With grace and dignity he saluted me before the whole court, saying, "Noble prince, with pleasure I present you to my mother the queen. She is already prepossessed in your favor, and welcomes you to her court with distinctions becoming the heir to the throne of Phœnicia, and our royal cousin."
I bowed in recognition of this courtesy, and Remeses, taking my hand, led me up the steps of the dais. The Queen Amense, seated upon her ivory throne, awaited my approach. Remeses, leading me to within three paces of her footstool, said, with a low obeisance of mingled filial reverence and princely homage,—
"Mother and queen! I introduce to your court, Sesostris, Prince of Tyre!"
I also did profound obeisance to the majesty of the presence near which I stood, and then fixed my eyes upon the mighty potentate about to address me, and presented to her your original letter.
As she opened it, I observed her face. I beheld before me a woman of noble aspect, with rich brown hair, slightly silvered, worn with severe plainness across her temples. Her face was still beautiful, though fifty-three years had passed over her head, but it was marked with lines of thought and care. What her fine features had lost in beauty, they had gained in majesty. They recalled those of the statue of Astarte, in the temple of the Moon at Sidon; and, in truth, her air and port would have become a goddess. Her eyes were the color of her hair—a rich sunny brown, like that of the Syrian women of Damascus; and is she not, by descent through Ephtha, the daughter of the last Phœnician Pharaoh, allied to the royal line of Syro-Phœnicia? I never beheld a countenance so dignified, yet so benign. Her eyes are piercing, and imperial in their glance; and she carries her superb head with a consciousness of dominion. I did not marvel longer at her vast power over her subjects, and their submission, as well as that of the kingdoms around her, to the rule of her will.
Upon her head she wore the double diadem of the Thebaïd and Memphis, symbol that the sovereignty of Upper and Lower Egypt is vested in her person. The inner crown was a graceful conical bonnet of white silk, sown with pearls and lined with cloth of silver, terminating in a knob, like a pomegranate bud, which is the emblem, I believe, of Upper Egypt. The outer crown, which is similar to that worn by the Phœnician Pharaohs, is a rich band of gold, faced with cloth of gold and lined with red silk, red being the special color of Lower Egypt as white is of Upper. This crown is open at the top, and is put on over the other; and the two worn together form a diadem of beauty and glory.
About her neck the queen wore a necklace of precious stones, the clasp of which was a vulture, his neck encircled by an asp, on which he was trampling—emblem of the goddess Maut, mother of Isis. She was dressed in a vestment of Persian gauze of silk, of the purest whiteness and of the fineness of mist, and a green vesture enriched with gold and blue needle-work, reaching below the waist and secured by a girdle blazing with diamonds. Long robes descended to her feet, of those most beautiful patterns and rare colors which the looms of Damascus produce only for royal wearers, and in the manufacture of which years are consumed. Carelessly over one shoulder was thrown a Persian shawl, one like which is only made in a lifetime, and would buy a king's ransom. The monarchs of Egypt thus can command with their wealth, dear mother, what other kings can only sigh for and envy.
She did not rise to receive me, but when I would have kneeled at her footstool, she bended forward and touched my hand with her jewelled right hand, which I reverently raised to my lips and forehead. She would not suffer me to kneel, but made me stand on one side of her, while Remeses stood on her right, and proceeded to ask me a variety of questions. She uttered her interrogatories with grace and benignity. She expressed her gratification at seeing me at her court—trusted I would find Egypt so agreeable that I should remain a long time her guest—asked after your health and welfare, and desired me to convey to you the expression of her esteem for you, and her desire that the friendly relations now existing between the two courts may be strengthened by my visit. She was also pleased to say, that every opportunity should be afforded me for seeing Egypt, and that if I desired to visit Karnac and Luxor, and the temples and cities of the Thebaïd, she would furnish me with galleys.
To all this exceeding kindness and courtesy, my dear mother, I returned, as you may be sure, appropriate acknowledgments; and after some further conversation, in which Prince Remeses took part, the audience terminated: but only to introduce a spectacle, such as I had no conception was in reserve—the review of her army of chariots and horsemen, on the parade of the palace.
But I must reserve my description of this scene to a subsequent letter. Till then, I remain,