thoughts that rise in me.”