In the last chapter a discovery was recorded which, as experience has shown, is of considerable interest to the general reader. The romance and the tragedy of the life of Akhnaton form a really valuable addition to the store of good things which is our possession, and which the archæologist so diligently labours to increase. Another discovery, that of the tomb of Horemheb, was made in 1908; and, as it forms the natural sequel to the previous chapter, I may be permitted to record it here. Akhnaton was succeeded by Smenkhkara, his son-in-law, who, after a brief reign, gave place to Tutankhamon, during whose reign of six or eight years the court returned to Thebes. A certain noble named Ay came next to the throne, but held it for only five years. The country was now in a chaotic condition, and was utterly upset and disorganised by the revolution of Akhnaton, and by the vacillating policy of the three weak kings who succeeded him, each reigning for so short a time. One cannot say to what depths of degradation Egypt might have sunk had it not been for the timely appearance of Horemheb, a wise and good ruler, who, though but a soldier of not particularly exalted birth, managed to raise himself to the vacant throne, and succeeded in so organising the country once more that his successors, Rameses I., Sety I., and Rameses II., were able to regain most of the lost dominions, and to place Egypt at the head of the nations of the world. Horemheb, “The Hawk in Festival,” was born at Alabastronpolis, a city of the Eighteenth Province of Upper Egypt, during the reign of Amenophis III., who has rightly been named “The Magnificent,” and in whose reign Egypt was at once the most powerful, the most wealthy, and the most luxurious country in the world. There is reason to suppose that Horemheb’s family were of noble birth, and it is thought by some that an inscription which calls King Thutmosis III. “the father of his fathers” is to be taken literally to mean that the old warrior was his great--or great-great-grandfather. The young noble was probably educated at the splendid court of Amenophis III. where the wit and intellect of the world was congregated, and where, under the presidency of the beautiful Queen Tiy, life slipped by in a round of revels.