o his
lance."

CHAPTER VIII.

The moon was risen over the city of the living that lay opposite the
Necropolis of Thebes.

The evening song had died away in the temples, that stood about a mile
from the Nile, connected with each other by avenues of sphinxes and
pylons; but in the streets of the city life seemed only just really
awake.

The coolness, which had succeeded the heat of the summer day, tempted
the citizens out into the air, in front of their doors or on the
roofs and turrets of their houses; or at the tavern-tables, where they
listened to the tales of the story-tellers while they refreshed them
selves with beer, wine, and the sweet juice of fruits. Many simple folks
squatted in circular groups on the ground, and joined in the burden of
songs which were led by an appointed singer, to the sound of a tabor and
flute.

To the south of the temple of Amon stood the king's palace, and near it,
in more or less extensive gardens, rose the houses of the magnates
of the kingdom, among which, one was distinguished by it splendor and
extent.

Paaker, the king's pioneer, had caused it to be erected after the
death of his father, in the place of the more homely dwelling of his
ancestors, when he hoped to bring home his cousin, and install her as
its mistress. A few yards further to the east was another stately though
older and less splendid house, which Mena, the king's charioteer, had
inherited from his father, and which was inhabited by his wife Nefert
and her mother Isatuti, while he himself, in the distant Syrian land,
shared the tent of the king, as being his body-guard. Before the door
of each house stood servants bearing torches, and awaiting the long
deferred return home of their masters.

The gate, which gave admission to Paaker's plot of ground through the
wall which surrounded it, was disproportionately, almost ostentatiously,
high and decorated with various paintings. On the right hand and on the
left, two cedar-trunks were erected as masts to carry standards; he had
had them felled for the purpose on Lebanon, and forwarded by ship to
Pelusium on the north-east coast of Egypt. Thence they were conveyed by
the Nile to Thebes.

On passing through the gate one entered a wide, paved court-yard, at
the sides of which walks extended, closed in at the back, and with roofs
supported on slender painted wooden columns. Here stood the pioneer's
horses and chariots, here dwelt his slaves, and here the neces