Page:H. D. Traill - From Cairo to the Soudan Frontier.djvu/145

Rh in the crevices of our limbs? And what more power over us have the wingless, two-legged insects that crawl on the earth beneath us, creatures of a but little longer day? Do you forget how many generations of them we have seen—how many swarms of these human locusts have passed over the land and disappeared—how many conquerors, as they call themselves, have swept with their hosts along the valley towards the prize of Thebes, and trampled these fair, green fields into a mire of blood to grasp it? Do you remember them I say? Ethiopian and Assyrian, Babylonian and Mede, Cambyses and his Immortals, Alexander and his phalanx, Cæsar and his legions, Omar and his savage horsemen, Bonaparte and his eager levies—all, all have passed before us, in storm of battle or in pageant of victory, and all have vanished into the night! But we—we remain."

"Yes," said the Southern Colossus, who had not been unaffected by his companions