"This is an affectionate tribute of a mother's love On my twelfth birthday she had this sacred fane dedicated in honor of the event. Here she consecrated me as a boy to the youthful god Horus. I remember perfectly, the solemn impression the whole scene made upon my heart and imagination. Once a year I come hither and pass a night watching before its altar and in prayer, rather in filial acquiescence with her wishes, which to me are laws, than from reverence for the god!" We had already alighted, and were standing on the portico of the temple, which was of crescent shape, and bordered by a row of elegantly veined alabaster columns from Alabastron, rich quarries of the Pharaohs near the Cataracts. After examining the temple, and expressing the admiration which it merited, we were going out, when I saw a young Hebrew girl flying from the pursuit of one of the taskmasters. Just as we were entering the temple, I had seen her passing with many other females, some laden with straw, others with bunches of leeks and garlic, which they were taking to the fields for the dinner of the laborers, who were not permitted to go to their huts until dark, having left them at the first blush of dawn to commence their ceaseless toils. Those women who worked not in the brick-fields were the providers of food for the rest. This young girl I had noticed was bending painfully under an intolerable load of garlic and leeks, which she bore upon her head, and yet assisting a tottering woman, who was walking by her side with an equally heavy burden of provisions, in a coarse wicker-basket. I was struck with the elegance of her figure and with the beauty of her face, as well as with her kindness to her companion, when she herself needed aid. We were leaving the temple, as I have said, when I beheld her flying. As she came near, she saw the prince, and cast herself at his feet, embracing them, and exclaiming-- "O my lord--O great and mighty god! mercy!--save me!" Remeses regarded her with surprise, and said, sternly yet not cruelly-- "What dost thou wish? Why dost thou fly from thy taskmaster?" "When I cast down my load and took up my mother's, who was ready to die, he struck me because I could not take both together. I would have done it, O lord prince, but had not the strength." "Go back to thy task, young woman. Thou shalt not be punished for a kind act to thy mother. The gods forbid we should destroy all filial ties, even among our slaves." This last sentence was spoken rather with his own mind than addressed to any one. "What is this I hear?" he continued, speaking to the sub-officer, who, seeing his slave seek the protection of Remeses, had stopped, a short distance off, expecting to have her sent back to him. "Didst thou strike this Hebrew girl?" "She is wilful and intractable, your highness," answered the man humbly, "and--"