the foot of the wall, except that a strong body of men were
stationed behind the walls, half of whom were always to be under arms
in readiness to repel the Egyptians should they burrow through. This
confidence proved their ruin. The Egyptians were thoroughly accustomed
to mining operations, and were fully aware that were they to pierce
the wall the Rebu could at once overwhelm the small working parties;
they, therefore, after penetrating a considerable distance into the
embankment, drove right and left, making an excavation of considerable
size, the roof being supported by beams and planks hauled up at night.

The number of those employed in the work was increased as fast as
there was room for them; and while the Rebu thought that there were at
most a dozen men in each of the sheltered places, there were, at the
end of twenty-four hours, fully two hundred men at work in the heart
of the embankment at each point. The Egyptian king had ordered the
chief of his engineers to have everything in readiness for the capture
of the city by the end of the third day.

Each night the numbers of workmen increased, while the excavations
were carried in further and further. No picks were used in the work,
the earth being cut away with wide daggers. Absolute silence was
enjoined among the workers, and they were thus enabled to extend their
excavations close to the surface without the defenders having an idea
of their proximity. The distance that they were from the inner face
was ascertained by boring through at night-time with spears. By the
end of the third day the excavations had been carried so far that
there was but a foot or so of earth remaining, this being kept from
moving, on pressure from the outside, by a lining of boards supported
by beams. Thus at twenty points the Egyptians were in readiness to
burst through among the unsuspecting defenders.

As soon as it was dark the preparations for the assault began. Great
numbers of stagings of vast length had been prepared, together with an
immense number of broad and lofty ladders. These last were brought
forward noiselessly to the foot of the cliff, and great numbers of the
Egyptians mounted before the alarm was given by those on the walls.
But by this time the excavations were all crowded with men. The
Egyptian army now advanced with shouts to the assault. The great
stages were brought forward by the labor of thousands of men and
placed against the cliff.

The besieged had now