A very different matter occupied her thoughts, and as, pressing her hand
upon her heart, she gazed at the little city, gleaming with crimson hues
in the reflection of the setting sun, a strange, restless stir pervaded
the former stillness of Nature. Pelicans and flamingoes, geese and
ducks, storks and herons, ibises and cranes, bitterns and lapwings, flew
in dark flocks of manifold forms from all directions. Countless
multitudes of waterfowl darkened the air as they alighted upon the
uninhabited islands, and with ear-splitting croaking and cackling,
whistling and chirping, clapping and twittering, dropped into the sedges
and bushes which concealed their nests, while in the city the doors of
the houses opened, and men, women, and children, after toiling at the
loom and in the workshop, came out to enjoy the coolness of the evening
in the open air.

One fishing boat after another was already throwing a rope to the shore,
as the ship with the gay sails approached the little roadstead.

How large and magnificent it was!

None of the king's officials had ever used such a galley, not even the
epistrategus of the Delta, who last year had given the banking and the
oil trade to new lessees. Besides, the two transports that had followed
the magnificent vessel appeared to belong to it.

Ledscha had watched the ships indifferently enough, but suddenly her
gaze--and with it the austere beauty of her face--assumed a different
expression.

Her large black eyes dilated, and with passionate intentness she looked
from the gaily ornamented galley to the shore, which several men in Greek