It may be worth noticing that the account the priests gave to Germanicus of the conquests of Rameses the Great was substantially the same as that which had been given to Herodotus four centuries and a half earlier. It was the same record, read from the same lithotome. Of course, Herodotus gives to him the name, by which he was known among the Greeks, of Sesostris. All these monuments of early Egyptian history—for the remains of even the Labyrinth are still sufficient to enable one to make out the plan of the structure—our English Prince had an opportunity, a few years back, of seeing very much in the condition in which the Roman Prince saw them 1,850 years ago. The Empire which the world was expecting would have, under him, its eternal foundations strengthened, is now, like the Egypt he was studying, a thing of the past. We may be permitted to entertain the double hope, that such precious records of mans history may, for other thousands of years yet to come, escape the common fate of man’s works, and still not outlive the empire of their later visitor. CHAPTER XXI. MOSES’S WIFE. Black, but such as in esteem Prince Memnon’s sister might beseem.—MILTON. Whilst at Assouan we received an intimation from the Governor that, if agreeable, he would, at a certain hour in the afternoon, present himself to our party. It was impossible that anything in the world could give us greater pleasure. And so at the appointed time he arrived, attended by a kavass and a pipe-bearer. The former he left on the bank, the latter came on board with him. The Governor turned out to be quite as black as a Guinea negro, but there the resemblance ended. His face was a good, rather long oval, and his features as fine as those of a Greek Apollo. Off a straight forehead he had a straight nose with a thin nostril. There was no trace of coarseness about his mouth. His skin was as smooth, and soft, and thin as that of an Arab girl. He was above six feet in height, and clean-limbed. His build conveyed the idea of strength combined with lithesome, panther-like agility; though, as he sat leisurely smoking his pipe, and sipping his coffee, he did not at all look like a man who was ever in a hurry. His manners were easy and dignified, full of grace and smiles. He was very intelligent, and readily answered any questions that were put to him through the dragoman about the condition of the people, and of the country. He had been born at Assouan, and had never been out of the neighbourhood. I regret now that I did not ask him some questions about his parentage. I suppose his mother, at least, must have been a Nubian, or Abyssinian. The colour of his complexion indicated rather the former, his features perhaps the latter. Possibly there had been much mixture of blood in his family for some generations, perhaps through odalisque channels; for the children of odalisques and of regular wives are treated as equals. An European might have made a companion, or