The Egyptian by Mika Waltari

Posted by admin_akashic on Mar 4th, 2022 in Stories

having thrown his spear, the horsemen wheeled about and tore back at full gallop only 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.

But when the Hittites’ light chariots began their assault, I saw a sight that was miraculous to behold, for Horemheb, who had been watching his troops, rushed from behind the barricades and ran alone straight at the thundering chariots, and it was easy to recognise him since he was a head taller than all short men of the Nile. At this, I stood up and shouted and pressed my fists, but Horemheb tore up one of the spears with a pennant at its butt that the Hittites had hit to the ground and hurled it far from him so that it stood trembling once more upright in the sand. His warrior’s mind was faster than anyone else’s mind, and before others, he had perceived the purpose of the pennant spears: for before an attack, the Hittites sent their most experienced men on horses to mark with spears and pennants those locations where barriers were weakest and where a breach might best be made.

But of the Egyptians, no one but Horemheb realised this, and he had the required composure to throw the spear in a wrong location to confuse the Hittites. Other men, who followed his example and ran before the barricades, only grabbed the spears from the ground and returned with the pennants as trophies. But also this would confuse the Hittites’ attack, and I believe that only Horemheb’s quick wits saved Egypt that morning, for had the Hittites been able to hurl the concentrated weight of their first assault against the points the riders had marked with their spears, it is probable that the Egyptians would not have been able to repel it.

Back then, I did not figure all this out, but only thought Horemheb’s run towards the attacking lines of chariots was a mindless jest and reproached him for it, thinking he wanted to encourage his men by example. But there might not be greater courage in the world than running alone in open terrain towards attacking chariots, and I assume an experienced soldier can do it without putting himself in great danger — if he can correctly estimate his strength and skill, the speed of the chariots and if he has time to take cover before getting crushed by the chariots. Thus it might not have been so perilous for Horemheb, for all his troops shouted in one voice seeing his action and forgot their danger while praising him for his courage.

649

Whatever the case, no sooner had Horemheb regained the cover of his troops than the light chariots of the Hittites were speeding against the barricades and driving in amongst them in numerous wedges, following their pennant spears. This first clash was attended by so mighty a noise and din, and by such dense clouds of dust, that from the mountain I could no longer follow the course of the battle. I saw only that our arrows had brought down some horses in front of the barricades, but that the Hittites dextrously avoided the overturned vehicles and continued their attack. 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, the chariots halted in groups, and the spare men in each leaped out and began rolling away the stones and clearing a path for the heavier chariots which had halted out of arrow’s range to await their turn.

Seeing this success of the Hittites, a seasoned soldier would have believed the day lost, but Horemheb’s inexperienced mud rats saw only the horses at the barricades and in the pits kicking in their death struggle. They saw that the Hittites had sustained grave losses and fancied that their own valour had halted the onslaught. Howling with excitement and terror, they hurled themselves with their spears on the stationary chariots, wriggling along the ground to hamstring the horses and pulling the drivers from the chariots, and the archers shot at the men who were dragging away the rocks. Horemheb allowed them to rampage as they would, and their superior numbers helped them so that they captured many chariots, which they handed over, panting from frenzy, to Horemheb’s dung snouts, since they did not know how to use them but hanged on horses’ mouths and feared falling from the chariots if they climbed on them. And Horemheb did not tell them that all would be over when the heavy chariots arrived but relied on his luck and on the vast pit he 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 that far, believing that they had already solved all obstacles.

650