BABYLON AND PERSIA

VII.THE LAST DAYS OF JUDAH.1. While As.shur, the dying giant, lay in thethroes of dissolution, the last ebb of animat-ionfeebly surging in Nineveh, the still throbbing heart,a stir, as of returning life, passed over the remoterprovinces as the pressure of the iron hand that heldthem down relaxed in death. Of the number wasSyria. Once more the procession of familiar namespasses before us : Hamath and Judah and Dam'ascus,Moab and Ammon and Edom, spectres offormer greatness, roused into a brief spell ofenergy by a draught of that " wine of fury," whichthe last of Jerusalem's prophets was bid to cause allthe nations to drink that they might " reel to andfro and be mad," one with another (Jeremiah, XXV.).Egypt too, with wounds scarce healed, and totteringstUl, but undaunted and aggressive as ever, .appearsonce more, for the last time, in Asia, on the scenewhich she had swept triumphant through so manycenturies, but was now to abandon, stricken andcrestfallen, like an actor his.sed off the stage.2. Psammetik, the deliverer of Egypt,* 1^-"^ been*See "Story of A.ssyrin," p, 395,J69f^:,^KISRD£(/;:^,0::>/?j:icth62;