ly sighed the more deeply, and, with a despairing
gesture, replied: "Be not (so) superior, my friend! Doth one give water
to a bird on the eve, when it is to be slain on the morrow?" With these
words the manuscript abruptly ends, and we are supposed to leave the
prince still disconsolate in his cabin, while his friend, unable to
cheer him, returns to his duties on deck.

PART III.

RESEARCHES IN THE TREASURY.

"...And he, shall be,

Man, her last work, who seem'd so fair,
Such splendid purpose in his eyes,
Who roll'd the psalm to wintry skies,
Who built him fanes of fruitless prayer,

Who loved, who suffered countless ills,
Who battled for the True, the Just,
Be blown about the desert dust,
Or seal'd within the iron hills?"

--TENNYSON.

CHAPTER VII.

RECENT EXCAVATIONS IN EGYPT.

There came to the camp of a certain professor, who was engaged in
excavating the ruins of an ancient Egyptian city, a young and
faultlessly-attired Englishman, whose thirst for dramatic adventure had
led him to offer his services as an unpaid assistant digger. This
immaculate personage had read in novels and tales many an account of the
wonders which the spade of the excavator could reveal, and he firmly
believed that it was only necessary to set a "nigger" to dig a little
hole in the ground to open the way to the treasuries of the Pharaohs.
Gold, silver, and precious stones gleamed before him, in his
imagination, as he hurried along subterranean passages to the vaults of
long-dead kings. He expected to slide upon the seat of his very
well-made breeches down the staircase of the ruined palace which he had
entered by way of the skylight, and to find himself, at the bottom, in
the presence of the bejewelled dead. In the intervals between such
experiences he was of opinion that a little quiet gazelle shooting would
agreeably fill in the swiftly passing hours; and at the end of the
season's work he pictured himself returning to the bosom of his family
with such a tale to tell that every ear would be opened to him.

On his arrival at the camp he was conducted to the site of his future
labours; and his horrified