three approaching worshippers,
the Arab diggers rushed to him, declaring that they had found Noah and
his three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japhet, and demanded a sheep to make
a feast.

The report of the wonderful discovery of a royal palace, evidently older
than those of Nineveh, with magnificent decorations in alabaster and
cuneiform inscriptions, reached beyond Mosul to Constantinople. Sir
Stratford Canning was delighted with the result of his expedition. He
had a passion for discovery as well as diplomacy, and it is to him that
the British Museum is indebted for the priceless marbles of
Halicarnassus. He now obtained for Mr. Layard a firman, permitting him
to make what excavations he wished. Then the news reached London, and
the British Museum made a grant to support the work. All difficulties
were now removed. Conditions were even more favorable for him than they
are now. There was then no Imperial Museum in Constantinople to which
all objects found must be taken, but those that dug had the right to
carry off their prizes to London or Paris.

To tell the story of the further excavations is unnecessary. It is all
given in Layard's two splendid volumes, "Nineveh and its Remains," and
"Babylon and Nineveh;" and the bas-reliefs, statues, bronzes, ivories,
and inscriptions are magnificently reproduced in great folio volumes.
From Nimroud he went back to Mosul, and there opened the two mounds
opposite of Kuyunjik and Neby-Yunus, the site of old Nineveh. There more
palaces and friezes were found of other kings. Then he went back to
London, closing his successful campaign, more profitable if not more
glorious than those of war, and published the story of his work. Its
effect was marvellous. No such popular book of travels had ever
appeared; for it was a story of adventure, and also of strange
discovery. Mr. Layard had not suspected that he had the literary gift,
but he had it in rare measure. He had gained an inner view of the heart
of tribes, Moslem and Christian and semi-pagan, by his sympathy with
them and his knowledge of their tongues. He had lived in their tents and
huts. He had saved them from persecution by Turkish governors. Their
gratitude to him was beyond words, and he told their story with
affection and enthusiasm. Then his discoveries were in the lands made
historic not only by the campaigns of Xenophon and Alexander, but made
almost sacred by the Bible history. These were the lands whence came the
armies that f