laugh to scorn the sober regularity with which we, tilling the dark soil, live through our lives to a tardy death, in honest labor both of mind and body.  They sweep round on foraying excursions, ride the salt waves in ships, and know no loved and fixed home; they settle down wherever they are tempted by rapine, and when there is nothing more to be got they build a house in another spot.  Such was Seti, such is Rameses!  For a year he will stop in Thebes, then he must set out for wars in strange lands.  He does not know how to yield piously, or to take advice of wise counsellors, and he will not learn.  And such as the father is, so are the children!  Think of the criminal behavior of Bent-Anat!”

“I said the kings liked foreigners.  Have you duly considered the importance of that to us?  We strive for high and noble aims, and have wrenched off the shackles of the flesh in order to guard our souls.  The poorest man lives secure under the shelter of the law, and through us participates in the gifts of the spirit; to the rich are offered the priceless treasures of art and learning.  Now look abroad:  east and west wandering tribes roam over the desert with wretched tents; in the south a debased populace prays to feathers, and to abject idols, who are beaten if the worshipper is not satisfied.  In the north certainly there are well regulated states, but the best part of the arts and sciences which they possess they owe to us, and their altars still reek with the loathsome sacrifice of human blood.  Only backsliding from the right is possible under the stranger, and therefore it is prudent to withdraw from him; therefore he is hateful to our Gods.  And Rameses, the king, is a stranger, by blood and by nature, in his affections, and in his appearance; his thoughts are always abroad—­this country is too small for him—­and he will never perceive what is really best for him, clear as his intellect is.  He will listen to no guidance, he does mischief to Egypt, and therefore I say:  Down with him from the throne!”

“Down with him!”—­Gagabu eagerly echoed the words.  Ameni gave the old man his hand, which trembled with excitement, and went on more calmly.

“The Regent Ani is a legitimate child of the soil, by his father and mother both.  I know him well, and I am sure that though he is cunning indeed, he is full of true veneration, and will righteously establish us in the rights which we have inherited.  The choice is easy:  I have chosen, and I always carry through what I have once begun!  Now you know all, and you will second me.”

“With body and soul!” cried Gagabu.

“Strengthen the hearts of the brethren,” said Ameni, preparing to go.  “The initiated may all guess what is going on, but it must never be spoken of.”

CHAPTER XXVII.

The sun was up on the twenty-ninth morning of the second month of the over-flow of the Nile,