te of Judea under the idolatrous
Manasseh, who "shed innocent blood very much from one end of Jerusalem
to the other" (2 Kings xxi. 16), and by the advanced age of Tehrak,
which seemed to render him a less formidable antagonist now than
formerly, he resumed the designs on Egypt which his father and
grandfather had entertained, swept Manasseh from his path by seizing him
and carrying him off a prisoner to Babylon, marched his troops from
Aphek along the coast of Palestine to Raphia, and there made the
dispositions which seemed to him best calculated to effect the conquest
of the coveted country. As Tirhakah, aware of his intentions, had
collected all his available force upon his north-east frontier, about
Pelusium and its immediate neighbourhood, the Assyrian monarch took the
bold resolution of proceeding southward through the waste tract, known
to the Hebrews as "the desert of Shur," in such a way as to turn the
flank of Tirhakah's army, to reach Pithom (Heroopolis) and to attack
Memphis along the line of the Old Canal. The Arab Sheikhs of the desert
were induced to lend him their aid, and facilitate his march by
conveying the water necessary for his army on the backs of their camels
in skins. The march was thus made in safety, though the soldiers are
said to have suffered considerably from fatigue and thirst, and to have
been greatly alarmed by the sight of numerous serpents.

Tehrak, on his part, did all that was possible. On learning Esarhaddon's
change of route, he broke up from Pelusium, and, by a hasty march across
the eastern Delta succeeded in interposing his army between Memphis and
the host of the Assyrians, which had to follow the line taken by Sir
Garnet Wolseley in 1884, and encountered the enemy, probably, not far
from the spot where the British general completely defeated the troops
of Arabi. Here for the third time Asia and Africa stood arrayed the one
against the other. Assyria brought into the field a host of probably not
fewer than two hundred thousand men, including a strong chariot force, a
powerful cavalry, and an infantry variously armed and appointed--some
with huge shields and covered by almost complete panoplies, others
lightly equipped with targe and dart, or even simply with slings. Egypt
opposed to her a force, probably, even more numerous, but consisting
chiefly of a light-armed infantry, containing a large proportion of
mercenaries whose hearts would not be in the fight, deficient in
caval