lles.

She owed whatever activity she possessed to impulses imparted to her by
the play of her ancient mechanism--a mechanism so stable in its action,
and so ingeniously constructed, that it had still a reserve of power
within it sufficient to keep the whole in motion for centuries, provided
there was no attempt to introduce new wheels among the old. She had
never been singularly distinguished for her military qualities; not that
she was cowardly, and shrank from facing death, but because she lacked
energy and enthusiasm for warlike enterprise. The tactics and armaments
by which she had won her victories up to her prime, had at length become
fetters which she was no longer inclined to shake off, and even if she
was still able to breed a military caste, she was no longer able to
produce armies fit to win battles without the aid of mercenaries. In
order to be successful in the field, she had to associate with her own
troops recruits from other countries--Libyans, Asiatics, and Greeks, who
served to turn the scale. The Egyptians themselves formed a compact body
in this case, and bearing down upon the enemy already engaged by the
mercenaries, broke through his ranks by their sheer weight, or, if they
could not accomplish this, they stood their ground bravely, taking to
flight only when the vacancies in their ranks showed them that further
resistance was impossible. The machinery of government, like the
organisation of their armies, had become antiquated and degenerate.

[Illustration: 368.jpg AN ELEPHANT ARMED FOR WAR]

Drawn by Boudier, from a little terra-cotta group from
Myrrhina now in the Louvre. This object dates from the time
of the kings of Pergamos, and the soldier round whom the
elephant winds his trunk in order to dash him to the ground
is a Gaul of Asia Minor.

The nobility were as turbulent as in former times, and the royal
authority was as powerless now as of old to assert itself in the absence
of external help, or when treason was afoot among the troops. Religion
alone maintained its ascendency, and began to assume to itself
the loyalty once given to the Pharaoh, and the devotion previously
consecrated to the fatherland. The fellahin had never fully realised the
degradation involved in serving a stranger, and what they detested in
the Persian king was not exactly the fact that he was a Persian. Their
national pride, indeed, always prompted them to devise some means
of connecting t