When the signal was given for the two parties to combat, the air was filled by a loud shout, and a hundred galleys charged each other, just as did the battalions of chariots in the review I have already described. The vessels, set in motion by the rowers, were driven towards each other with terrific velocity. The Abyssinian soldiers upon the bows, and the bowmen in the tops, shot off flights of arrows, which sounded like a storm of wind, as they hurtled through the air. The Libyan spearmen, on the lofty poops, brandished their spears with wild cries; while the Nubians, amidships, struck their triangular shields with battle-axes of iron, producing a sound like crashing thunders. The war bugles and hollow drums beaten on board each vessel increased the loud confusion, and added to the terror of the scene. The fall of thousands of oars, the rush of waters from the cleaving bows, the shouts of the captains, the warlike spirit and battle-fierceness of the whole, presented a spectacle of sublimity unequalled. Nor was it without an element of terror. Such was the excited manner of the simulating combatants, I believed that no earthly power could prevent a real collision and hand-to-hand conflict in hot blood, when, at a signal from the Prince Mœris, the rowers of the leading galleys turned suddenly, as they came within touch of each other's sweeps, and so, one after another wheeling in line, both divisions passed down the river, until they moved in parallel columns. The whole manœuvre was one of the most wonderful exhibitions of naval discipline and generalship. Ere the shouts of the people on the shores and in the numerous pleasure barges had died away, the two columns, at a signal from the mast of the ship of their admiral, came side by side, and a battle between the soldiers on opposite decks commenced--one party attempting to board, the other repelling them. Not less than six thousand combatants were engaged at once, above the heads of the banks of rowers. The clash of swords and spears and battle-axes, and other offensive and defensive weapons, produced a noise so terrible and grand that I believe there is no other sound on earth, as well calculated to quicken the pulse and bring out all the enthusiasm of the soul of a man. I can compare these metallic and iron tones, only to what might be the sound of the brazen voice of Mars himself rolling his war-cry along the battle-ranks of his foes. Suddenly the iron din of war ceased, and separating, one of the divisions commenced a flight, and the other a pursuit. This scene was the most exciting of all. The chase was in a direction down the east side of the island, opposite the queen's window; for all these exhibitions were given in her honor, and, though by no means well, she remained upon the terrace during the whole; and it was, perhaps, the consciousness of their monarch's eye being upon them, that caused these demi-barbaric soldiers, gathered from all the provinces and