Excerpt: It was long since a hotter season had afflicted the land; and the Nile, whose rising had been watched for on the Night of Droppingthe 17th of Junewith the usual festive preparations, had cheated the hopes of the Egyptians, and instead of rising had shrunk narrower and still narrower in its bed.It was in this time of sore anxiety, on the 10th of July, A.D. 643, that a caravan from the North reached Memphis.