when needed, and a few implements, we took our dark way across the sands to the Great Pyramid. With infinite labor, in the darkness, we scaled its side. It was a work of danger even to ourselves; impossible to those not, like us, familiar with every stony step and crevice. The storms of ages had somewhat disintegrated the face of the pile. We attained the entrance long known to travellers, half way up the majestic slope, and into this my guide conducted me. Having progressed a few paces into this narrow and obstructed way, we kindled our torches. They cast a smoky, flickering glare upon the dull, chiseled blocks of stone. Each with flambeau held out before him, to guide his steps through the dismal maze, we went on, without speaking. A multitude of bats, which had taken shelter in the dark crannies overhead, flew out at our approach, and circled around our torches upon their leathery wings, as weird, silent, and ghostly as if they had been indeed the spirits of the dead builders of this stupendous wonder. The passage was very narrow, and too low, much of the way, to allow us to waik erect. It was crooked, now turning to the right or left, and now ascending to a higher or descending to a lower level. It was obstructed by sand and rubbish, the débris of the ages. We had slowly and painfully achieved two hundred feet of our way, as nearly as I could judge, when Achmet halted at an abrupt angle of the passage. We were yet in the well-known way which led to the already discovered apartment, though we had not yet accomplished above half the distance. Handing his torch to me, my guide raised a heavy iron bar which we had brought, and proceeded to sound the great stones of the wall. These bore the marks of the chisels of the architects as freshly as if they had laid them down at the last sunset, and would take them up and resume their work at the next sunrise, guide. In response to his blows, every great stone gave forth a dead, solid sound, destitute of elasticity, so to speak, save one, which rang under his blow; it seemed to vibrate, almost with the twang of a harp-string! 'Now,' said my conductor in a low, hushed voice, 'I am about to disclose to your eyes a passage and a secret which, during more than ten centuries, has been traversed by no feet, beholden by no eyes, save of two or three of my own race. I know that, of this generation, I alone possess the secret.' He was again silent; he seemed to be oppressed with a superstitious dread, a feeling so common to the dwellers of the 'sun-burnt East,' yet with which the bolder nature of the Anglo-Saxon has so scanty patience. After a brief pause, he inserted the flat, sharp point of the crow between the great square-faced stone and the stony floor whereon we stood. Obedient to no powerful effort, to my amazement, the ponderous block slid slowly backward, or rather inward, as if it were poised upon rollers. There was revealed a dismal, dustchoked passage, or channel, much narrower than that in which we stood. It plunged downwards toward the very foundations of the Pyramid, a steep declivity extending much further, apparently, than our murky torches could project their light. Looking upon the accumulations of an impalpable dust clinging upon the slope, it was easy to credit this mystic's assertion that, for more than a decade of centuries, no mortal foot had attempted this perilous declivity. Yea, one might believe that it had never been invaded, since the workmen had sealed up the Great Pyramid upon the day whereon great Sesostris, or Rameses, or their sires, had been laid to their eternal sleep within this, their all-enduring, time-defying Home! My imagination had long been stimulated to an abnormal activity. Now, as we stood in the mouth of this myste It needed but a moment to satisfy my rious hollow way, a multitude of con I was as in a dream. Yet I knew that I dreamed. But my mental processes then possessed the two distinctive phenomena of dreams-first, my will was without its power of control; second, my conceptions, the beings of my heated imagination, took substantial, as it were, real forms, and thronged before me full of a wild, chaotic life. I retained enough of reason to assure me that the date of my existence was fixed in the nineteenth century, yet in my mental action, in my soul-life, I lived, at that moment, standing in the dark tomb of great Sesostris, in that faroff age, across the dark abyss of time, among those mighty tenants of an infant world who had left such a giant impress upon its face! The knowledge which I had pursued so arduously, and had gleaned, with other scholars, so laboriously from cryptographic inscriptions, all the fragments were, so to speak, fused in the crucible of my super-heated imagination. It sprang into new forms; a new order was produced; links were forged; lost parts of the system were re-created; all instantly and involuntarily; and the whole of that grand civilization, the pomp of a regal priesthood, ministering amid clouds of incense in a thousand gorgeously columned temples; the regal grandeur of Rameses, high enthroned in the grandly restored halls of Karnak, environed by clouds of victoriously returning chieftains, bringing the spoils or an hundred conquered kingdoms, and leading, also, captive to the royal feet, Melek Aiudah, 'the King of the Jews,' the son of Solomon; old Nile, covered with barks wafted by purple, perfumed sails of silk, and cutting the waters with prows of beaten gold, bearing princesses of dark and gorgeous beauty to the feast or to the temple; the statue of Memnon, upon its gigantic, monolithic throne, and vocal with its glad salute to the rising sun; all, all flooded and oppressed my mind, as with an intolerable weight of splendor, a load which I could not lay down. I know that, amid it all, a deadly fear shot across my heart, that this state might be the precursor of madness. With this very vision my yet unsubdued reason interwove a dark thread, a memory of some strangely gifted ones, who, having given their studies and their hearts too devotedly to a single subject, had at last made shipwreck of their minds- - had shattered the mirror in its focus, so that it gave back but distorted images. These thoughts, this vision, so to speak, that has taken time in the recital, passed through my mind in two or three minutes. They occupied only the time while Achmet was busy fastening the end of a long and strong cord, which he had brought to assist our descent. I felt a thrill of joy when he broke in upon my reverie, and aided me to wrench my thoughts back to the now and the here. We began the perilous descent, each clinging to the rope. with one hand, while holding the torch in the other. The passage plunged to the north, at an angle of forty-five degrees. Apparently, there were no steps cut in the rock, though we could not distinguish, through the accumulated dust, whether there were any remains of a stairway. Our safety proved to be in the rope. But for such support, we must have plunged headlong into the abyss of the Pyramid. The passage was no more than three feet wide, sometimes narrower. Often, huge, hewn stones impending overhead so encroached upon the crooked way that we were forced to grope upon hands and knees. I estimated that we had traversed more than three hundred feet; it had occupied an half-hour. At length, the perilous descent over, we stood upon a level stone, about eight feet square. Here we were able to stand upright, and rest our cruelly taxed limbs. It was a small, square chamber, about ten feet in altitude, intended, probably, as a resting-place only. The closely confined air was laden with the smoke of our torches, and even now respiration became labored. We paused but to replenish our torches. I knew that Achmet had not yet reached the- to him and his race dread mystery. The moment, however, sufficed for a rapid survey of the walls. They were graven smoothly, and were covered with the characters which blazon every rock in Egypt with a history. They were not chiseled, but painted in vermilion, as bright as if it had been laid on but yesterday. One of the four walls was nearly covered by a seemingly allegorical picture, upon which I gazed with speechless wonder. Could it be possible that here, in the heart of this pyramid, I beheld the pictured story of the fall of man, as recorded in the Holy Bible? In glowing colors, there shone in the smoky light of our flambeaux, a serpent, with human arms and legs, in the act of offering an apple to an Egyptian woman! I could not tear my eyes from it until Achmet dragged me away, warning me that our torches were not sufficient to permit longer pause here. I recurred with terror to our situation, should we indeed be cut off in the stony heart of the Pyramid, without light! Achmet again sounded a corner of the wall with the bar. A few experiments disclosed the movable stone. In serting the point of the iron into the thread-like seam, or juncture, of two polished stones, again the wall, apparently as immovable as the foundations of the mountains, yielded to his skilful effort, and another massive block of stone slid back, as if fixed upon machinery for the purpose! I staid not to inspect this contriv. ance, but fell on my knees and gazed into the chamber disclosed with breathless amazement. It was about twelve feet square, and rectangular, its sides ranging with the cardinal points of the compass. Floor, walls, and roof were each a gigantic monolith. Here was found no rubbish, no dust. It was as clean as if swept but yesterday. I crept within. A superstitious dread-the religion of Egypt is superstition, and its priests are its sincerest votaries chained my follower's feet before the threshold. He faltered in a whisper that the spot was under an invisible guardianship, and that should we enter, the stony door would close behind us for ever. I half persuaded, half compelled him to follow me. He at length followed my example, and tremblingly crossed the broad threshold. It was my belief that we were near the base of the Pyramid. Yet who can tell how deeply the foundations of this mighty pile penetrate the earth? Explorations, afterwards conducted, threw some light upon this subject; but it is not my purpose to enter upon that subject now. Upon every side there were five hundred feet of chiseled stone between us and the open air. The walls of the apartment were wrought smooth with the chisel. Upon these stony pages were blazoned the deeds of the regal tenant of this narrow room, the story of his conquests and his triumphs. A monarch of gigantic stature — so was he represented in comparison with the surrounding figures of high and haughty aspect sat upon a throne, holding upright in his hand a sceptre crowned with a winged globe. To him approached, with obsequious mien, stewards of estates, keepers of herds, superintendents of the public granaries, and overseers of captives and slaves, to render up their accounts. In another line, approached the throne, generals leading trains of captives, bringing the spoils of conquered kingdoms. One incident carved in this triumph smote me dumb with amazement. There approached the monarch a god-crowned and winged, the tutelar deity of old Egypt, leading a train of bound and bowed captives. The artist had caught with fidelity the distinctive features of the various nations. These of this line were the children of Judah. Over the head of the foremost, who was of double the stature of the rest, was a cartouche, the oval rim of which was the wall of a fortified city. In it I read with breathless wonder, in pictured symbols, the words 'Melek Aiudah, King of the Jews.' It was a record of the conquest of Jerusalem and the son of Solomon, read upon the wall of the tomb of the conqueror, written there while the temple of the son of David was yet in its glory! How narrow is this tomb! how silent! Here is rest indeed! the everlasting Sabbath of the grave! But let us proceed to the discovery of most thrilling interest, the object which chained my eye upon my entrance. I approached it with a feeling of awe. With its head eastward, like that found by Belzoni, upon the centre of the stony floor, reposed a sarcophagus of alabaster; but, unlike that discovered by that traveller, it had never been violated. It was hewn from a single block, and was eight feet long by four in breadth. It was covered with the same hieroglyphics which loaded the walls. The sharp relievos had not suffered; they were sharp and perfect. What, indeed, could reach them here? The stupendous and rocky bulk of the Pyramid barred the work from the gnawing tooth of time itself! Within a cartouche upon the lid was the name of the great Sesostris, described in those cryptographic inscriptions, as, 'the vindicator of the gods,' 'the protected of the gods of all classes,' son of the gods.' It was the great Sesostris whose body slept beneath! Achmet stood aloof trembling, while I explored. He was a victim of a slavish dread, which the Anglo-Saxon mind can hardly comprehend. He dreaded, lest the watchful spirits of the tomb should imprison us within the dark recess for ever. He piteously urged that we should now retrace our way, and close the stony recess. But not the prospect of death itself could have deterred me now. My imagination was on fire. We had no time to waste; the torches were waning. I would have fallen dead beside that grand sarcophagus rather than to have failed of the sight of its inmate. I assumed the mien of the lord and master to the slave. The haughty Anglo-Saxon soul, which shrinks from no danger, fears no odds, quickly bore down the will of the son of the emasculate East. The fever in my blood exalted my will to a ten-fold power. He obeyed. I knew he must obey. I inserted the bar beneath the ponderous lid, and we lifted it off. But the face of the mighty monarch was not yet revealed. There issued forth and filled the tomb a pungent but an exceedingly sweet and aromatic odor, which was wholly strange to me. It was doubtless the odor of some substance used by the Egyptians in embalming, an art lost to us, at least in its perfection. Within, there appeared a chest or coffin, of a thin, light, odoriferous wood, of a kind unknown at the present day, yet which the unexplored equatorial regions of Africa may yet furnish to the arts. It must have contained in itself or have been charged with essences which preserved it from the common decay. It was perfect. I removed the cover of the wooden shell, and there appeared loose layers of papyrus and silk. These were covered with scarabai, the sacred beetle, in gold. Beneath, appeared the contour of a hu man form. The body was not wrapped in a multitude of folds of cloth, as are common mummies. The process had been too elaborate and skilful to require such aids. I sat down upon the foot of the sarcophagus, overpowered by my sensations. It was some time before my trembling hands could remove with decency the folds that hid the face of the dead king of that hoary time, the ruler of an infant world. The face, for more than forty centuries bound in darkness and motionless slumber, was exposed to the light of the torches. I kneeled and gazed. Achmet muttered heathen spells for his safety. It was a kingly, a majestic face and head. The lashes of the closed eyes lay upon the cheek as in sleep. Truly it was an iron sleep! The straight, coal-black hair was swept back from the broad brow, and rolled around the neck in a mass. There was an eternal smile frozen upon the full, well-cut lip. The skin was dark, smooth, beardless. The body was not emaciated. The nose was prominent, and hooked, like the beak of an eagle. It was the body of a man of not more than forty years, I thought. He looked as if he might awake from sleep, and address the disturbers. But there it lay, how still and majestic! one born to majesty, to exact homage, even in his tomb. He lay, as he had lain five thousand years, from the childhood, through the manhood of the world itself, solemn and unchangeable. A broad fillet, with sacred symbols wrought upon it in gold, bound his head, confining back the straight raven hair. The ears contained ornaments of value, while upon the forefinger of the right hand yet hung the monarch's signet-ring, which had stamped with a reverend authority the laws and edicts of an hundred nations. I severed from the temple of the sleeper a lock of the long black hair. I never look upon it without feeling a magnetic thrill. It has a mesmeric power, as one might term it, to bind the imagination, to lead the soul backward out of the present, across that measureless abyss of time, to that far shore whence it has come. The breeze that stirred the palm-branches in Paradise may have waved it upon that kingly front. The lore of that world is dead; its arts lost. Conquerors and conquered are gone. There are left only a few broken wrecks of a civilization the grandest that time ever saw. All, all have returned to that dust which this night-wind scatters over these vast and voiceless solitudes, which once echoed to the tramp of innumerable hosts, whose soil once groaned under the burthen of an hundred great cities. But the fascination of that royal face, that smile that seemed to hold the riddle which there is no Ædipus to solve, had delayed us too long. Our torches had nearly expired I started with alarm. They would hardly light us back through the labyrinth! We replaced all as we found it, and closed the tomb. The close, smokeladen air almost stifled respiration. I resolved to return on the morrow, and to continue the exploration of the Pyramid. There had come upon me a conviction that there were many other avenues, other tombs, which careful search might reveal. Some other time I may relate the result of these explorations, but not now. As the sun was rising over the Lybian desert, changing the drifting sands into yellow gold, we stood upon the ground without the Great Pyramid. As we wended our way across the sands, I strove to recall my soul from the spell that had possessed it. It seemed as if I had slept the sleep of that great king whose form we had just left, and that I had just now awaked. There came upon me a belief, a certainty, that I was to reveal many secrets of that Pyramid, that nothing had yet been accomplished in their exploration. Not one of them was the resting-place of a single king, but of a dynasty, a long line. What monarch would begin the erection of his own tomb upon the |