Bent-Anat laid her head in full content on the breast of the noble Assa’s grandson, but she would have clung not less fondly to Pentaur the gardener’s son.

“Now you are one of my own children,” said Rameses; and he desired the poet to remain with him while he commanded the heralds, ambassadors, and interpreters to bring to him the Asiatic princes, who were detained in their own tents on the farther side of the Nile, that he might conclude with them such a treaty of peace as might continue valid for generations to come.  Before they arrived, the young princes came to their father’s tent, and learned from his own lips the noble birth of Pentaur, and that they owed it to their sister that in him they saw another brother; they welcomed him with sincere affection, and all, especially Rameri, warmly congratulated the handsome and worthy couple.

The king then called Rameri forward from among his brothers, and thanked him before them all for his brave conduct during the fire.  He had already been invested with the robe of manhood after the battle of Kadesh; he was now appointed to the command of a legion of chariot-warriors, and the order of the lion to wear round his neck was bestowed on him for his bravery.  The prince knelt, and thanked his father; but Rameses took the curly head in his hands and said: 

“You have won praise and reward by your splendid deeds from the father whom you have saved and filled with pride.  But the king watches over the laws, and guides the destiny cf this land, the king must blame you, nay perhaps punish you.  You could not yield to the discipline of school, where we all must learn to obey if we would afterwards exercise our authority with moderation, and without any orders you left Egypt and joined the army.  You showed the courage and strength of a man, but the folly of a boy in all that regards prudence and foresight—­things harder to learn for the son of a race of heroes than mere hitting and slashing at random; you, without experience, measured yourself against masters of the art of war, and what was the consequence?  Twice you fell a prisoner into the hands of the enemy, and I had to ransom you.

“The king of the Danaids gave you up in exchange for his daughter, and he rejoices long since in the restoration of his child; but we, in losing her, lost the most powerful means of coercing the seafaring nations of the islands and northern coasts of the great sea who are constantly increasing in might and daring, and so diminished our chances of securing a solid and abiding peace.

“Thus—­through the careless wilfulness of a boy, the great work is endangered which I had hoped to have achieved.  It grieves me particularly to humiliate your spirit to-day, when I have had so much reason to encourage you with praise.  Nor will I punish you, only warn you and teach you.  The mechanism of the state is like the working of the cogged wheels which move the water-works on the