PONTOON BRIDGE OF THE EUPHRATES. 
331 
in their minds, it may have received that appellation from an 
equally likely circumstance : Nebuchadnezzar, after his last con¬ 
quest of Jerusalem, might have confined its captive monarch in 
the heart of the tower itself, as the proudest part of the incalcu¬ 
lable spoil he had consecrated to the idol. For, that the Jewish 
king was immured somewhere in Babylon, by his command, we 
find from the 2nd Book of Kings, chap. xxv. “ It came to pass 
in the seven-and-thirtieth year of the captivity of Jehoiachin 
king of Judah, that Evil-Merodach king of Babylon, in the year 
that he began to reign, did lift up the head of Jehoiachin king 
of Judah, out o £ prison.” 
A day or two after my expedition to the Birs, the movements 
of the enemy made it necessary for the pasha’s army to cross 
from the eastern bank of the Euphrates, to take up a position 
on the western shore; which was accordingly done, and the 
new camp pitched on the plain, about a couple of miles distant 
from the southern, or Nejef gate of Hillah. I viewed the scene 
of movement from the windows of my quarters, which gave me 
a complete command of the river as well as of the picturesque 
towers and minarets of the western division of the town. The 
various Asiatic distinctions of the troops, their standards, camels, 
and other beasts of burthen charged with the military equipage, 
presented a very striking scene; while the long and unstable 
bridge, alternately rose and sunk under the load it sustained, 
threatening the separation of its badly moored pontoons, to the 
inevitable drenching, if not drowning, of the passing cavalcade. 
But nothing could exceed the careless security with which the 
whole march proceeded; nor the clamorous irregularity with 
which it was conducted; neither describe the hooting, whirling 
of the pedestrian auxiliaries, clattering their naked swords against 
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