rays on Thebes, and the messengers had not returned. The
Pharaoh preserved his motionless attitude. Night fell on the city, cool,
calm, blue; the stars came out and twinkled in the deep azure. On the
corner of the terrace the Pharaoh, silent, impassible, stood out dark
like a basalt statue fixed upon the entablature. Several times the birds
of night swept around his head ere settling on it, but terrified by his
deep, slow breathing, they fled with startled wings.

From the height where he sat, the King overlooked the city lying at his
feet. Out of the mass of bluish shadow uprose the obelisks with their
sharp pyramidions; the pylons, giant doors traversed by rays; high
cornices; the colossi rising shoulder-high above the sea of buildings;
the propylaea; the pillars, with capitals swelled out like huge granite
flowers; the corners of temples and of palaces, brought out by a silvery
touch of light. The sacred pools spread out shimmering like polished
metal; the human-headed and the ram-headed sphinxes aligned along the
avenues, stretched out their hind-quarters; and the flat roofs were
multiplied infinitely, white under the moonlight, in masses cut here and
there into great slices by the squares and the streets. Red points
studded the darkness as if the stars had let sparks fall upon the earth.
These were lamps still burning in the sleeping city. Still farther,
between the less crowded buildings, faintly seen shafts of palm trees
waved their fans of leaves; and beyond, the contours and the shapes were
merged in a vaporous immensity, for even the eagle's glance could not
have reached the limits of Thebes; and on the other side old Hopi was
flowing majestically towards the sea.

Soaring in sight and thought over that vast city of which he was the
absolute master, the Pharaoh reflected sadly on the limits set to human
power, and his desire, like a raging vulture, gnawed at his heart. He
said to himself: "All these houses contain beings who at the sight of me
bow their faces into the dust, to whom my will is the will of the gods.
When I pass upon my golden car or in my litter borne by the oeris,
virgins feel their bosoms swell as their long, timid glance follows me;
the priests burn incense to me in their censers, the people wave palms
and scatter flowers; the whistling of one of my arrows makes the nations
tremble; and the walls of pylons huge as precipitous mountains are
scarce sufficient to record my victories; the quarrie