ry, and apt to trust mainly to its chariots. In the flat Egyptian
plains lightly accoutred troops fight at a great disadvantage against
those whose equipment is of greater solidity and strength; cavalry are
an important arm, since there is nothing to check the impetus of a
charge; and personal strength is a most important element in determining
the result of a conflict. The Assyrians were more strongly made than the
Egyptians; they had probably a better training; they certainly wore more
armour, carried larger shields and longer spears, and were better
equipped both for offence and defence. We have, unfortunately, no
description of the battle; but it is in no way surprising to learn that
the Assyrians prevailed; Tehrak's forces suffered a complete defeat,
were driven from the field in confusion, and hastily dispersed
themselves.

Memphis was then besieged, taken, and given up to pillage. The statues
of the gods, the gold and silver, the turquoise and lapis lazuli, the
vases, censers, jars, goblets, amphorae, the stores of ivory, ebony,
cinnamon, frankincense, fine linen, crystal, jasper, alabaster,
embroidery, with which the piety of kings had enriched the
temples--especially the Great Temple of Phthah--during fifteen or twenty
centuries, were ruthlessly carried off by the conquerors, who destined
them either for the adornment of the Ninevite shrines or for their own
private advantage. Tehrak's wife and concubines, together with several
of his children and numerous officers of his court, left behind in
consequence of his hurried flight, fell into the enemy's hands. Tehrak
himself escaped, and fled first to Thebes, and then to Napata; while the
army of Esarhaddon, following closely on his footsteps, advanced up the
valley of the Nile, scoured the open country with their cavalry, stormed
the smaller towns, and after a siege of some duration took "populous
No," or Thebes, "that was situate among the rivers, that had the waters
round about it, whose rampart was the great deep" (Nahum iii. 8). All
Egypt was overrun from the Mediterranean to the First Cataract;
thousands of prisoners were taken and carried away captive; the Assyrian
monarch was undisputed master of the entire land of Mizraim from Migdol
to Syene and from Pelusium to the City of Crocodiles.

Upon conquest followed organization. The great Assyrian was not content
merely to overrun Egypt; he was bent upon holding it. Acting on the
Roman principle, "_Divide et i