CHAPTER XII.

Seven weeks after Nitetis had quitted her native country, a long train of
equipages and horsemen was to be seen on the king's highway from the west
to Babylon, moving steadily towards that gigantic city, whose towers
might already be descried in the far distance.

[The great road called the "king's road," of which we shall have
more to say, was made by Cyrus and carefully kept up by Darius.]

The principal object in this caravan was a richly-gilded, four-wheeled
carriage, closed in at the sides by curtains, and above by a roof
supported on wooden pillars. In this vehicle, called the Harmamaxa,
resting on rich cushions of gold brocade, sat our Egyptian Princess.

[Harmamaxa--An Asiatic travelling carriage. The first mention of
these is in Xenophon's Anabasis, where we find a queen travelling in
such a vehicle. They were later adopted by the Romans and used for
the same object.]

On either side rode her escort, viz.: the Persian princes and nobles whom
we have already learnt to know during their visit to Egypt, Croesus and
his son.

Behind these, a long train, consisting of fifty vehicles of different
kinds and six hundred beasts of burden, stretched away into the distance,
and the royal carriage was preceded by a troop of splendidly-mounted
Persian cavalry.