The Officer [prostrated before the Pharaoh] Pharaoh! may Ammon-Ra preserve thy life in health and strength!

The Pharaoh. [with fury] My orders! My orders!

The Officer. Lord of the two Egypts, friend of Ra, favorite of Mentu, may Ammon—

The Pharaoh. Enough! my orders!

The Officer. I would have died—

The Pharaoh. The wish shall be granted, be assured, and soon! My orders! Dog, why did you not carry out my orders?

The Officer. Satni—

The Pharaoh. Satni! Yes, Satni, the impostor! Where is he?

The Officer. Pharaoh—may Ammon, Soukou Ra, Horus—

The Pharaoh. I will have you whipped till your blood run—Satni! Where is Satni! I sent you to seize him! Where is he?

The Officer. No one knows.

The Pharaoh. Scoundrel! You are his accomplice!

The Officer. O Ammon!

The Pharaoh. Did you go to the house of his father, to Rheou?

The Officer. We searched them in vain.

The Pharaoh. He has taken flight, then?

The Officer. I know not.

The Pharaoh. You are a traitor! You shall die! Take him out! And you others, hear the commands of the High Priest and begone.

High Priest. Let each fulfil the mission he is charged with. Let the young priests mix with the crowd, the moment it enters the Temple. Let them excite the people's fervor, that as many prodigies as possible may be won from the goddess. Now when you are gone the stones that screen the sanctuary will roll away before the Pharaoh and the High Priest; and, first by right, they shall behold the goddess face to face. Humbly prostrated we shall speak to her the mysterious words that other men have never heard. Bow down before the Pharaoh, may he live in health and strength [All kneel and remain with their faces on the ground during what follows, save an old man whom the High Priest calls to his side by a sign; and to whom he says in low tones] Let the man Satni be taken from the crypt where he is imprisoned [The old man bows] When I give the signal let them bring him here. While the Pharaoh goes in procession through the town let them do what I have told you [The old man bows] [To the others] Rise! [To the Pharaoh] Son of Ammon-Ra, bow down before him who represents the god. [The Pharaoh rises and after a slight hesitation bows down before the High Priest] Withdraw, we would pray. [Motionless the High Priest and the Pharaoh wait till the last of the assistants are gone].

The Pharaoh [giving up his hieratic pose, angrily] I would all the flies of Egypt might eat thy tongue.

High Priest [without feeling] The flies of Egypt are too many and my tongue is too small, for your wish to be realized, Pharaoh.

The Pharaoh. This is the result of my weakness!

High Priest [with flattering unction] The Pharaoh, Son of Ammon-Ra—Lord of the two Egypts—Friend of Ra—

The Pharaoh. Enough! Enough! We are alone. There are none whom your words may deceive. And your mock-reverence fools not me. You would not let me put Satni to death, your subtleties confused my mind, I gave in to you, and now Satni escapes us.

High Priest. You should not let anger master you for that.

The Pharaoh. Satni has foretold to thousands of ears that there will be no miracle.

High Priest. The miracle will be.

The Pharaoh. Who knows that?

High Priest. I.

The Pharaoh. Satni has declared he will enter the temple—

High Priest. 'Tis possible.

The Pharaoh. He has declared he knows the secret recess, whence one of your priests makes the head of the image move.

High Priest. Most like he speaks the truth.

The Pharaoh. He declares the miracle will not take place. If the people suffer this disappointment, tell me what chance can there be for the war of conquest I would wage in Ethiopia?

High Priest. Why wage a war of conquest in Ethiopia?

The Pharaoh. I need gold. I need women. I need slaves. There will be a share of the spoil for your temple.

High Priest. I like not bloodshed.

The Pharaoh. The treasury is empty. Our whippings are useless now. Our blows no longer bring forth taxes. If the people lose confidence in the gods, what will happen to-morrow? Who will follow me, unless they believe the gods confirm my orders?

High Priest. Satni will not prevent the miracle.

The Pharaoh. What do you know of it?

High Priest. I know.

The Pharaoh. Is Satni dead?

High Priest. He lives.

The Pharaoh [suddenly guessing] You are hiding him!

High Priest. Yes.

The Pharaoh. You knew I was about to rid me of him, and you took him to prevent me?

High Priest. Yes.

The Pharaoh. What do you intend?

High Priest. It shall be done with him as I wish, not as you wish.

The Pharaoh. His crime is a crime against Egypt.

High Priest. A crime against me. That is still more grave. Therefore be satisfied.

The Pharaoh. Why then all these ceremonies before you kill him?

High Priest. That all may know his faults.

The Pharaoh. Satni was one of yours, and you defend him.

High Priest. We must not make martyrs—if we can avoid it. In killing Satni you would have killed only a man. If what I dream succeed, I shall kill his work. That is a better thing.

The Pharaoh. What will you make of him?

High Priest. A priest.

The Pharaoh. A priest?

High Priest. He was initiated before he went away. He was then a young man, pious and wise. On his travels he lost some piety, and gained some wisdom.

The Pharaoh. Have I not always said: "it is not good to travel."

High Priest. I think like you. Travellers learn too much. Yet am I hopeful. I shall bring him back to our gods.

The Pharaoh. You will fail.

High Priest. He who for long has breathed the air of temples can never wholly clear his breast of it. If he give way, he shall never leave the house of the Gods again, if he be still rebellious, he shall leave to go to his death.

The Pharaoh. I order you to give Satni up to me.

High Priest. I would I might bow to your will. But he is a priest: his life is sacred. And I may not transgress the orders given me by the Gods.

The Pharaoh. Prate not of these follies to me—do you take me for one of your priests? Obey! I command you!

High Priest. Do you take me for one of your soldiers?

The Pharaoh. I command it.

High Priest. The gods forbid.

The Pharaoh. I laugh at your gods.

High Priest. Beware lest your people hear.

The Pharaoh. I would be master, in truth. And more, I refuse to submit to the humiliation that again you put on me a while ago.

High Priest. How should that humiliate you? Before you, the highest bow down.

The Pharaoh. Yes. And straightway, then, I must bow me down before you.

High Priest. You salute, not me, but the god whom I represent.

The Pharaoh. I pay homage to the god, it is the priest who receives it.

High Priest [faintly smiling] Rest assured! I pass it on to him.

The Pharaoh. And you mock me, besides! Oh! if I but dared to kill you, hypocrite!

High Priest. Vain man!

The Pharaoh. You tremble at sight of a sword, coward!

High Priest. Being a butcher, you know only how to kill.

The Pharaoh. Liar!

High Priest. Who made you Pharaoh?

The Pharaoh. Beware lest one day I have you thrown to my lions!

High Priest. Beware lest one day I strike the crown of the two Egypts from your head, telling the people the god has set his face against you! [A pause] Come, we must work together. We complete each other. To govern men, we have both the reality of the evils you inflict on them, and the hope of the good I promise them. Believe me, we must work together. The day that one of us disappears, the fate of the other will be in jeopardy—I perceive they make sign to me. They think our prayers are long and fervent. The hour is come for you to receive the acclamation of your people, and follow them to the shrine of Isis—when Satni will not prevent the miracle, I pledge my word to that.

High Priest. You know me again!

Satni [troubled] Yes, you are the High Priest.

High Priest [with sweet gentleness] I, too, I know you again. Your father is a potter. You were brought up and taught by us. In the crowd of neophytes I singled you out by your gentleness, your great intelligence; and I saw you destined for the highest dignities. I esteemed you, I was fond of you. We took you from wretchedness. What you know, for the most part, you owe to us. This thing that you have done should anger me—I am only sad, my son. [A pause] You are troubled.

Satni. Yes, I looked for threats, for torture. The kindness of your voice unmans me.

High Priest. Be not distressed. Forget who I am. None hear us. Let us talk together as father and son. Or better, since your learning makes you worthy, as two men. You have proclaimed broadcast that the miracle will not come to pass.

Satni. The goddess is stone. Stone does not move itself. The image will not bow its head unless man intervene.

High Priest. That is evident.

Satni. You admit it?

High Priest. To you, yes. We give to each one the faith he deserves. Had you remained with us, at each step in the priesthood you would have beheld the gods rise with you, become more immaterial, more noble, as you became more learned. We give to the people the gods they can understand. Our god is different. He is the one who exists in essence. The one who lives in substance, the sole procreator who was not engendered, the father of the fathers, the mother of mothers. The one and only. And we crave his pardon for belittling him by miracles. But they are part of that faith which alone contents the simple-minded. You are above them—I admit freely that the miracle could be prevented. You declared it would not take place—you have found the means to make it impossible?

Satni [suspecting the trap] I said that, left to herself, the goddess would not move.

High Priest. To say only that, would not have served you. You intended to prevent the miracle. Come, admit it—it is so.

Satni. Perhaps.

High Priest. By seizing you, I prevent your committing the sacrilege. Your purpose will not be realized. In an hour the festival of the Prodigy will take place, and you are my prisoner. It follows then, the miracle will be performed—you believe that, do you not?

Satni [after a pause] Yes, I believe it.

High Priest. And so your cause is lost. [A pause] Listen to me; the priests who have taken their final vows are as wise and as little credulous as you. I offer you a place among them. Return to us. A little wisdom banishes the gods—great wisdom brings them back.

Satni. I refuse.

High Priest. My son, my son, you will not cause me this sorrow. Think what you will drive me to, if you refuse—Satni, do not force me to send you before the tribunal, whose sentence must be death. Death, for you, so young, whose future is so bright!

Satni. I do not fear death.

High Priest. Besides—I mind me—you were betrothed to that little Yaouma whom the god has chosen as victim. You know she may be saved from the sacrifice, if she become the wife of a priest. They guarded her but ill at Rheou's house, she is here. I have seen her; she is kind and gentle, and you would lead a happy life with her.

Satni. Yaouma! Yaouma! [He hides his face]

High Priest [laying a hand on his shoulder] So that on one side is Yaouma's death and yours; on the other, happiness with her—and power. Say nothing. I speak as a father might, you can see. I say besides, that you will better serve the crowd in leaving them their gods. I wish to convince you of it, and you will stay with us—weep no more. You will stay, will you not? Wait! Hear me, before you answer. You seek happiness for the lower orders? There is no happiness for them without religion. Already you have seen what they become, when it is taken from them. The riots of yesterday cost your father his life. He suffered much, they tell me. Is it true? I do not know the details. You saw him die, did you not? Tell me how it happened.

Satni. Ah! I was right. It was in truth torture that awaited me here. You have guessed you would gain nothing racking my body—you keep your torments for my heart.

High Priest. Have I said other than what is true? The conversions that your preaching made were followed by disorders—was it not then that your father was wounded? I knew him. He was a man, simple and good. You are the cause of his death, as you will be the cause of Yaouma's.

Satni. Peace! You would have my sorrows crush my will!

High Priest. I shall speak of them no more. But think of the people of Egypt, what evils you would bring on them! If you take away their religion, what will keep them virtuous?

Satni. What you call their virtue, is only their submission.

High Priest. You let loose their vilest instincts, if you remove the fear of the gods.

Satni. The fear of the gods has prevented fewer crimes than were needed to create it.

High Priest. Be it so. But it exists.

Satni. It is your interest to spread the belief, that the fear of the gods is a restraint. And you know that it is not. You do not leave the punishment of crime to the gods. You have the lash, hard labor in the mines; you have scaffolds, you have executioners. No one believes sincerely in the happy life beyond the grave. If we believed, we should kill ourselves, the sooner to reach the Island of the Souls, the fields of Yalou.

High Priest. By what then are the appetites restrained?

Satni. By the laws, by the need of the esteem of others—

High Priest. We have just seen that, in sooth. So then it was virtue that the people showed yesterday, after you made them break their gods? They seemed to care little for the esteem of others, for they stole, they pillaged, they killed. Do you approve of that? Have they gained your esteem, those who have done what they have done?

Satni. Oh, I know! I know! That is your strongest argument. Creatures degraded by centuries of slavery, drunk with the first hours of freedom, commit crimes. You argue from this, that they were meant for slaves. Yes, it is true that if you take a child from the leading strings that upheld it, the child falls down. But you who watch over it, you rejoice at the fall, for then you can assert that the child must go back to its leading strings—and be kept in them till death.

High Priest. Then you declare that all supports must be suppressed? [A pause] Religion is a prop. It soothes—consoles. He does evil who disturbs it.

Satni. Many religions died before ours. The passing of each caused the sorrows you foresee. Should we then have kept the first, to prevent some suffering?

High Priest. Ours is yet young, though so old; look in the halls of our temples, behold the countless thank-offerings brought there for prayers that were granted.

Satni. Your temples could not hold the offerings, unthinkable in number, that those whose prayers were not granted might have made, and who none the less prayed as well as the others.

High Priest. Even unanswered their prayers were recompensed. They had hope, and it is likewise a boon to the poor to promise them welfare in the world to come.

Satni. You promise them welfare in the world to come, to make them forget that all the welfare in this world is yours.

High Priest. Can you give happiness to all who are on earth? We are more generous than you; at least we give them consolation.

Satni. You make them pay dear for it.

High Priest. In truth the granaries of our temples are full to overflowing. Left to themselves, the people would not think of the lean years, in the years of abundance. We think for them, and they bring us, gladly, what they would refuse did they not believe they gave to the gods. We proclaim the Nile sacred; it is forbidden to sully its waters. Is that to honor it as a god? Not so, it is to avoid the plague. And all the animals we deified are those man has need of. You did not learn all things on your travels—

Satni. You would have the peasant remain a child, because you fear the reckoning he would demand of you, if you let him grow up. You know you could not stay him then by showing him the god-jackal, the god-ram, the god-bull, and the rest that do not exist.

High Priest. Are you certain they do not exist?

Satni. Yes.

High Priest. Know you where you are?

Satni. In the temple.

High Priest. In the temple; where you were brought up. There was a time when you dared not have crossed the first sacred enclosure. You are in the third. Look round! There is the holy of holies. At my will the stones that mask the entrance will roll back, and the goddess will be unveiled. Except the High Priest and the Pharaoh, no mortal, if he be not priest himself, may look on her and live—save at the hour of the annual Festival of Prodigies, which is upon us now. Do you believe that you can endure to be alone in her presence?

Satni. I do believe it.

High Priest. We shall see. If you be afraid, call and prostrate yourself. Afterwards you shall go and tell what you have seen, to those whom you deceived.

The High Priest makes a sign. Total darkness. A peal of thunder.