"'Remeses, my son,' she said, answering my smile, and then immediately assuming an expression of singular majesty, 'I am now advancing in life. I have passed my fifty-first year, and am weary of the sceptre. I wish to see you king of Egypt while I live. I wish to see the grandeur and wisdom of your reign, and to rejoice in your power and glory. When I am laid in the sarcophagus, which I have caused to be hewn out in the chamber beneath the pyramidion of my obelisk, I shall know and behold nothing of thy dominion. It is my desire, therefore, to invest you with the sovereignty of Egypt; and after I see you crowned, robed, and sceptred as her king, I will retire to my Libyan palace and there contemplate thy greatness, and reign again in thee!'
"'I rose to my feet in surprise, dear Sesostris, at this announcement from the lips of my mother, but listened with deference until she had concluded, and I then said,--
"'This intent and purpose be far from thee, O my mother and queen! Thou art in the meridian of life, and still in the possession of thy wonderful beauty. Scarcely a silver thread has stolen amid thy soft, dark hair; thou art yet young; and may the Lord of the kings of the earth long preserve thee upon thy throne, and lend thee strength and wisdom to wield thy sceptre. Far be it from me, therefore, my mother, to accept the crown, until Osiris himself transfers it from thy majestic brow to mine!'
"'Nay, Remeses,' she said firmly, yet sadly, 'my will is the law of Egypt. Thou hast never opposed it.'
"'But this is where my own elevation involves your depression,' I answered. 'It cannot be!'
"'I am firm and immovable, my son, in my purpose,' she replied. 'Your thirty-fifth birthday will soon arrive. That is the age at which Horus, the son of Isis, was crowned. It is a number of good omen, and I wish you to prepare for your coronation, by performing all the rites and sacrifices, that the religion and laws of Egypt require of a prince who is about to ascend the throne of the Pharaohs.'
"'Mother, my dearly honored mother!' I said, kneeling to her, 'forgive me, but I must firmly decline the throne while you sit thereon. You are ill at ease in your mind to-day. Some deep grief, which you conceal from me, preys upon you. It is not because you are old that you would abdicate the throne to me, who am not yet old or wise enough to rule this mighty nation; but you have some secret, painful reason, which I beg you to reveal to me.'