ptre that had
been entrusted to him, lying on a silk cushion. The king received it
graciously, and when Ani took his robe to kiss it, the king bent down
towards him, and touching the Regent's forehead with his lips, desired
him to take the place by his side in the chariot, and fill the office of
charioteer.

The king's eyes were moist with grateful emotion. He had not been
deceived, and he could re-enter the country for whose greatness and
welfare alone he lived, as a father, loving and beloved, and not as
a master to judge and punish. He was deeply moved as he accepted the
greetings of the priests, and with them offered up a public prayer. Then
he was conducted to the splendid structure which had been prepared for
him gaily mounted the outside steps, and from the top-most stair
bowed to his innumerable crowd of subjects; and while he awaited the
procession from the harbor which escorted Bent-Anat in her litter, he
inspected the thousand decorated bulls and antelopes which were to
be slaughtered as a thank-offering to the Gods, the tame lions and
leopards, the rare trees in whose branches perched gaily-colored birds,
the giraffes, and chariots to which ostriches were harnessed, which all
marched past him in a long array.

[The splendor of the festivities I make Ani prepare seems pitiful
compared with those Ptolemy Philadelphus, according to the report of
an eye witness, Callexenus, displayed to the Alexandrians on a
festal occasion.]

Rameses embraced his daughter before all the people; he felt as if he
must admit his subjects to the fullest sympathy in the happiness and
deep thankfulness which filled his soul. His favorite child had never
seemed to him so beautiful as this day, and he realized with deep
emotion her strong resemblance to his lost wife.--[Her name was Isis
Nefert.]

Nefert had accompanied her royal friend as fanbearer, and she knelt
before the king while he gave himself up to the delight of meeting his
daughter. Then he observed her, and kindly desired her to rise. "How
much," he said, "I am feeling to-day for the first time! I have already
learned that what I formerly thought of as the highest happiness
is capable of a yet higher pitch, and I now perceive that the most
beautiful is capable of growing to greater beauty! A sun has grown from
Mena's star."

Rameses, as he spoke, remembered his charioteer; for a moment his brow
was clouded, and he cast down his eyes, and bent his head in