rd fastened to metal rings passed through their lips; these figures
represent Baal of Tyre and Taharqa of Napata, the latter with the uraaus
on his forehead. As a matter of fact, these kings were safe beyond his
reach, one surrounded by the sea, the other above the cataracts, and
the people were well aware that they did not form part of the band of
prisoners which denied before their eyes; but they were accustomed to
the vain and extravagant boastings of their conquerors, and these very
exaggerations enabled them to understand more fully the extent of the
victory. Esarhaddon thenceforward styled himself King of Egypt, King of
the Kings of Egypt, of the Said and of Kush, so great was his pride at
having trampled underfoot the land of the Delta. And, in fact, Egypt
had, for a century, been the only one of the ancient Eastern states
which had always eluded the grasp of Assyria. The Elamites had endured
disastrous defeats, which had cost them some of their provinces; the
Urartians had been driven back into their mountains, and no longer
attempted to emerge from them; Babylon had nearly been annihilated
in her struggles for independence; while the Khati, the Phoenicians,
Damascus, and Israel had been absorbed one after another in the gradual
extension of Ninevehe supremacy. Egypt, although she had had a hand in
all then-wars and revolutions, had never herself paid the penalty of
her intrigues, and even when she had sometimes risked her troops on the
battle-fields of Palestine, her disasters had not cost her more than the
loss of a certain number of men: having once retired to the banks of the
Nile, no one had dared to follow, and the idea had gained credence among
her enemies as well as among her friends that Egypt was effectually
protected by the desert from every attack. The victory of Esarhaddon
proved that she was no more invulnerable than the other kingdoms of the
world, and that before a bold advance the obstacles, placed by nature
in the path of an invader, disappeared; the protecting desert had been
crossed, the archers and chariots of Egypt had fled before the Assyrian
cavalry and pikemen, her cities had endured the ignominy and misery of
being taken by storm, and the wives and daughters of her Pharaohs had
been carried off into servitude in common with the numerous princesses
of Elam and Syria of that day. Esarhaddon filled his palaces with
furniture and woven stuffs, with vases of precious metal and sculptured
ivori