"Who told you?"
"I heard Ishmael, the new governor in the palaceyou call him high priest-tell my father so last night.The news had been more credible, I grant you, coming from an Egyptian, who is of a race that has forgotten what truth is, or even from an Idumaean, whose people never knew what truth was; but, to make quite certain,I saw a centurion from the Tower this morning, and he told me preparations were going on for the reception;that the armorers were furbishing the helmets and shields, and regilding the eagles and globes; and that apartments long unused were being cleansed and aired as if for an addition to the garrison-the body-guard,probably, of the great man."