e protecting cabin, but
followed the nauarch, who pointed out to him the numerous vessels which,
in a wide curve, surrounded the place where the Sebennytic arm of the
Nile pierced the tongue of land to empty into the sea.

The experienced seaman did not know what ships were doing there, but it
was hardly anything good; for ravens in a countless multitude were to be
seen on the shore and all moved toward the left.

Philippus's appearance on deck interrupted the nauarch. He anxiously
showed the birds to the old hero also, and the latter's only reply was,
"Watch the helm and sails!"

Yonder squadron, Philippus said to the artist, was a part of his son's
fleet; what brought it there was a mystery to him too.

After the early meal, the galley of Eumedes approached his father's
trireme. Two other galleys, not much inferior in size, were behind, and
probably fifty smaller vessels were moving about the mouth of the Nile
and the whole dreary tongue of land.

All belonged to the royal war fleet, and the deck of every one was
crowded with armed soldiers.

On one a forest of lances bristled in the murky air, and upon its
southward side a row of archers, each man holding his bow in his hand,
stood shoulder to shoulder.

At what mark were their arrows to be aimed? The men on board the Galatea
saw it distinctly, for the shore was swarming with human figures, here
standing crowded closely together, like horses attacked by a pack of
wolves; yonder running, singly or in groups, toward the sea or into the
land. Dark spots on the light sand marked the places where others had
thrown themselves on the ground, or, kneeling, stretched out their arms
as if in defence.

Who were the people who populated this usually uninhabited, inhospitable
place so densely and in so strange a manner?

This could not be distinguished from the Galatea with the naked eye,
but Philippus thought that they were the Gauls whose punishment had been
intrusted to his son, and it soon proved that the old general was right;
for just as the Galatea was approaching the shore, a band of twenty or
thirty men plunged into the sea. They were Gauls. The light complexions
and fair and red bristling hair showed this--Philippus knew them, and
Hermon remembered the hordes of men who had rushed past him on the ride
to Tennis.

But the watchers were allowed only a short time for observation; brief
shouts of command rang from the ships near them, long bows were raised
in t