on and Thermopylae). He travelled
through the land as far as Elephantine, viewing with his observant eyes
the wonders with which the "Story of Egypt" has been so much occupied;
and he described them with the enthusiasm that we have occasionally
noted. He saw the battle-field on which Inarus had just been
defeated--the ground strewn with the skulls and other bones of the
slain; he made his longest stay at Memphis, then at the acme of its
greatness; he visited the quarries on the east of the Nile whence the
stone had been dug for the pyramids, and he gazed upon the great
monuments themselves, on the opposite side of the stream. We have seen
that he visited Lake Moeris, and examined the famous Labyrinth, which he
thought even more wonderful than the pyramids themselves. Finally, he
sailed away for Tyre, and Egypt was again closed to travellers from
Greece.

A second period of tranquillity followed, which covered the space of
about half a century. Nothing is known of Egypt during this interval;
and it might have been thought that she had grown contented with her
lot, and that her aspirations after independence were over. For fifty
years she had made no sign. Even the troubled time between the death of
Artaxerxes I. and the accession of Darius II. had not tempted her to
strike a blow for freedom. But still she was, in reality,
irreconcilable. She was biding her time, and preparing herself for a
last desperate effort.

In B.C. 406 or 405, towards the close of the reign of Darius Nothus, the
third rebellion of Egypt against Persia broke out. A native of Mendes,
by name Nepheritis, or more properly Nefaa-rut, raised the banner of
independence, and commenced a war, which must have lasted for some
years, but which terminated in the expulsion of the Persian garrison,
and the reestablishment of the throne of the Pharaohs. It is unfortunate
that no ancient authority gives any account of the struggle. We only
know that, after a time, the power of Nefaa-rut was established; that
Persia left him in undisturbed possession of Egypt, and that he reigned
quietly for the space of six years, employing himself in the repair and
restoration of the temple of Ammon at Karnak. Nothing that can be called
a revival, or _renaissance_, distinguished his reign; and we must view
his success rather as the result of Persian weakness, than of his own
energy. His revolt, however, inaugurated a period of independence, which
lasted about sixty years, and w