“In what way?  Psamtik suits his father’s present mood very well.  It is true that Tachot is ill, but she prays and sacrifices with her father all the more for that; and as to Nitetis, you and I both know that her death will not touch him very closely.”

“I really do not understand you.”

“Of course not, so long as you fancy that I believe your beautiful patient to be Amasis’ daughter.”

The Egyptian started again, but Phanes went on without appearing to notice his emotion:  “I know more than you suppose.  Nitetis is the daughter of Hophra, Amasis’ dethroned predecessor.  Amasis brought her up as his own child-first, in order to make the Egyptians believe that Hophra had died childless; secondly, in order to deprive her of her rights to the throne; for you know women are allowed to govern on the Nile.”

“These are mere suppositions.”

“For which, however, I can bring irrefragable proofs.  Among the papers which your old servant Hib brought with him in a small box, there must be some letters from a certain Sonnophre, a celebrated accoucheur, your own father, which . . .”

[To judge from the pictures on the monuments and from the 1st Chap. of Exodus, it would seem that in ancient, as in modern Egypt, midwives were usually called in to assist at the birth of children; but it is also certain, that in difficult cases physicians were employed also.  In the hieratic medical papyrus in Berlin, women are often spoken of as assisting at such times.  In the medical Papyrus Ebers certain portions are devoted to diseases peculiar to women.  “There were special rooms set aside in private houses for the birth of children, as symbolical ones were reserved in the temples.  These chambers were called meschen, and from them was derived the name given to midwives, to meschennu.]

“If that be the case, those letters are my property, and I have not the slightest intention of giving them up; besides which you might search Persia from one end to the other without finding any one who could decipher my father’s writing.”

“Pardon me, if I point out one or two errors into which you have fallen.  First, this box is at present in my hands, and though I am generally accustomed to respect the rights of property, I must assure you that, in the present instance, I shall not return the box until its contents have served my purpose.  Secondly, the gods have so ordained, that just at this moment there is a man in Babylon who can read every kind of writing known to the Egyptian priests.  Do you perhaps happen to know the name of Onuphis?”

For the third time the Egyptian turned pale.  “Are you certain,” he said, “that this man is still among the living?”