noon
It was noon : the rays of the sun found no way into the narrow shady streets of the city of Thebes , but they blazed with scorching heat on the broad dyke-road which led to the king 's castle , and which at this hour was usually almost deserted . To-day it was thronged with foot-passengers and chariots , with riders and litter-bearers . Here and there negroes poured water on the road out of skins , but the dust was so deep , that , in spite of this , it shrouded the streets and the passengers in a dry cloud , which extended not only over the city , but down to the harbor where the boats of the inhabitants of the Necropolis landed their freight . The city of the Pharaohs was in unwonted agitation , for the storm-swift breath of rumor had spread some news which excited both alarm and hope in the huts of the poor as well as in the palaces of the great .