The following morning the queen made her appearance at the head of the great square, in front of the temple of Apis. She was arrayed in her royal robes, and seated in a state-chariot of ivory, inlaid with gold, drawn by four white horses driven abreast, richly caparisoned, and with ostrich-plumes nodding on their heads. Attended by a splendid retinue of the lords of her palace, she took a position near the pylon, surrounded by her body-guard, in their glittering cuirasses of silver, and bearing slender lances in their right hands. The lords of the realm were ranged, in extended wings, on either side of her chariot; the whole presenting a strikingly beautiful spectacle.
When all was arranged, from the portals of the vast temple, headed by the hierarch in full dress, issued a procession of four hundred priests, a shining host, with golden tiaras, and censers of gold, and crimson vestments. Other sacred processions came advancing along all the streets, headed by their chiefs, each escorting the god of their temple in a gorgeous shrine, blazing with the radiance of precious stones.
Prince Remeses, attended by the governor of the city, the twenty-one rulers of the departments thereof, and by all dignitaries, of whatever office, in their sumptuous robes and badges of rank, had already departed from the city to meet the army, which, headed by its generals, was in full motion. They came on in columns of battalions, as if marching through an enemy's country, and with all the pomp of war--their battle-banners waving, and their bands of music sounding. Instead of accompanying Remeses, I remained, by her request, near the queen. The towers of the pylones, the roofs of temples, the colonnades of palaces, terraces, house-tops--every vantage-point--were crowded thickly with spectators.
At length the voice of trumpets, faint and far off, broke the silence of expectation. Nearer and louder it was heard, now rising on the breeze, now gradually dying away; but soon other instruments were heard: the cymbals, the drum, the pipe and the cornet from a hundred bands poured upon the air a martial uproar of instruments, which made the blood bound quicker in every pulse. All eyes were now turned in the direction of the entrance to the grand causeway of the pyramids, and in a few moments, amid the answering clangor of the brazen trumpets of the queen's guards, a party of cavalry, shining like the sun, dashed into sight.