had sometimes risked her troops on the battle-fields of Palestine, her disasters had not cost her more than the loss of a certain number of men:  having once retired to the banks of the Nile, no one had dared to follow, and the idea had gained credence among her enemies as well as among her friends that Egypt was effectually protected by the desert from every attack.  The victory of Esarhaddon proved that she was no more invulnerable than the other kingdoms of the world, and that before a bold advance the obstacles, placed by nature in the path of an invader, disappeared; the protecting desert had been crossed, the archers and chariots of Egypt had fled before the Assyrian cavalry and pikemen, her cities had endured the ignominy and misery of being taken by storm, and the wives and daughters of her Pharaohs had been carried off into servitude in common with the numerous princesses of Elam and Syria of that day.  Esarhaddon filled his palaces with furniture and woven stuffs, with vases of precious metal and sculptured ivories, with glass ornaments and statuettes looted from Memphis:  his workers in marble took inspiration from the sphinxes of Egypt to modify the winged, human-headed lions upon which the columns of their palaces rested, and the plans of his architects became more comprehensive at the mere announcement of such a vast amount of spoil.  The palace they had begun to build at Nineveh, on the ruins of an ancient edifice, already surpassed all previous architectural efforts.  The alabaster quarries of the Assyrian mountains and the forests of Phoenicia had alike been put under contribution to face the walls of its state apartments; twenty-two chiefs of the country of the Khati, of Phoenicia, and of the Mediterranean littoral—­among them the Greek kings of Cyprus—­had vied with one another in supplying Esarhaddon with great beams of pine, cedar, and cypress for its construction.  The ceilings were of cedar supported by pillars of cypress-wood encircled by silver and iron; stone lions and bulls stood on either side of the gates, and the doors were made of cedar and cypress, incrusted or overlaid with iron, silver and ivory.  The treasures of Egypt enabled Esarhaddon to complete this palace and begin a new one at Calah, where the buildings erected somewhat hurriedly by Tiglath-pileser III. had already fallen into ruin.  Some of the slabs on which the latter conqueror had engraved his Annals, and recounted the principal episodes of his campaigns, were removed and transferred to the site selected by Esarhaddon, and one of the surfaces of each was pared down in order to receive new pictures and fresh inscriptions.  They had, however, hardly been placed in the stonemason’s hands when the work was interrupted.*

     * The date of the building of the palace at Calah is
     furnished by the inscriptions, in which Esarhaddon assumes
     the title of King of Egypt.

[Illustration:  161.jpg ASSYRIAN SPHINX IN EGYPTIAN STYLE SUPPORTING THE BASE OF A COLUMN]