of those of a priest;
causing himself to be consecrated high-priest of Vulcan. Abandoning
himself entirely to superstition, he neglected to defend his kingdom by
force of arms; paying no regard to military men, from a firm persuasion
that he should never have occasion for their assistance; he, therefore,
was so far from endeavouring to gain their affections, that he deprived
them of their privileges, and even dispossessed them of their revenues of
such lands as his predecessors had given them.

He was soon made sensible of their resentment in a war that broke out
suddenly, and from which he delivered himself solely by a miraculous
protection, if Herodotus may be credited, who intermixes his account of
this war with a great many fabulous particulars. Sanacharib (so Herodotus
calls this prince) king of the Arabians and Assyrians, having entered
Egypt with a numerous army, the Egyptian officers and soldiers refused to
march against him. The high priest of Vulcan, being thus reduced to the
greatest extremity, had recourse to his god, who bid him not despond, but
march courageously against the enemy with the few soldiers he could raise.
Sethon obeyed. A small number of merchants, artificers, and others who
were the dregs of the populace, joined him; and with this handful of men,
he marched to Pelusium, where Sanacharib had pitched his camp. The night
following, a prodigious multitude of rats entered the camp of the
Assyrians, and gnawing to pieces all their bowstrings, and the thongs of
their shields, rendered them incapable of making the least defence. Being
disarmed in this manner, they were obliged to fly; and they retreated with
the loss of a great part of their forces. Sethon, when he returned home,
ordered a statue of himself to be set up in the temple of Vulcan, holding
in his right hand a rat, and these words to be inscribed thereon:--LET THE
MAN WHO BEHOLDS ME LEARN TO REVERENCE THE GODS.(444)

It is very obvious that this story, as related here from Herodotus, is an
alteration of that which is told in the second book of Kings. We there
see,(445) that Sennacherib, king of the Assyrians, having subdued all the
neighbouring nations, and made himself master of all the other cities of
Judah, resolved to besiege Hezekiah in Jerusalem, his capital city. The
ministers of this holy king, in spite of his opposition, and the
remonstrances of the prophet Isaiah, who promised them, in God's name, a
sure and certain protection,