bank below Heracleopolis. But now a strange reverse of fortune befell
them. Namrut, the Hermopolitan monarch, hearing of the occupation of his
capital by Piankhi's army, resolved on a bold attempt to retake it; and,
having collected a number of ships and troops, quitted his confederates,
sailed up the Nile, besieged the Ethiopian garrison which had been left
to hold the place, overpowered them, and recovered his city.

This unexpected blow roused Piankhi from his inaction. Having collected
a fresh army, he quitted Napata in the first month of the year, and
reached Thebes in the second, where he stopped awhile to perform a
number of religious ceremonies; at their close, he descended the Nile to
Hermopolis, invested it, and commenced its siege. Moveable towers were
brought up against the walls, from which machines threw stones and
arrows into the city; the defenders suffered terribly, and after a short
time insisted on a surrender. Namrut made his peace with his offended
sovereign through the intercession of his wife with Piankhi's wives,
sisters, and daughters, and was allowed once more to do homage to his
lord in the temple of Thoth, leading his war-horse in one hand and
holding a sistrum, the instrument wherewith it was usual to approach a
god, in the other. Piankhi entered Hermopolis, and examined the
treasury, store-houses, and stables, finding in the last a number of
horses, which had been reduced almost to starvation by the siege. Either
on this account, or for some other reason, Piankhi treated the
Hermopolitan prince with coldness, and did not for some time reinstate
him in his kingdom.

[Illustration: PIANKHI RECEIVING THE SUBMISSION OF NAMRUT AND OTHERS.]

Continuing his triumphal march towards the north, Piankhi received the
submission of Heracleopolis, the capital of Pefaabast, and of various