It was morning at Thebes, and the great city glowed in the rays of
the new-risen sun. In a royal barge sat Abi the prince, splendidly
apparelled, and with him Kaku, his astrologer, his captain of the guard
and three other of his officers, while in a second barge followed slaves
who escorted two chiefs and some fair women captured in war, also the
chests of salted heads and hands, offerings to Pharaoh.

The white-robed rowers bent to their oars, and the swift boat shot
forward up the Nile through a double line of ships of war, all of them
crowded with soldiers. Abi looked at these ships which Pharaoh had
gathered there to meet him, and thought to himself that Kaku had given
wise counsel when he prayed him to attempt no rash deed, for against
such surprises clearly Pharaoh was well prepared. He thought it again
when on reaching the quay of cut stones he saw foot and horse-men
marshalled there in companies and squadrons, and on the walls above
hundreds of other men, all armed, for now he saw what would have
happened to him, if with his little desperate band he had tried to
pierce that iron ring of watching soldiers.

At the steps generals met him in their mail and priests in their full
robes, bowing and doing him honour. Thus royally escorted, Abi passed
through the open gates and the pylons of the splendid temple dedicated
to the Trinity of Thebes, "the House of Amen in the Southern Apt,"
where gay banners fluttered from the pointed masts, up the long street
bordered with tall houses set in their gardens, till he came to the
palace wall. Here more guards rolled back the brazen gates which in
his folly of a few hours gone he had thought that he could force, and
through the avenues of blooming trees he was led to the great pillared
hall of audience.