d of a strong body of troops, down the Nile,
with orders to suppress the revolt, and bring the arch-rebel into his
presence. The expedition left Thebes. On its way down the river, it fell
in with the advancing fleet of the enemy, and completely defeated it.
The rebel chiefs, who now included Petesis, Osorkon, and Aupot, as well
as Tafnekht, Pefaabast, and Namrut, abandoning Hermopolis and the
Middle Nile, fell back upon Sutensenen or Heracleopolis Magna, where
they concentrated their forces, and awaited a second attack. This was
not long delayed. Piankhi's fleet and army, having besieged and taken
Hermopolis, descended the river to Sutensenen, gave the confederates a
second naval defeat, and disembarking, followed up their success with
another great victory on land, completely routing the rebels, and
driving them to take refuge in Lower Egypt, or in the towns on the river
bank below Heracleopolis. But now a strange reverse of fortune befell
them. Namrut, the Hermopolitan monarch, hearing of the occupation of his
capital by Piankhi's army, resolved on a bold attempt to retake it; and,
having collected a number of ships and troops, quitted his confederates,
sailed up the Nile, besieged the Ethiopian garrison which had been left
to hold the place, overpowered them, and recovered his city.

This unexpected blow roused Piankhi from his inaction. Having collected
a fresh army, he quitted Napata in the first month of the year, and
reached Thebes in the second, where he stopped awhile to perform a
number of religious ceremonies; at their close, he descended the Nile to
Hermopolis, invested it, and commenced its siege. Moveable towers were
brought up against the walls, from which machines threw stones and
arrows into the city; the defenders suffered terribly, and after a short
time insisted on a surrender. Namrut made his peace with his offended
sovereign through the intercession of his wife with Piankhi's wives,
sisters, and daughters, and was allowed once more to do homage to his
lord in the temple of Thoth, leading his war-horse in one hand and
holding a sistrum, the instrument wherewith it was usual to approach a
god, in the other. Piankhi entered Hermopolis, and examined the
treasury, store-houses, and stables, finding in the last a number of
horses, which had been reduced almost to starvation by the siege. Either
on this account, or for some other reason, Piankhi treated the
Hermopolitan prince with coldness, and did not fo