Artaxerxes I. and the accession of Darius II. had not tempted her to
strike a blow for freedom. But still she was, in reality,
irreconcilable. She was biding her time, and preparing herself for a
last desperate effort.

In B.C. 406 or 405, towards the close of the reign of Darius Nothus, the
third rebellion of Egypt against Persia broke out. A native of Mendes,
by name Nepheritis, or more properly Nefaa-rut, raised the banner of
independence, and commenced a war, which must have lasted for some
years, but which terminated in the expulsion of the Persian garrison,
and the reestablishment of the throne of the Pharaohs. It is unfortunate
that no ancient authority gives any account of the struggle. We only
know that, after a time, the power of Nefaa-rut was established; that
Persia left him in undisturbed possession of Egypt, and that he reigned
quietly for the space of six years, employing himself in the repair and
restoration of the temple of Ammon at Karnak. Nothing that can be called
a revival, or _renaissance_, distinguished his reign; and we must view
his success rather as the result of Persian weakness, than of his own
energy. His revolt, however, inaugurated a period of independence, which
lasted about sixty years, and which threw over the last years of the
doomed monarchy a gleam of sunshine, that for a brief space recalled the
glories of earlier and happier ages.