Memphis. With equal delight they would have listened to the graceful romances of their own country. They now heard of the exact accomplishment of obscure predictions, of the punishment of crimes over which the justice of heaven had seemed to slumber,--of dreams, omens, warnings from the dead,--of princesses, for whom noble suitors contended in every generous exercise of strength and skill,--of infants, strangely preserved from the dagger of the assassin, to fulfil high destinies. As the narrative approached their own times, the interest became still more absorbing. The chronicler had now to tell the story of that great conflict from which Europe dates its intellectual and political supremacy,--a story which, even at this distance of time, is the most marvellous and the most touching in the annals of the human race,--a story abounding with all that is wild and wonderful, with all that is pathetic and animating; with the gigantic caprices of infinite wealth and despotic power--with the mightier miracles of wisdom, of virtue, and of courage. He told them of rivers dried up in a day,--of provinces famished for a meal,--of a passage for ships hewn through the mountains,--of a road for armies spread upon the waves,--of monarchies and commonwealths swept away,--of anxiety, of terror, of confusion, of despair!--and then of proud and stubborn hearts tried in that extremity of evil, and not found wanting,--of resistance long maintained against desperate odds,--of lives dearly sold, when resistance could be maintained no more,--of signal deliverance, and of unsparing revenge. Whatever gave a stronger air of reality to a narrative so well calculated to inflame the passions, and to flatter national pride, was certain to be favourably received.