The Egyptian

BOOK 14
The Holy War
1

While Horemheb was in Memphis, collecting troops and equipment, he summoned the wealthy men of Egypt and addressed them.

“You are all affluent men and I but a shepherd boy born with dung between the toes. Nevertheless, Ammon has blessed me, and Pharaoh has entrusted me with the leadership of this campaign. The enemy that threatens our land is formidable and of hideous savagery as you well know. It has given me great satisfaction to hear you speak your minds boldly-to acknowledge that war demands sacrifices from everyone, for which reason you have curtailed the grain measure of your slaves and laborers and raised the price of goods all over Egypt. I perceive from your words and deeds that you also are prepared to make great sacrifices. In order to sustain the cost of war it will be needful for each one of you to lend me-and at once-one half of his estate, whether in gold, silver, or grain, in cattle, horses, or chariots. It is all one to me, so it be delivered promptly.”

At this the rich men of Egypt broke out in loud expostulation; they tore their robes and said, “The false Pharaoh has beggared us already, and we are penniless men! What security do you offer us for the loan of half our estates, and what interest do you mean to pay?”

Horemheb surveyed them kindly.

“My security is the victory that with your help, my dear friends, I intend to win as soon as possible. If I do not win it, the Hittites will come and rob you of all you have; therefore, my security seems to me sufficient. As to the interest, I intend to make a separate agreement with each one, and I hope that my terms will prove acceptable to you all. But you protested too soon, for I had not yet finished what I had to say. I require at once one half of your estates as a loan-merely as a loan, my good sirs. At the end of four months you shall again lend me one half of the remainder; and after a year, one half of what you still have left. You yourselves are best able to compute the sum finally remaining in your possession, but I am well assured that it will prove more than adequate to supply your cooking pots for the rest of your lives and that I am in no way robbing you.”

Then the rich men threw themselves down before him, weeping bitterly and hitting the floor with their foreheads until the blood came. But he consoled them.

“I summoned you because I know that you love Egypt and are willing to make liberal sacrifice on its behalf. You are wealthy, and each of you has made his fortune by his own efforts. I am sure that you will soon restore these fortunes; the rich man always grows richer even though superfluous juice be pressed from him now and again. You, most excellent men, are to me a precious orchard. Though I squeeze you as I might squeeze a pomegranate so that the seeds spurt out between my fingers, yet like a good gardener I would not harm the trees but only gather in the harvest from time to time. Remember also that I give you a great war-greater than you dream of-and in time of war the well-to-do man is bound to prosper. The longer the war, the greater his prosperity; no power in the world can prevent this-not even Pharaoh’s taxation department. You should be grateful to me. I send you home now with my blessing. Go in peace, be diligent, swell up again like ticks, for there is none to hinder you.”

With these words he dismissed them. They departed groaning and lamenting and rending their garments, yet as soon as they had passed the doors, they ceased their outcry. They began busily calculating their losses and planning means to repair them.

Horemheb said to me, “This war is a gift to them. From now on, when they rob the people, they may blame the Hittites for all calamities just as Pharaoh can blame them for the famine and misery the war brings on the land of Kem. In the end it is the people who pay; the wealthy will rob them of many times the sum they lend to me-I can then squeeze them again. This method suits me better than a war tax. If I levied such a tax on the people, they would curse my name. By robbing the rich to pay for the war, I win the blessing of the people and their favor as a just man.”

At this time the delta country stood in flames. Roving Hittite bands set fire to the villages and grazed their horses on the sprouting corn. Fugitives came in hordes to Memphis, bringing such hideous tales of the Hittite frenzy for destruction that my heart quailed and I begged Horemheb to hasten.

But he smiled unconcernedly, saying, “The Egyptians must have a taste of the Hittites if they are to be persuaded that no grimmer fate can befall them than to be bound to the enemy in slavery. I would be mad to set forth with raw troops and no chariots. Don’t be uneasy, Sinuhe; Gaza is still ours-Gaza is the cornerstone on which this war is built. Until this city is in their hands, the Hittites dare not send their main force into the desert. They are not in undisputed control of the sea. I have sent patrols into the desert to harry the bandits and guerrilla fighters, and I am not so idle as you seem to think. Egypt is menaced by no exceptional danger until the Hittites are able to bring their foot soldiers across the desert to the Black Land.”

Men were streaming into Memphis from every part of Egypt: hungry men, men who in Aton’s name had lost homes and families and no longer valued their lives, and men who lusted for adventure and the spoils of war. Heedless of the priests, Horemheb pardoned all who had shared in the foundation of Aton’s kingdom and freed the prisoners from the quarries so as to press them into his service. Memphis soon resembled a vast camp. Life here was turbulent. Fighting raged in the taverns and pleasure houses every night, and peaceful people locked themselves into their houses, to remain there in fear and trembling. From smithy and workshop came the ring of hammers. So great was the fear of the Hittites that even poor women gave up their copper ornaments to be forged into arrowheads.

Ships were continually putting in at Egyptian ports from the islands in the sea and from Crete. Horemheb commandeered them all and took officers and crews into his employ. He captured even Cretan warships and forced their crews to serve Egypt. Such vessels were now scattered about the sea and were cruising from port to port, unwilling to return home. It was said that insurrection had broken out among the slaves in Crete and that the city of the nobles upon the hill had been blazing like a torch for weeks past and could be seen far out to sea. Yet no one had any sure report of what was happening, and the Cretan seamen lied as was their custom. Some claimed that the Hittites had invaded the island, although how this could have happened when they were not a seafaring nation is hard to understand. Others maintained that a strange, fair-haired race from the North had sailed thither to lay waste the country and despoil it. But with one voice the Cretans declared that all calamities had come about because their god was dead. For this reason they were glad to take service with the Egyptians. Nevertheless others of their nation, who had sailed to Syria, allied themselves with Aziru and the Hittites.

All this was much to Horemheb’s advantage, for exceedingly great confusion prevailed at sea, where it was all against all in the scramble for ships. Rebellion had broken out in Tyre against Aziru, and surviving rebels had made their escape to Egypt, where they enrolled under Horemheb. Thus Horemheb was able to muster a fleet and fit it out for battle with the help of experienced crews.

Gaza still stood. When the harvest was in and the river began to rise, Horemheb set forth from Memphis with his troops. He sent forward messengers by sea and land to penetrate the lines of the besiegers; a vessel that sailed into Gaza harbor under cover of night, laden with sacks of grain, carried the message: “Hold Gaza! Hold Gaza at any price!” While battering rams thundered at the gates and the roofs of the city blazed because no one had time to extinguish the fires, an arrow here and there came singing in with the message: “Horemheb commands you! Hold Gaza!” And when the Hittites hurled sealed jars over the walls containing venomous snakes, one of them would be found full of grain and among this Horemheb’s message: “Hold Gaza!” In what manner Gaza was able to withstand the combined assault of Aziru’s men and the Hittites is more than I can understand, but the irascible garrison commander, who had seen me hoisted up the walls in a basket, well deserved the renown he won by holding Gaza for Egypt.

Horemheb marched his forces rapidly to Tanis, where he surrounded and cut off a Hittite chariot squadron that had halted in the bight of the river. Under cover of darkness he set his men to digging out the dried-up irrigation canals so that the rising river filled them. In the morning the Hittites discovered that they were trapped on an island and began to slaughter their horses and destroy their chariots. At this Horemheb flew into a rage. His purpose had been to capture these unharmed. He sounded the horns and attacked. The raw Egyptian troops won an easy victory and cut down the enemy, who had alighted and fought on foot. In this way Horemheb captured a hundred chariots or more and above two hundred horses. The victory was more important than the capture, for after it the Egyptians no longer believed the enemy to be invincible.

Marshaling chariots and horses, Horemheb drove to Tanis at their head, leaving the slower foot soldiers and the supply wagons to follow. A wild fervor blazed in his face as he said to me, “If you strike, strike first and hard!”

So saying he thundered on his way to Tanis, heedless of the Hittite hordes that roved and ravaged through the Lower Kingdom. From Tanis he continued his advance straight into the desert, overpowered the Hittite detachments that had been posted to guard the water supplies, and captured store after store. The Hittites had stacked hundreds of thousands of water jars at intervals across the desert for the use of their foot soldiers since, being no mariners, they dared not attempt the invasion of Egypt from the sea. Without sparing their horses, Horemheb and his men pressed onward. Many beasts fell exhausted during this wild advance, of which eye witnesses declared that the hundred careering chariots sent up a pillar of dust to the very skies and that their progress was like that of the whirlwind. Each night beacons were kindled on the ranges of the Sinai hills, bringing the free forces from their hiding places to destroy the Hittite guards and their supplies all over the desert. From this grew the legend that Horemheb tore across the wilderness of Sinai like a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. After this campaign his fame was so illustrious that the people told stories of him as they tell stories of the gods.

Horemheb took the enemy entirely by surprise. With their knowledge of Egypt’s weakness they could not conceive how he dared to attack across the desert while their troops were harrying the Lower Kingdom. Their main forces were scattered among the cities and villages of Syria in the expectation of Gaza’s surrender, because the regions thereabout could not support the colossal army the Hittites had assembled in Syria for the conquest of Egypt. They were exceedingly thorough in their warfare and never attacked until they had assured themselves of their superiority. Their commanders had noted on their clay tablets every grazing ground, every watering place, and every village in the area they intended to attack. Because of these preparations they had postponed their invasion and were thunderstruck at Horemheb’s move, partly because never yet had anyone dared assail them first and partly because they had not believed that Egypt possessed chariots enough for so great an enterprise.

Horemheb’s purpose had been at most to destroy the Hittite water store in the desert, to gain time for the ordered training and equipment of his men. But his amazing success intoxicated him; he whirled on like the wind to Gaza, fell on the besiegers in their rear and scattered them, destroyed their engines of war and set their camps on fire. Yet he could not go into the city. When the besiegers saw how few were his chariots, they rallied and counterattacked. He would have been lost had these troops had chariots also. As it was he was able to withdraw into the desert, having destroyed the water stores on the fringe of it before the infuriated Hittites could call up chariots enough to pursue him.

Horemheb rightly augured from this that his falcon was with him.

Remembering the burning tree he had once seen among the Sinai hills, he sent word to his javelin throwers and archers, ordering them to advance in forced marches across the desert along one of the roads constructed by the Hittites, where stood hundreds of thousands of earthenware jars containing water enough to supply a large body of foot soldiers. His purpose now was to fight in the desert, although the ground was better suited to chariot warfare. I think he had no choice, for after his flight from the Hittites his men and horses were so exhausted that they could hardly have reached the Lower Kingdom alive. Therefore he summoned his whole army into the desert, which was an act without precedent.

I got this account of Horemheb’s first attack on the Hittites from him and from his men; I was not with him. If I had been, I should assuredly never have lived to write this. It fell to me to survey the traces of the struggle from my carrying chair as I followed the foot regiments on their forced marches through the scorching dust, beneath the glare of the pitiless sun.

When we had toiled across the wilderness for two weeks, which, despite the plentiful supplies of water, were exhausting enough, we saw one night a pillar of fire rising from a hill beyond the desert and knew that Horemheb awaited us there with his chariots. This night has stayed in my memory, because I could not sleep. Darkness brings chill to the desert after the burning day, and men who have marched barefoot through sand and prickly plants for weeks cry out in their sleep and groan as if tormented by demons. It is for this reason no doubt that men believe the desert to be full of such beings. At dawn the horns rang out, and the march continued, although ever more men sank down unable to rise. Horemheb’s beacon called us, and from every quarter of the desert small groups of ragged, sun-blackened robbers and guerrilla fighters hurried toward the fiery signal.

If our troops hoped for time to rest when they arrived at Horemheb’s camp, they were to be sorely disappointed. If they believed he might commend them for their rapid march and for having worn the skin from their feet in the sand, they were indeed deluded. He received us with rage in his face; his eyes were bloodshot with weariness.

Swinging the golden whip, which was flecked with blood and dust, he said to us, “Where have you been loitering, dung beetles? Where have you skulked, you devils’ spawn? Truly I should rejoice to see your skulls whiten in the sand tomorrow; I am so filled with shame at the sight of you! You creep to me like tortoises; you smellof sweat and filth so that I am compelled to hold my nose, while my best men bleed from countless wounds and my noble horses pant their last. Dig now, you men of Egypt, dig for your lives! This is work most fitting for you who have dug all your lives in the mud.”

The raw warriors of Egypt were in no way resentful of his words but rejoiced at them and repeated them laughing to one another, having found protection from the terrifying wilderness in the mere presence of Horemheb. They forgot their flayed soles and parched tongues and began at his direction to dig deep trenches in the ground, to drive stakes between stones, to stretch rush ropes between these stakes, and to roll and drag huge stones down the slopes of the hills.

Horemheb’s weary charioteers crept out from their crannies and tents and limped up to display their wounds and boast of their prowess. Of the two thousand five hundred who had set out there remained not five hundred fit men.

The greater part of the army arrived at Horemheb’s encampment that day in an unbroken stream. Each man was sent immediately to dig trenches and build barricades, to keep the Hittites from the desert. He sent word to those exhausted troops that had not yet arrived that all must reach the fortified position in the course of that night. Any left in the desert at daybreak would die a fearful death at the hands of the enemy, should the chariots of these break through.

The courage of the Egyptians was notably strengthened at the sight of their own numbers in that empty wilderness, and they placed blind trust in Horemheb, confident that he would save them from the Hittites. But as they were building their barricades, stretching their ropes and rolling their rocks, they beheld the enemy approaching in a cloud of dust. With white faces and wavering glances they looked about them, in great dread of the chariots and their hideous scythes.

Night was drawing on, and the Hittites would not attack before they had surveyed the terrain or estimated the strength of their adversary. They pitched camp, tended their horses, and kindled fires. When darkness fell, the fringe of the desert was spangled with fires as far as the eye could see. All night long their scouts drove up to the barricades in light chariots, slaying guards and skirmishing along the whole front. Cut on either flank, where no barricades could be built, the ruffians of the free forces surprised the Hittites and captured their chariots and horses.

The night was loud with the thunder of wheels, the shrieks of the dying, the whine of arrows, and the clash of arms. The raw troops were sorely alarmed and dared not sleep. But Horemheb comforted them, saying, “Sleep, marsh rats, sleep! rest and smear your torn feet with oil, for I am watching over your slumbers, to guard you.”

I did not sleep; I walked about the camp all night, dressing the wounds of Horemheb’s charioteers, while he encouraged me, saying, “Heal them, Sinuhe, with all your arts. More valiant warriors the world has never seen; each of them is worth a hundred or even a thousand of those mud grubbers. Heal them, for I dearly love these scum of mine, and I have no trained men to put in their places.”

I was out of humor from the toilsome journey across the desert, although I had performed it in a chair. My throat was dry with the acrid dust, and I was enraged to think that because of Horemheb’s foolish obstinacy I must die at the hands of the Hittites, although death in itself held no terrors for me.

I said to him irritably, “I seek to heal these scum of yours purely for my own sake since to my mind they are the only men in the army capable of fighting. Those who came with me will fly as soon as they see the whites of enemy eyes. You would do well to pick out the swiftest horses and speed back with me to the Lower Kingdom, to muster a new and better army.”

Horemheb rubbed his nose and said, “Your counsel does honor to your wisdom. But we have no choice save to defeat the Hittites here in the desert. Defeat them we must, having no alternative. I shall now take my rest and shall drink. After drinking I am ever exceedingly ill tempered and fight well.”

He left me, and soon I heard the gurgling from his wine jar. He offered it to such men of his as passed, slapping them on the shoulder and hailing each by name.

So the night passed, and morning rose like a specter from the desert. Before the barricades lay dead horses and overturned chariots, and vultures were tearing out the eyes of Hittites who had died there. Horns sounded at Horemheb’s order, and he paraded his men at the foot of the slopes.

While the Hittites were smothering their fires with sand, harnessing their horses, and whetting their blades, Horemheb addressed his troops. He bit at a chunk of hard bread and an onion as he did so.

“Look before you, and you shall see a great marvel. Ammon has delivered the Hittites into our hands, and we shall do great things this day. The enemy foot soldiers have not yet come up; they remain at the edge of the desert because they lack water. The chariots must break through our lines and capture the water stores in our rear if the army xs to pursue its sttsc k on Egypt. Already their horses are thirsty and lack forage, for I have burned up their stores and smashed their water jars all the way from here to Syria. They must therefore either break through or retire unless they pitch camp to await fresh supplies, in which event they will be unable to engage us in battle. But they are greedy men, and they have invested all the gold and silver in Syria in those water jars that lie strung out behind us, full, all the way to Egypt. They will not give them up without a struggle. Thus Ammon has delivered them into our hands. When they attack, their horses will stumble and entangle themselves in our barriers. They cannot hurl their full force against us, for the trenches you have so diligently dug and the rocks and the ropes will break the edge of their assault.”

Horemheb spat out an onion skin and chewed the bread until the troops began stamping and shouting, like children eager for another story. Then Horemheb said, “My only fear is that in your feebleness you will let the Hittites slip through your fingers. Those rods you hold in your hands are spears whose points are designed to rip up the bellies of Hittites. To the bowmen I say: Were you true warriors and marksmen you would shoot out their eyes. But such counsels are vain. Aim at the horses, for these are bigger targets, and you could never hit the men who drive them. The nearer they come, the more certain will be your unskillful aim; I counsel you to let them come very near. I will flog with my own hands every man who wastes an arrow; we have not one to spare. And you, javelin throwers! When the horses approach, steady the butts of your spears against the ground with both hands and direct the points at the horses’ bellies. In this way you incur no danger and can leap aside before the animal falls on you. Should you be flung to the ground, hamstring them, for only that way can you avoid being crushed by the wheels. This is your task, you rats of the Nile.”

Raising a jar of water to his lips he swallowed a deep draught to clear his head, after which he continued, “Nevertheless, it is a waste of breath to talk to you. When you hear the war cry of the Hittites and the thunder of their chariots you will whimper and hide your heads in the sand, for lack of skirts to creep under. If the Hittites break through to the water supplies in our rear, each one of you is lost and will be lifeless before nightfall, because we shall be surrounded and all retreat cut off. As it is we have no retreat. If we abandon the defenses we have built, the enemy chariots will scatter us like chaff before the wind; I mention this in case any one of you should take it into his head to scuttle off into the desert. We are all in the same boat and have no choice but to defeat the enemy. I will be with you, fighting at your side. Should my whip lash out at you rather than at the Hittites, that will be no fault of mine but yours alone, my valiant rats.”

The men listened to him spellbound. I confess I was growing uneasy, for already the enemy chariots were approaching like distant dust clouds. Yet I believe that Horemheb lingered designedly, to infect the men with his own composure and to spare them the oppressive time of waiting.

At length he glanced out across the desert from his high ledge, raised his hands, and said, “Our friends the Hittites are on their way, for which I give thanks to all the gods of Egypt. Go then, you Nile rats, each man to his allotted station, and let none depart thence unless so ordered. And you others, you my old ruffians, pursue this rabble-shoot over and round them-geld them if need be, should they seek to fly. I might say to you: fight for the gods of Egypt, fight for the Black Land, fight for your wives and children. Run now, boys, run swiftly, or the chariots will have reached the barricades before you, and the battle will be over before it has begun.”

He dismissed them, and they set off at a trot toward the barricades, shouting as they ran, whether from ardor or fear I cannot say. Horemheb followed them at a leisurely pace, but I remained sitting on the slope to watch the battle from a safe distance. I was a physician, and my life was valuable.

The enemy had driven their chariots across the plain to the foot of the hills, where they formed into battle order. Their colorful standards, the gleam of the winged suns on the chariots, and the brilliant woolen cloths that protected the horses from arrows presented a magnificent and most formidable sight. The chariots worked in groups of six, ten of these groups forming one squadron; in all I believe there were sixty squadrons. But the heavy, three-horse chariots, manned by three men, formed the center of their front. I could not conceive how Horemheb’s force were to withstand their assault, for they moved slowly and ponderously, like ships, and demolished everything in their path.

To the sound of horns the enemy captains raised their standards, and the chariots moved off at gradually increasing speed. When they had drawn near to the barricades I saw single horses tearing out between them, each with a rider clinging to its mane and drumming with his heels on the sides of his mount to urge it to still greater speed. I could not imagine why they should send their spare horses in advance, unguarded, until I observed these riders leaning over and cutting away the ropes that had been stretched between the stakes. Other horses galloped straight through the breaches thus formed. Their riders rose up and hurled their spears in such a manner that they remained fixed upright in the ground, and from the butt end of each floated a bright pennant. This all occurred with the speed of lightning. I failed to catch their purpose, for the horsemen then wheeled about and tore back at full gallop to disappear behind the chariots, although some dropped from their mounts transfixed by arrows, while many horses fell and lay kicking and screaming hideously on the ground.

When the light chariots began their assault, I saw Horemheb rushing toward the barricades alone, where he tore up one of the spears and hurled it far from him so that it stood once more upright in the sand. He alone had instantly perceived that these spears and flags were placed to mark the weakest points in the defenses, where a breach might best be made. Other men who followed his example returned with the standards as trophies. I believe that only Horemheb’s quick wits saved Egypt that day, for had the enemy hurled the concentrated weight of his first assault against those points the riders had marked, it is certain that the Egyptians could never have repelled it.

No sooner had Horemheb regained the cover of his troops than the light chariots of the Hittites were speeding against the barriers, driving in among them like wedges. This first clash was attended by so mighty a din and by such dense clouds of dust that from the hillside I could no longer follow the course of the battle. I saw only that our arrows brought down some horses in front of the barricades, but that succeeding drivers dextrously avoided the overturned vehicles and came on. Later it became clear that at one or two points the light chariots had penetrated the lines, despite severe losses. But instead of pursuing their course they halted in groups, while the spare men in each leaped out and began rolling away the stones and clearing a path for the heavier force, which had halted out of range to await its turn.

A seasoned soldier on beholding these enemy successes would have believed the day lost, but Horemheb’s raw rats saw only the horses kicking in the death struggle before the barricades and in the pits. They saw that the enemy had sustained grave losses and fancied that their own valor had halted the onslaught. Howling with excitement and terror, they hurled themselves with all their might on the stationary chariots, to lunge with their spears at the drivers and pull them down, or wriggled along the ground to hamstring the horses, while the bowmen let fly at the men who were dragging away the rocks. Horemheb allowed them to rampage as they would, and their numbers helped them. They captured many chariots, which they handed over, in a frenzy of excitement, to Horemheb’s seasoned “scum.” Horemheb did not tell them that all would be over when the heavy chariots came up but relied on his luck and on the vast pit he had had dug across the middle of the valley in the rear of the troops, which was concealed under bushes and brush. The light chariots had not come so far, believing that all obstacles were already behind them.

Having cleared a broad enough way for the heavy force, such Hittites as survived climbed again into their chariots and drove swiftly back, thus arousing great jubilation among Horemheb’s men, who fancied that victory was already theirs. But Horemheb gave rapid orders for the sounding of horns, the replacing of rocks, and the planting of spears with points slanted toward the assailants. To avoid needless loss of men, he was compelled to station them on either side of the gaps. The scythes of the heavy chariots, turning with the wheels, would otherwise have mown down the troops like ripe grain.

This he did at the last moment. The dust cloud in the valley had not yet dispersed when the heavy chariots, the flower and pride of the Hittite army, thundered forward, crushing all obstacles in their way. They were drawn by powerful horses, a span higher than those of Egypt; their heads were protected by plates of metal and their sides by thick woolen pads. So massive were the wheels that they could overturn even large stones, and the horses with their mighty chests snapped the standing spears. Howls and blood-curdling shrieks rang out as the defenders were crushed beneath the wheeels or slashed in two by the scythes.

Soon the great vehicles burst through the dust cloud, and the horses, as they trotted forward in their colorful, quilted blankets with long bronze spikes jutting from their masks, looked like unknown, fantastic monsters. They clattered forward in column, and it seemed to me that no earthly power could halt them, nor any number of Egyptians block their way to the water jars in the desert. At Horemheb’s order his men had withdrawn from the valley to the slopes of the flanking hills. The Hittites uttered a great shout and thundered on so that the dust rose in eddies behind them. I threw myself face downward on the ground and wept for Egypt’s sake, for-the sake of the defenseless Lower Kingdom, and for all those who must now die because of Horemheb’s mad obstinacy.

The enemy were trotting briskly forward in a broad column when all at once the ground sank beneath them. Horses, chariots, and men tumbled higgledy-piggledy into the great pit the mud grubbers of the Nile had dug and camouflaged with bushes. This pit extended the whole width of the valley, from slope to slope. Scores of heavy chariots plunged into it before the remainder could be turned and driven along the edge. In this way the force was divided. When I heard the yell from our assailants, I raised my head from the ground, and until the rising dust veiled all beneath it, the spectacle I beheld was terrible indeed.

Had the Hittites been more circumspect, had they envisaged a possible reverse, they might yet have saved one half of their chariots and inflicted a heavy defeat on the Egyptians. They might have wheeled and returned through the breached barricades, but they could not understand that it was they who were defeated, being unaccustomed to that condition. They did not fly from our foot soldiers but drove their horses up the steep slopes to bring the chariots to a stand. Turning to inspect the field, they alighted from their vehicles to discover how best to cross the trench or to save their comrades who had fallen into it and to await the clearing of the dust that they might plan their next blow.

But Horemheb had no intention of allowing them to recover. With a flourish of horns he made known to his men that his magic had halted the enemy chariots, which were now impotent. He sent archers up the slopes to harass the Hittites, while other men were set to sweeping the ground with bushes and twigs to raise more dust, partly to confuse the enemy and partly to conceal from his own troops how great a number of Hittite chariots were still whole and fit for battle. At the same time he caused more rocks to be rolled down, to close the breaches in the barricades and thus, by holding the chariots in his power, complete his victory.

Meanwhile the light-chariot squadrons of the enemy had halted on the slopes to water their horses, mend their harness, and repair the broken spokes in their wheels. They saw the dust whirling among the hillocks. Hearing howls and the clash of arms, they fancied that the heavy force was routing the Egyptians and killing them off like rats.

Under the cover of dust, Horemheb sent his boldest javelin throwers to the pit, to prevent the Hittites from helping up their fallen comrades or filling in the hole. He sent the remaining troops against the chariots. They rolled great rocks before them with which to encircle the vehicles and deprive them of room to maneuver, and also if possible to cut them off from one another. All along the slopes great stones, were soon in motion. The Egyptians had always been well skilled in handling them, and among Horemheb’s troops were only too many who had learned the art in the quarries.

The Hittites were greatly discomfited at the continued cloud of dust, which prevented them from seeing what was going forward, and many were picked off by the archers where they stood. At length their officers ordered the horns to be sounded to assemble the chariots and storm down again to the plain, there to reform their forces. But when they charged back along the way they had come, they did not recognize it. Their horses stumbled over ropes and traps, and their heavy cars overturned among the rocks. At last they were compelled to alight from them and fight on foot. Here they were at a disadvantage, having ever been accustomed to stand higher than their adversary and were at length overcome by Horemheb’s men, although the struggle continued all day.

With the approach of evening a wind from the desert blew away the dust cloud, revealing the battlefield and the crushing defeat of the Hittites. They had lost the greater number of their heavy chariots, of which many with their horses and equipment had fallen unharmed into the hands of Horemheb. His men, wearied and fevered with the fury of battle, with their wounds, and with the reek of blood, were aghast at the spectacle of their own losses. The Egyptian dead in the valley far outnumbered those of the enemy.

The terror-stricken survivors said to one another, “This has been a day of horror, and it was well we saw nothing during the battle. Had we beheld the multitude of the Hittites and the numbers of our own dead, our hearts would certainly have leaped into our throats, and we should not have fought as we did, like lions.”

The remainder of the Hittites, surrounded, raised their hands in the air. Horemheb caused them to be bound, while all the marsh rats of the Nile came up to marvel at them, to touch their wounds, and to pull from their helmets and clothes the images of double-headed axes and winged suns.

Horemheb distributed wine and beer among his men and allowed them to plunder the fallen, both Hittites and Egyptians, that they might feel they too had a share in the spoils. But the most precious gains were the heavy chariots and those horses that remained unharmed. That very night he sent word to the free forces on either flank, exhorting all brave men among them to take service with his chariots like his own “scum,” for the desert folk were better skilled with horses than the Egyptians, who feared them. All horsemen answered his call gladly and rejoiced at the sturdy chariots and fine beasts.

I had my hands full with the wounded, stitching gashes, setting limbs, and opening skulls that had been crushed by the war clubs of the Hittites. Although I had many helpers, three days and three nights had passed before all were cared for, during which time many of the severely injured died.

Next day the Hittites launched a fresh attack with their light chariots, to recapture those they had lost. On the third day they still sought to break through the barricades, not daring to return to their commander-in-chief in Syria with news of their defeat.

But on this third day Horemheb was no longer content with defense. Having cleared a way through his own obstacles, he sent forward his “scum” in their captured chariots to chase the light vehicles of the Hittites and scatter them. We suffered great losses because the enemy were swifter and more accustomed to chariot warfare. Once more there was much work for me. Yet these losses, said Horemheb, were unavoidable, for only in battle could his ruffians learn to handle horses and chariots, and it was better to exercise when the enemy were defeated and discouraged than when, fully rested and equipped, they took the offensive.

“Without chariots with which to meet chariots we shall never conquer Syria,” said Horemheb. “This fighting behind barricades is childish and profitless, despite the hindrance it has proved to the invasion of Egypt.”

He hoped that the Hittites would send their foot soldiers into the desert also, for these, without sufficient water, would have been an easy prey. But the enemy were prudent, and apt learners. They held their troops in Syria in the hope that Horemheb, blinded by his victory, would send his men forward into that country, where they would have been rapidly annihilated by the fresh and seasoned forces of the adversary.

Nevertheless, this defeat caused profound consternation in Syria. Many cities rose in revolt against Aziru and closed their gates against him, weary of his ambition and of the rapacity of the Hittites. They hoped thus to win Egypt’s favor and a share in speedy conquest. The cities of Syria have ever been at odds with one another, and Horemheb’s spies fanned their discontent, spreading exaggerated and alarming reports of the great desert defeat.

While Horemheb rested his troops among those victorious hills, while he conferred with his spies and laid fresh plans, he continued to send his message to the beleaguered city: “Hold Gaza!” He knew that it could not hold out much longer, yet to win back Syria he must have a base on the coast. He set rumors about among his men of that country’s wealth and of the priestesses in the temple of Ishtar, who with consummate arts give pleasure to the valiant. I did not know why he lingered, until one night a starving, thirst-tormented man crept through the barricades, surrendered himself as a prisoner and begged to be brought before Horemheb. The soldiers mocked him for his impudence, but Horemheb received the man, who bowed low before him, stretching forth his hands at knee level, despite his Syrian dress. He then laid a hand over one of his eyes as if in pain.

Horemheb said, “Why surely no dung beetle has stung you in the eye?”

I chanced to be in his tent when this was said and regarded it as idle chatter since the dung beetle is a harmless insect and hurts no one.

But the thirsty man said, “Truly a dung beetle has stung me in the eye, for in Syria there are ten times ten of them, all exceedingly venomous.”

Horemheb said, “I greet you, valiant man. Speak freely, for this physician here in my tent is simple and understands nothing.”

At this the spy said, “My lord Horemheb, the hay has come!”

He uttered no more than this, but I took him for one of Horemheb’s spies. Horemheb left the tent immediately and gave orders for a beacon to be lit upon the hilltop. Soon afterward a chain of answering fires winked across the hills as far as the Lower Kingdom. In this manner he sent word to Tanis for the fleet to put to sea and engage the Syrian vessels off Gaza, should conflict prove unavoidable.

Next morning the horns rang out, and the army marched away across the desert to Syria. The chariots drove on ahead as an advance guard, to clear the route of enemies and to choose camping places for the troops. Yet how Horemheb dared give battle to the Hittites in open country was more than I could understand. The men followed him gladly, however, dreaming of the wealth of Syria, which was theirs for the winning. I stepped into my carrying chair and followed them, and we left behind us the hills of victory, where the bones of Hittites and Egyptians lay peaceably together, to whiten in the sand of the barricaded valley.