t not even
know that they were neighbors in the desert.

On the fifteenth of Mesore the concentration of troops was almost
finished. The regiments of Prince Ramses, which were to meet the
Asiatic forces of Nitager, had assembled on the road above the city of
Pi-Bailos with their camp and with some military engines.

The heir himself directed all the movements. He had organized two
parties of scouts. Of these the first had to watch the enemy, the other
to guard its own army from attack, which was possible in a hilly region
with many ravines. Ramses, in the course of a week, rode around and
examined all the regiments, inarching by various roads, looking
carefully to see if the soldiers had good weapons and warm mantles for
the night hours, if in the camps there was dried bread in sufficiency
as well as meat and dried fish. He commanded, besides, that the wives,
children, and slaves of warriors marching to the eastern boundary
should be conveyed by canal; this diminished the number of chariots and
eased the movements of the army.

The oldest generals admired the zeal, knowledge, and caution of the
heir, and, above all, his simplicity and love of labor. His court,
which was numerous, his splendid tent, chariots, and litters were left
in the capital, and, dressed as a simple officer, he hurried from
regiment to regiment on horseback, in Assyrian fashion, attended by two
adjutants.

Thanks to this concentration, the corps itself went forward very
swiftly, and the army was near Pi-Bailos at the time appointed.

It was different with the prince's staff, and the Greek regiment
accompanying it, and with some who moved military engines.

The staff, collected in Memphis, had the shortest road to travel; hence
it moved latest, bringing an immense camp with it. Nearly every
officer, and they were young lords of great families, had a litter with
four negroes, a two-wheeled military chariot, a rich tent, and a
multitude of boxes with food and clothing, also jars full of beer and
wine. Besides, a numerous troop of singers and dancers, with music, had
betaken themselves to journey behind the officers; each woman must, in
the manner of a great lady, have a car drawn by one or two pair of
oxen, and must have also a litter.

When this throng poured out of Memphis, it occupied more space on the
highway than the army of Prince Ramses. The march was so slow that the
military engines which were left at the rear moved twenty-four hours