Watch-towers were erected for the supervision of this region, and for rallying-points in case of internal revolts or attacks from without.  One of these, the Migdol of Ramses III., was erected, not far from the scene of the decisive battle, on the spot where the spoils had been divided.  This living barrier, so to speak, stood between the Nile valley and the dangers which threatened it from Asia, and it was not long before its value was put to the proof.  The Libyans, who had been saved from destruction by the diversion created in their favour on the eastern side of the empire, having now recovered their courage, set about collecting their hordes together for a fresh invasion.  They returned to the attack in the XIth year of Ramses, under the leadership of Kapur, a prince of the Mashauasha.*

     * The second campaign against the Libyans is known to us
     from the inscriptions of the year XI. at Medinet-Habu.

[Illustration:  313.jpg THE CAPTIVE CHIEFS OF RAMSES III.  AT MEDINET-IHABU]

Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Beato.  The first prisoner on the left is the Prince of the Khati (cf. the cut on p. 318 of the present work), the second is the Prince of the Amauru [Amoritos], the third the Prince of the Zakkala, the fourth that of the Shardana, the fifth that of the Shakalasha (see the cut on p. 304 of this work), and the sixth that of the Tursha [Tyrseni].

Their soul had said to them for the second time that “they would end their lives in the nomes of Egypt, that they would till its valleys and its plains as their own land.”  The issue did not correspond with their intentions.  “Death fell upon them within Egypt, for they had hastened with their feet to the furnace which consumes corruption, under the fire of the valour of the king who rages like Baal from the heights of heaven.  All his limbs are invested with victorious strength; with his right hand he lays hold of the multitudes, his left extends to those who are against him, like a cloud of arrows directed upon them to destroy them, and his sword cuts like that of Montu.  Kapur, who had come to demand homage, blind with fear, threw down his arms, and his troops did the same.  He sent up to heaven a suppliant cry, and his son [Mashashalu] arrested his foot and his hand; for, behold, there rises beside him the god who knows what he has in his heart:  His Majesty falls upon their heads as a mountain of granite and crushes them, the earth drinks up their blood as if it had been water...; their army was slaughtered, slaughtered their soldiers,” near a fortress situated on the borders of the desert called the “Castle of Usirmari-Miamon.”  They were seized, “they were stricken, their arms bound, like geese piled up in the bottom of a boat, under the feet of His Majesty."* The fugitives were pursued at the sword’s point from the Castle of Usirmari-Miamon to the Castle of the Sands, a distance of over thirty miles.**