And so, after nine years of such warfare as we have been describing, he returns to favoured and protected Egypt, to thank Ra and Ammon for the favour and protection they had vouchsafed to him, and for all the mighty deeds they had enabled him to do, and to preserve for ever the memory of those deeds on the walls of their temples. He brings back with him much treasure, the spoils of the nations, and multitudes of captives. Both this treasure and these captives he uses up upon the temples, and upon the monuments, palaces, and cities, he now builds. Without any possible provocation, and without any advantage to himself, if the wear and tear of his own kingdom be weighed in the balance against the spoil and the slaves he brought home, he had, like a lava torrent, passed over what were then some of the fairest portions of the world. His swarthy, bloodthirsty, destroying host must have appeared to the inhabitants of those countries like the legions of the lower world let loose. This was too dreadful a work even for those times ever to be forgotten. And it was remembered some centuries afterwards, when the tables were turned, and Egypt was invaded by Cambyses. In the Persian army were contingents from many people who had treasured up the memory of what Rameses the Great had on this expedition done to their forefathers, and of what several of the successors of Rameses on the throne of Egypt had in like manner done to many of the peoples of Asia. The day of reckoning came, and the reckoning was fearfully exacted. We see the marks, remaining on the temples to this day, of the retributive fury of the Persians against the gods of Egypt. CHAPTER XX. GERMANICUS AT THEBES. Tanquam tabula naufragii.—BACON. While I was at Thebes the account often recurred to me which Tacitus gives of the visit of Germanicus to the monuments of that city. He was, being then about thirty years of age, the most accomplished and popular prince the family of the Cæsars produced. His many civic and martial virtues had attracted to him the eyes and the hearts of the world. These high expectations, however, his foul murder speedily and cruelly extinguished. The attention he bestowed on the historical monuments of Egypt enhances the regard we feel for him. How many ingredients of interest would a picture combine which presented to us the young Cæsar standing, as the historian describes him, in the temple-palace of Rameses, by the side of the great kings prostrate granite colossus, attended by his Roman suite, and some of the elders of the Egyptian priests, who are explaining to him the records on the monuments. A pendant to it, which would possess sufficient connecting points and contrasts of interest, would be a picture of his adoptive ancestor, the great Dictator, in the Palace of the Ptolemies, dallying with the Calypso of the Nile.