he had secured the sovereignty--and again he vowed to the gods immense
sacrifices if only they would protect him from impending disaster.

When he rose next morning Antinous was startled at his aspect, for
Hadrian's face and lips were perfectly bloodless. After he had read the
remainder of his letters he started, not on foot but on horseback, with
Antinous and Mastor for Besa, there to await the rest of the escort.

CHAPTER XXI.

The unchained elements had raged that night with equal fury over the
Nile city of Besa. The citizens of this ancient town had done all they
could to give the Imperial traveller a worthy reception. The chief
streets had been decked with ropes of flowers strung from mast to mast
and from house to house, and by the harbor, close to the river shore,
statues of Hadrian and his wife had been erected. But the storm tore
down the masts and the garlands, and the lashed waters of the Nile had
beaten with irresistible fury on the bank; had carried away piece after
piece of the fertile shore, flung its waves, like liquid wedges into
the rifts of the parched land; and excavated the high bank by the
landing-quay.

After midnight the storm was still raging with unheard-of fury; it swept
the palm thatch from many of the houses, and beat the stream with such
violence that it was like a surging sea. The full unbroken force of the
flood beat again and again on the promontory on which stood the statues
of the Imperial couple. Shortly before the first dawn of light the
little tongue of land, which was protected by no river wall, could
no longer resist the furious attack of the waters; huge clods of soil
slipped and fell with a loud noise into the river and were followed by
a large mass of the cliff, with a roar as of thunder the plateau behind
sank, and the statue of the Emperor which stood upon it began to totter
and lean slowly to its fall. When day broke it was lying with the
pedestal still above ground, but the head was buried in the earth.

At break of day the citizens left their houses to inquire of the
fishermen and boatmen what had occurred in the harbor during the night.
As soon as the storm had abated, hundreds, nay thousands, of men, women
and children thronged the landing-place round the fallen statue--they
saw the land-slip and knew that the current had torn the land from the
bank and caused the mischief. Was it that Hapi, the Nile-god, was angry
with the Emperor? At any rate the disaster tha