hat and draw his chlamys closer
around him, he felt the anxieties which had made his night sleepless
and saddened his day suddenly leave him as if by a miracle. Was it the
consciousness of having acted rightly? was it the friendly farewell
which Daphne had given him, and the hope Thyone had aroused, or the
expectation of seeing Ledscha once more, and at least regaining her
good will, that had restored his lost light-heartedness? He did not know
himself, nor did he desire to know.

While formerly he had merely glanced carelessly about him in Pelusium,
and only half listened to the explanations given by the veteran's deep
voice, now whatever he saw appeared in clear outlines and awakened his
interest, in spite of the annoyances caused by the storm.

Had he not known that he was in Pelusium, it would have been difficult
for him to determine whether the city he was crossing was an Egyptian,
a Hellenic, or a Syrian one; for here rose an ancient temple of the time
of the Pharaohs, with obelisks and colossal statues before the lofty
pylons, yonder the sanctuary of Poseidon, surrounded by stately rows
of Doric columns, and farther on the smaller temple dedicated to the
Dioscuri, and the circular Grecian building that belonged to Aphrodite.

In another spot, still close to the harbour, he saw the large buildings
consecrated to the worship of the Syrian Baal and Astarte.

Here he was obliged to wait awhile, for the tempest had excited the war
elephants which were returning from their exercising ground, and their
black keepers only succeeded with the utmost difficulty in restraining
them. Shrieking with fear, the few persons who were in the street
besides the soldiers, that were everywhere present, scattered before the
huge, terrified animals.

The costume and appearance of the citizens, too, gave no clew to the
country to which the place belonged; there were as many Egyptians among
them as Greeks, Syrians, and negroes. Asiatics appeared in the majority
only in the market place, where the dealers were just leaving their
stands to secure their goods from the storm. In front of the big
building where the famous Pelusinian xythus beer was brewed, the
drink was being carried away in jugs and wineskins, in ox-carts and on
donkeys. Here, too, men were loading camels, which were rarely seen in
Egypt, and had been introduced there only a short time before.

How forcibly all these things riveted Hermon's attention, now that no
one w