him out in the eyes of the Egyptians as the favourite of Heaven, their predestined monarch and ruler.  Accordingly, Heliopolis received him gladly, hailing him as “the indestructible Horus”—­he was allowed to bathe in the sacred lake within the precincts of the great temple, to offer sacrifice to Ra, and to enter through the folding-doors into the central shrine, where were laid up the sacred boats of Ra and Turn.  After this surrender, Osorkon thought it vain to attempt further resistance.  He quitted Bubastis, and, seeking the presence of the victorious Piankhi, submitted himself and renewed his homage.  At the same time, Petisis, king of Athribis, made his submission.

The only prince who still remained unsubdued was Tafnekht, the original rebel.  Tafnekht had fled after the fall of Memphis, and had taken refuge either in one of the islands of the Delta, or beyond the seas, in Aradus or Cyprus.  But he saw that further resistance was vain; and that, if he was to rule an Egyptian principality, it must be as a secondary monarch.  Accordingly he, too, submitted himself, and was restored to his former kingdom.  Piankhi returned up the Nile to his own city of Napata amid songs and rejoicings—­whether sincere or feigned, who shall say?  His own account of the matter is the following:  “When His Majesty sailed up the river, his heart was glad; all its banks resounded with music.  The inhabitants of the west and of the east betook themselves to making melody at His Majesty’s approach.  To the notes of the music they sang, ’O king, thou conqueror!  O Piankhi, thou conquering king!  Thou hast come and smitten Lower Egypt; thou madest the men as women.  The heart of the mother rejoices who bare such a son, for he who begat thee dwells in the vale of death.  Happiness be to thee, O cow that hast borne the Bull!  Thou shalt live for ever in after ages.  Thy victory shall endure, O king and friend of Thebes!’”

This happy condition of things did not, however, continue long.  Piankhi, soon after his return to his capital, died without leaving issue; and the race of Herhor being now extinct, the Ethiopians had to elect a king from the number of their own nobles.  Their choice fell on a certain Kashta, a man of little energy, who allowed Egypt to throw off the Ethiopian sovereignty without making any effort to prevent it.  Bek-en-ranf, the son of Tafnekht, was the leader of this successful rebellion, and is said to have reigned over all Egypt for six years.  He got a name for wisdom and justice, but he could not alter that condition of affairs which had been gradually brought about by the slow working of various more or less occult causes, whereby Ethiopia had increased and Egypt diminished in power, their relative strength, as compared with former times, having become inverted.  Ethiopia, being now the stronger, was sure to reassert herself, and did so in Bek-en-ranf’s seventh year.  Shabak, the son of Kashta, whose character was cast in a far