Daniil Lukich Mordovtsev (1830-1905) is one of the most remarkable Russian historical novelists. His books were extremely popular among Russian readers before the revolution, but many of his works have come to the Soviet reader only recently. The novel “The Walled Queen” takes the reader to Ancient Egypt (XIII-XII centuries BC) and introduces one from many artistic versions of the death of Laodice, the daughter of the Trojan king Priam and Hecuba. After the fall of Troy, the young beautiful princess was taken into slavery and ended up in the palace of Pharaoh Ramses III, where she soon died, stabbed to death with the sword of an assassin. Ramses buried her in his crypt.