hich threw over the last years of the
doomed monarchy a gleam of sunshine, that for a brief space recalled the
glories of earlier and happier ages.

XXVI.

A LAST GLEAM OF SUNSHINE--NECTANEBO I.

A troubled time followed the reign of Nefaa-rut. The Greek mercenary
soldiery, on whom the monarchs depended, were fickle in their
temperament, and easily took offence, if their inclinations were in any
way thwarted. Their displeasure commonly led to the dethronement of the
king who had provoked it; and we have thus, at this period of the
history, five reigns in twenty-five years. No monarch had time to
distinguish himself by a re-organization of the kingdom, or even by
undertaking buildings on a large scale--each was forced to live from
hand to mouth, meeting as he best might the immediate difficulties of
his position, without providing for a future, which he might never live
to see. Fear of re-conquest was also perpetual; and the monarchs had
therefore constantly to be courting alliances with foreign states, and
subjecting themselves thereby to risks which it might have been more
prudent to have avoided.

With the accession of Nectanebo I. (Nekht-Horheb), about B.C. 385, an
improvement in the state of affairs set in. Nekht-hor-heb was a vigorous
prince, who held the mercenaries well under control, and, having raised
a considerable Egyptian army, set himself to place Egypt in such a
state of defence, that she might confidently rely on her own strength,
and be under no need of entangling herself with foreign alliances. He
strongly fortified all the seven mouths of the Nile, guarding each by
two forts, one on either side of each stream, and establishing a
connection between each pair of forts by a bridge. At Pelusium, where
the danger of hostile attack was always the greatest, he multiplied his
precautions, guarding it on the side of the east by a deep ditch, and
carefully obstructing all the approaches to the town, whether by land or
sea, by forts and dykes and embankments, and contrivances for laying the
neighbouring territory under water. No doubt these precautions were
taken with special reference to an expected attack on the part of
Persia, which was preparing, about B.C. 376, to make a great effort to
bring Egypt once more into subjection.

The expected attack came in the next year. Having obtained the services
of the Athenian general, Iphicrates, and hired Greek mercenaries to the
number of twenty th