He desired the two youngest, Mernephtah and Rameri to follow him, and quitting the banquet with them and Mena, he proceeded, under the escort of his officers and guards, who bore staves before him with golden lilies and ostrich-feathers, to his sleeping-tent, which was surrounded by a corps d'elite under the command of his sons.

Before entering the tent he asked for some pieces of meat, and gave them with his own hand to his lions, who let him stroke them like tame cats.
Then he glanced round the stable, patted the sleek necks and shoulders of his favorite horses, and decided that 'Nura' and 'Victory to Thebes' should bear him into the battle on the morrow.
[The horses driven by Rameses at the battle of Kadesh were in fact thus named.] When he had gone into the sleeping-tent, he desired his attendants to leave him; he signed Mena to divest him of his ornaments and his arms, and called to him his youngest sons, who were waiting respectfully at the door of the tent.
"Why did I desire you to accompany me ?" he asked them gravely.

Both were silent, and he repeated his question.
"Because," said Rameri at length, "you observed that all was not quite right between us two." "And because," continued the king, "I desire that unity should exist between my children.

You will have enemies enough to fight with to-morrow, but friends are not often to be found, and are too often taken from us by the fortune of war.

We ought to feel no anger towards the friend we may lose, but expect to meet him lovingly in the other world.
Speak, Rameri, what has caused a division between you ?" "I bear him no ill-will," answered Rameri.