enemy, and held out a siege of a year and a half in this island. [Rollin.]
THE ANCIENT KINGS.
Tirhakah, king of Ethiopia, destroyed by conquest many nations and took their countries and cast their gods into the tire. He having good counsel, was strong for the war, with thousands of chariots, horsemen and soldiers. He took Hamath, Arpad, Sepharvaim, Hena, Ivah, Samaria, Libnah and Lachish, and came out to fight against Judea and Jerusalem; he sent messengers unto Hezekiah, king of Judea, saying, Who are there among all the gods that have delivered their countries out of my hand? And what Lord shall deliver Jerusalem out of my hand? Make an agreement with me by a present and come out to me, and then eat ye every man of his own vine, and every one of his fig-tree, and drink you every one the water of his cistern until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of corn and wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of oil, olive and honey, that ye may live and not die. Hast thou not heard long ago what I have done in ancient time? that I have digged and drank strange water and with the soles of my feet have I dried up all the rivers of besieged places? laid waste fenced cities into ruinous heaps? their inhabitants were dismayed and confounded; they were as the grass, as the green herb, as the corn blasted before it be grown up! (2 Kings viii. xix.)
Cambyses. The first of this name was a king of Persia, the father of Cyrus the Great. He gave to the young prince such noble instructions as were well adapted to form the great captain and prince; he exhorted him above all things to pay the highest reverence to the gods, and not to undertake any enterprise, whether important or inconsiderable, without first calling upon and consulting them.
Cambyses, the son and successor of Cyrus, carried his army into Egypt. On his arrival there, Amasis, the king, was just dead, and was succeeded by his son Psammenitus, who was made king.
Cambyses, after having succeeded in a battle, pursued the
