"Even so."

"Yet you value his uncle?"

"Certainly. But the state has a higher claim."

"This boy. . . ."

"Is a desirable hostage. Hosea's sword was an extremely useful tool to
us; but if the hand that guides it is directed by the man whose power
ever greater things we know . . . ."

"You mean the Hebrew, Mesu?"

"Then Hosea will deal us wounds as deep as those he erst inflicted on our
foes."

"Yet I have heard you say more than once that he was incapable of
perjury."

"And so I say still, he has given wonderful proof of it to-day. Merely
for the sake of being released from his oath, he thrust his head into the
crocodile's jaws. But though the son of Nun is a lion, he will find his
master in Mesu. That man is the mortal foe of the Egyptians, the bare
thought of him stirs my gall."

"The cries of the wailing women behind this door admonish us loudly
enough to hate him."

"Yet the weakling on the throne has forgotten vengeance, and is now