For the sake of example, he said, he could not let them pass altogether unpunished, and he now asked them which of them had been the instigator of the deed; he and he only should suffer punishment.
He had hardly clone speaking, when prince Rameri stepped forward, and said modestly: "We acknowledge, holy father, that we have played a foolish trick; and I lament it doubly because I devised it, and made the others follow me.

I love Pentaur, and next to thee there is no one like him in the sanctuary." Ameni's countenance grew dark, and he answered with displeasure: "No judgment is allowed to pupils as to their teachers--nor to you.

If you were not the son of the king, who rules Egypt as Ra, I would punish your temerity with stripes.

My hands are tied with regard to you, and yet they must be everywhere and always at work if the hundreds committed to my care are to be kept from harm." "Nay, punish me!" cried Rameri.

"If I commit a folly I am ready to bear the consequences." Ameni looked pleased at the vehement boy, and would willingly have shaken him by the hand and stroked his curly head, but the penance he proposed for Rameri was to serve a great end, and Ameni would not allow any overflow of emotion to hinder him in the execution of a well considered design.