from
Pelusium and Migdol to Momemphis and Marea, was established, and
henceforth continued, as long as Egyptian rule endured. The lesson had
been learnt at a tremendous cost, but it had now at last been thoroughly
learnt, that only in unity is there strength--that the separate sticks
of the faggot are impotent to resist the external force which the
collective bundle might without difficulty have defied and scorned.

Psamatik had gained the object of his ambition--sovereignty over all
Egypt; he had now to consider how it might best be kept. And first, as
that which is won by the sword must be kept by the sword, he made
arrangements with the troops sent to his aid by Gyges, that they should
take permanent service under his banner, and form the most important
element in his standing army. His native troops were quartered at
Elephantine, in the extreme south, and in Marea and Daphnae, at the two
extremities of the Delta towards the west and east. The new accession to
his military strength he stationed at no great distance from the
capital, settling them in permanent camps on either side of the Pelusiac
branch of the Nile, near the city of Bubastis. We are told that this
exaltation of the new corps to the honourable position of keeping watch
upon the capital, greatly offended the native troops, and induced
200,000 of them to quit Egypt and seek service with the Ethiopians. The
facts have probably been exaggerated, for Ethiopia certainly does not
gain, or Egypt lose, in strength, either at or after this period.

Psamatik, further, for the better securing of his throne against
pretenders, thought it prudent to contract a marriage with the
descendant of a royal stock held in honour by many of his subjects. The
princess, Shepenput, was the daughter of a Piankhi, who claimed descent
from the unfortunate Bek-en-ranf, the king burnt alive by Shabak, and
who had also probably some royal Ethiopian blood in his veins. By his
nuptials with this princess, Psamatik assured to his crown the
legitimacy which it had hitherto lacked. Uniting henceforth in his own
person the rights of the twenty-fourth and twenty-fifth dynasties, those
of the Saites and those of the Ethiopians, he became the one and only
legal king, and no competitor could possibly arise with a title to
sovereignty higher or better than his own.

Being now personally secure, he could turn his attention to the
restoration and elevation of the nationality of which he had take