[232] All this and what had gone before was intended to test what feeling they shewed under the eyes of the governor to his own mother’s son. For he feared that they might have had that natural estrangement which the children of a stepmother often shew to the family of another wife who was no less esteemed than their own mother.
[233] This was the reason why he accused them of spying, and questioned them on their kin in order to know whether that brother was alive and had not been the victim of a plot, and also why he detained one when he let the others depart after agreeing to bring the youngest, whom he greatly yearned to see and thus shake off the trouble which weighed on him so heavily.
[234] This again was why, though when he came to join them and seeing his brother felt just a little relieved, he after inviting them to the hospitality of his board entertained his mother’s son on a richer scale than the rest, but meanwhile observed each of them to judge from their looks whether they still cherished some secret envy.
[235] Finally it was for the same reason that when he saw how pleased and overjoyed they were at the honour paid to that brother and thus had established by two testimonies that there was no smouldering enmity, he devised this third testimony, namely to pretend that the cup had been stolen, and charge the theft to the youngest. For this would be the clearest way of testing the real feeling of each, and their attachment to the brother thus falsely accused.
[236] On all these grounds he was now convinced that there was no factious conspiracy to undo his mother’s family, and also considering what had happened to himself he came to the conclusion that his experiences were probably due not so much to their conspiring as to the providence of God Who beholds distant events and sees the future no less than the present.