Two days after this, on turning the point of a chain of mountains, the army came in sight of the ruins of Thebes. Denon loved above all things to be original. In approaching the wreck of this mighty city, Homer’s phrase, “Thebes with its hundred gates,” occurred to him; he repeated it, and then descanted upon its poetical vanity, and the folly of those who harped upon this string. As soon as the army came in sight of these gigantic ruins, the whole body stopped spontaneously as one man, and clapped their hands with admiration and delight. The conquest of Egypt appeared to be complete. Our traveller, who rivalled Dr. Syntax himself in his love of the picturesque, immediately set about sketching the view, as if it had been merely a city of vapour, like that which appears under the name of the “Palace of the Rajah Harchund,” in the desert of Ajmere. Being desirous of beholding at once all the wonders of this stupendous city, he quickly visited those colossal statues which are found in a sitting posture in the neighbouring plain, which he supposed to be those of the mother and son of Ossymandyas. From Thebes he proceeded with General Belliard to Syene, while Desaix struck off into the desert in search of a detachment of Mamelukes. Here he resided for some time, making the island of Elephantina his country-house, and Syene his head-quarters. He visited the cataracts, the island of Phile, and made drawings of whatever was striking or remarkable in the vicinity. After a considerable stay, he returned towards the north, where he bade adieu to his friend Desaix, never to meet again. He afterward made a second excursion to Thebes, Denderah, and other celebrated spots; and experienced, during one of these rambles, the effects of the Khamsyn wind, variously described by travellers, according to the variety of their temperaments. It was about the middle of May, the heat was almost intolerable, a complete stagnation seemed to have taken place in the air. “At the very moment,” he says, “when to remove the painful sensation occasioned by such a state of the atmosphere, I was hastening to bathe in the Nile, all nature seemed to have put on a new aspect: the light and colours were such as I had never seen before; the sun, without being concealed, had lost its rays; become dimmer than the moon, it yielded but a pale light, diffused around every object without shadows; the water no longer reflected its rays, and appeared troubled: the aspect of every thing was changed; it was the earth which now appeared luminous, while the air was dim, and seemed opaque; the trees, beheld through a yellow horizon, wore a dirty blue colour; a long column of birds swept before the cloud; the terrified animals wandered wild through the plain, and the peasants, who pursued them with shouts, failed to collect them together. The wind, which had raised this prodigious mass of sand, and transported it along through the atmosphere, had not yet reached