eems even to have retained for a time
the external pomp of royalty; but the populace of Sais demanding his
execution with vehemence, Amasis was at length constrained to deliver
him up to their vengeance, and Apries was strangled by the mob. He was
honourably interred between the royal palace and the temple of Nit, not
far from the spot where his predecessors reposed in their glory,* and
the usurper made himself sole master of the country. It was equivalent
to a change of dynasty, and Amasis had recourse to the methods usual in
such cases to consolidate his power. He entered into a marriage alliance
with princesses of the Saite line, and thus legitimatised his usurpation
as far as the north was concerned.**

* It was probably from this necropolis that the coffin of
Psammetichus II. came.

** The wife of Amasis, who was mother of Psammetichus III.,
the queen Tintkhiti, daughter of Petenit, prophet of Phtah,
was probably connected with the royal family of Sais.

In the south, the "divine worshippers" had continued to administer the
extensive heritage of Amon, and Nitocris, heiress of Shapenuapit, had
adopted in her old age a daughter of her great-nephew, Psammetichus IL,
named Ankhnasnofiribri: this princess was at this time in possession of
Thebes, and Amasis appears to have entered into a fictitious marriage
with her in order to assume to himself her rights to the crown. He had
hardly succeeded in establishing his authority on a firm basis when he
was called upon to repel the Chaldaean invasion. The Hebrew prophets had
been threatening Egypt with this invasion for a long time, and Ezekiel,
discounting the future, had already described the entrance of Pharaoh
into Hades, to dwell among the chiefs of the nations--Assur, Elam,
Meshech, Tubal, Edom, and Philistia--who, having incurred the vengeance
of Jahveh, had descended into the grave one after the other: "Pharaoh
and all his army shall be slain by the sword, saith the Lord God! For I
have put this terror in the land of the living: and he shall be laid in
the midst of the uncircumcised, with them that are slain by the sword,
even Pharaoh and all his multitude, saith the Lord God!" Nebuchadrezzar
had some hesitation in hazarding his fortune in a campaign on the banks
of the Nile: he realised tolerably clearly that Babylon was not in
command of such resources as had been at the disposal of Nineveh under
Esarhaddon or Assur-bani-pal, and that Egypt