long dark period of division and civil war, but during the two or three thousand years that Egypt had been a kingdom no foreign foe had set foot upon her soil. Memphis, the 'secure and beautiful' city, had stood in all her splendour, and had never seen a hostile banner unfurled against her. The royal line of Mena had ruled,[1] the worship of the temples of Abydos and of the City of the Sun had prevailed uninterruptedly since the days of the pyramid builders and the 'old time before them.' It is a wonderful chapter in the world's history, and one turns the page with regret. Nor can we be surprised at the burning shame and bitter resentment with which the Egyptians of after times looked back upon those days of disgrace and subjection. As far as it was possible they obliterated every trace of the detested Hyksos supremacy; they chiselled out the names of their kings, and destroyed their monumental records. Very few traces survive, but it is plain, nevertheless, that the conquerors soon
- ↑ Even during the civil wars some branch of the ancient line was ruling, and it is probable that the eleventh dynasty was united by marriage to the early kings.
