the edge of the desert, they had been certain of their death, and the arrival of the infantry encouraged them since it is always more pleasant to die in a crowd than one by one — and there were no more than five hundred combat-ready charioteers left of those two thousand and five hundred who had departed, and their horses were stumbling from exhaustion, hanging their heads with muzzles sweeping the sand.

Thus during the day, the greater part of the army arrived at Horemheb’s encampment in equal lines, and Horemheb sent each man who arrived immediately to dig trenches and build barricades to close the desert from the Hittite chariots. He sent back word to those belated troops who had not yet arrived and who were exhausted from marching so that all had to reach the fortified encampment in the course of that night — for any left in the desert at daybreak would die a cruel death at the hands of the Hittites, should the chariots of these break through the desert and passes. But no one counted how many arrived, and Horemheb did not allow anyone to count them since knowing their numbers was of no use to anyone, and it was in any case small compared to the entire army of the Hittites.

Nevertheless, 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, believing that he would save them from the Hittites and defeat them. But as they were building their barricades and stretching their reed ropes and rolling their rocks, they beheld the Hittite chariots approaching in a cloud of dust and heard the Hittite battle cries. Then their noses went cold, and they looked about them in great dread at the chariots and their hideous scythes.

But night was drawing on, and the Hittites would not attack before they had become familiar with the terrain ahead and estimated the strength of Horemheb’s troops. They pitched camp in the desert and gathered horned bushes for their horses to eat and kindled fires so that during the night the desert was speckled with campfires as far as the eye could see. All night long, their scouts drove up to the barricades in light chariots where they slew guards and skirmished along the whole front which Horemheb had spread on both sides deep into the desert. But on either flank, where no barricades could be built, the desert bandits and voluntary forces surprised the Hittites and pulled them down from their chariots with lassoes in the darkness of the night, capturing their chariots and horses so that not many scouts returned who had driven too far from the road that the Hittites had prepared.

641

The night was loud with the thunder of chariots, the shrieks of the dying, the whine of arrows and the clash of arms so that the inexperienced troops were greatly frightened and dared not sleep. But Horemheb comforted them and said, “Sleep well, mud rats, sleep and rest and smear your torn soles with oil, for I am watching over your slumbers and guarding over you.” I did not sleep but I walked about the camp all night and dressed the wounds of Horemheb’s charioteers, and Horemheb encouraged me, saying, “Heal them, Sinuhe, with all your arts, for more valiant warriors the world has never seen, and each of them is worth a hundred or even a thousand of those mud grubbers. Heal them, for I dearly love these dung snouts of mine, and they can calm the horses and use the reins, and I have no trained men to put in their places, but from now on, everyone has to learn in the battle to control the horse and the chariot. Therefore I give you a deben’s worth of gold for every man that you cure for the battle.”

But I was greatly irritated from the toilsome journey across the desert — although I had performed it sitting in a chair, and my throat was dry with the acrid dust — and I was enraged to think that because of Horemheb’s foolish insistence, I must die at the hands of the Hittites, although death in itself held no terrors for me. Therefore I said to him irritably:

“Keep your gold to yourself or share it to these orphan snouts of yours so that they could think they are rich at least for a moment before their death. Doubtless we all die tomorrow since you have led us into a trap in the terrifying desert. If I keep eagerly healing these snouts of yours, I do it purely for my own sake since to my mind they are the only men in the army capable of fighting, whereas those who came with me will lose their heads and flee screaming as soon as they see the Hittites eye to eye. I have seen them get scared of a breaking branch in the dark, and I have heard them cry in one voice for the gods of Egypt when a desert rabbit jumped from its hole to the road before them. No doubt they are brave breaking each other’s skulls in the streets of Thebes, and as a large group they might dare cut a lonely stroller’s throat to rob his

642

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360 361 362 363 364 365 366 367 368 369 370 371 372 373 374 375 376 377 378 379 380 381 382 383 384