t,
large herds of beasts and sheep were being driven into the vast
court-yard behind the house, surrounded on three sides by out-buildings;
half a hundred horses of choice breed came, tied in couples, from
the watering-place; and in a well-sanded paddock enclosed by hurdles,
slaves, brown and black, were bringing fodder to a large troop of
camels.

The house itself was well-fitted by its unusually palatial size and
antique splendor to be the residence of the emperor's viceroy, and the
Mukaukas, to whom it all belonged, had in fact held the office for a
long time. After the conquest of the country by the Arabs they had left
him in possession, and at the present date he managed the affairs of
his Egyptian fellow-countrymen, no more in the name of the emperor at
Byzantium, but under the authority of the Khaliff at Medina and his
great general, Amru. The Moslem conquerors had found him a ready and
judicious mediator; while his fellow-Christians and country-men obeyed
him as being the noblest and wealthiest of their race and the descendant
of ancestors who had enjoyed high distinction even under the Pharaohs.

Only the governor's residence was Greek--or rather Alexandrian-in style;
the court-yards and out-buildings on the contrary, looked as though
they belonged to some Oriental magnate-to some Erpaha (or prince of a
province) as the Mukaukas' forefathers had been called, a rank which
commanded respect both at court and among the populace.

The dragoman had not told the merchant too much beforehand of the
governor's possessions: he had vast estates, in both Upper and Lower
Egypt, tilled by thousands of slaves under numerous overseers. Here in
Memphis was the centre of administration of his property, and besides
the offices for his private affairs were those he needed as a state
official.

Well-kept quays, and the wide road running along the harbor side,
divided his large domain from the river, and a street ran along the wall
which enclosed it on the north. On this side was the great gate, always
wide open by day, by which servants or persons on business-errands
made their entrance; the other gate, a handsome portal with Corinthian
columns opening from the Nile-quay, was that by which the waterparty had
returned the evening before. This was kept closed, and only opened
for the family, or for guests and distinguished visitors. There was
a guardhouse at the north gate with a small detachment of Egyptian
soldiers, who were