directed. The conspiracy, however, rested also upon more material powers. The sister of the commander of the bowmen in Ethiopia was in the harem, and succeeded in gaining over her brother to the plot; and apparently the first move was to be made by the Ethiopian troops.

In some unknown manner the plot came to light before it was fully matured, and the king appointed a royal commission to try those who were implicated. His instructions to this commission show that he was unwilling to be personally concerned in an investigation which involved many who were closely connected with himself. 'What the people have spoken, I do not know. Hasten to investigate it. You will go and question them, and those who must die, you will cause to die by their own hand, without my knowing anything of it. You will also cause the punishment awarded to the others to be carried out without my knowing anything of it.' The officials charged with the investigation divided themselves into two tribunals, one to try the harem officials, the other to deal with the more highly placed criminals. The sentences passed on the latter were exclusively death sentences. That on the individual who had been the centre of the whole conspiracy runs as follows: 'Pentuere, who formerly bore another name. He was brought before the court, because he had joined with his mother Tiy, when she conspired with the women of the harem, and because he acted with hostility against his lord. He was brought before the vassals that they might question him. They found him guilty; they dismissed him to his house; he took his own life' (or, 'he died of himself'). The mummy of an unknown person whom Maspero believes to have been this guilty prince was found with the royal mummies at Deir-el-Bahri. It bears marks of a death characterized by great agony, and Maspero suggests that Pentuere may * Erman, 'Life in Ancient Egypt,' p. 144.

have been mummified while yet alive. Others, however, consider that the state of the mummy points rather to the action of an irritant poison.

The progress of the trial was interrupted by an incident which shows very forcibly how unreliable were some of the elements with which the king had to deal, and how little dependence could be placed on even his most trusted servants. Three of the very judges who formed the royal commission were suddenly arrested and put on trial. It appeared that some of the women of the harem, together with Pai-es, one of the chief culprits, had formed an intimacy with them, and had visited them in their houses, where, with the most astounding slackness, the judges had 'made a beer-house '—that is, had held a revel-with the people whom they were supposed to be trying. One of the judges was acquitted, but as for the other two, 'their guilt seized upon them,' and 'their punishment was fulfilled by the cutting off of their noses and ears.' One of the guilty judges, unable to bear his disgrace, subsequently committed suicide.

The whole affair, discreditable in the last degree alike to the state of morality and to the administration of justice in the land, must have been a severe shock to the king, who was now growing old. He did not survive to see the end of the trial which he had ordered, but passed away shortly after the celebration of his jubilee, having reigned for a little over thirty years.

As a king he had fairly established a considerable claim on the gratitude of his people. The vigour with which he repelled the dangerous attacks which were made upon his land is worthy of all praise, while he seems to have exhibited considerable energy in developing the commercial resources of the nation. The great blot upon his rule is his pandering to the rapacity of the priesthood of Amen ; but for that he is probably not altogether to blame. He

had inherited a situation in face of which even a stronger man might well have proved helpless. It was his great ambition to be a copy of his namesake, Ramses II., and this desire was shown in somewhat puerile fashion by his adoption of a cartouche which was a colourable imitation of that of his famous ancestor, and his copying of some of the great man's habits, such as that of being accompanied on his expeditions by a tame lion. Those who consider impartially the achievements of the two men will probably come to the conclusion that the third Ramses had no great reason to be envious of the second, and that his own deeds will fairly bear comparison with those of his more famous ancestor. If he did not succeed in replacing Egypt in the proud position which she held in the earlier days of the Empire, it was from no lack of energy on his part, but because the process of national decay had already advanced too far to be arrested.

CHAPTER XIII

SOCIETY, LITERATURE, AND ART UNDER THE EMPIRE

We have been dealing with the period during which Egypt attained and passed the climax of her power and splendour as a world-empire. It remains to consider briefly what is known of the social conditions, the literature, and the art of the nation during this, the most conspicuous period of its history. The materials are more ample than at any preceding time, and it is possible to gain a moderately accurate general idea of the conditions; though it must always be remembered that a general statement can be only approximately accurate for any particular section of the period. We are dealing with a range of something like 400 years; and, though changes were no doubt slower than in modern times, they were yet continuous and important, and it would be almost as ridiculous to suppose that the condition of an Egyptian under Tahutmes I. accurately represented that of his descendant under Ramses II. as it would be to imagine that the life of an Englishman under the Commonwealth was representative of life in England at the present time.

During the earlier part of the period, the Pharaoh was, perhaps more than ever, supreme. The old feudal aristocracy had passed away in the time of struggle which preceded the rise of the Eighteenth Dynasty, and there were no longer great local princes to be dealt with, each of whom, within his own domain, might consider himself a