front of Pharaoh and take over Gaza. I will not consent to your deceitful proposal and will not accept the donkey cruppers you offer me, for I will hold Gaza, and my men will hold Gaza, as long as we live — and I will find those four hundred donkey cruppers if I have to tear down all of Gaza stone by stone to find them.”
At this, Horemheb became worried of his state of mind and urged him to travel to Egypt to recover with his wife and children from the hardships of the siege. But he should not have proposed this, since now Roju was certain that Horemheb was after his power and wanted to strip him of Gaza. Thus he said, “Gaza is my Egypt, the walls of Gaza are my wives, and the towers of Gaza are my children. But truly I will open my wife’s belly and cut the heads of my children if I won’t recover these lost donkey cruppers.”
Unknown to Horemheb, Roju ordered the execution of the store clerk, who had endured all the hardships of the siege by his side, and set men to tearing up the floor of his tower with pickaxes and rods to find the lost donkey cruppers. When Horemheb saw this destruction, he ordered him to be locked in his room and watched, and then he consulted me as a physician. After speaking friendly with Roju — though he did not believe I was his friend but suspected me of trying to use cunning to become the commander of Gaza — I said to Horemheb, “This man won’t calm down before you and your troops march out of Gaza and he is able to close its gates again and rule in Gaza as Pharaoh as he pleases.” But Horemheb said, “How in the name of Seth and the devils could I do such a thing before the ships have arrived from Egypt and have brought fresh troops, arms and supplies so that I may begin the campaign against Joppe. Until then, the walls of Gaza are my only defence, and if I go with my troops outside the walls, I risk everything that I have so far won.”
I hesitated in my mind and said, “It might be happiest for him if I opened his skull and in that manner tried to cure him, since he suffers a lot for the sake of your stay and must be kept tied to his bed. Otherwise he might harm himself or you.” But Horemheb would not allow to open the skull of the most famed Egyptian hero, since it might have risked his own reputation, if Roju had died, for I was not able to guarantee he survived. Opening the skull is always an insecure and dangerous procedure. Therefore he sent me to Roju, and with the help of many strong men, I bound him to his bedstead and then administered a soothing medicine. But from the shadows of his bed, his eyes blazed green like eyes of a beast, and he writhed, foaming at the mouth in fury, when he said to me:
665
“Am I not commander in Gaza, you jackal of Horemheb? I remember now that there is in the fortress dungeon a Syrian spy whom I captured before your master came and forgot to hang on the wall by reason of my many duties. This spy is an exceedingly cunning fellow, and I now understand that it is he who has made off with those four hundred donkey cruppers. Bring him before me that I may squeeze these accursed cruppers out of him and sleep in peace once more.”
He insisted and raved so long about the Syrian spy that I grew weary, and taking lighted torches, I descended into the dungeon, where a number of rat-gnawed bodies sat chained to the walls. The guard of the dungeon was a blind old man who had become blind from having lived all his days in the dungeons of Gaza, and he could move around in them without torches, knowing every corridor. I questioned him about a certain Syrian spy who had been imprisoned before the end of the siege, but he vowed and declared that all the prisoners had perished long ago, having first been questioned on the stretching rack and then left without food or water. But I knew human nature, and the old man’s demeanour aroused my suspicions. Therefore I pressed him hard and threatened him until he prostrated himself before me and shouted, wailing:
“Spare my life, lord, for I have faithfully served Egypt all my days and in the name of Egypt have tormented prisoners and stolen their food. But this spy is no ordinary man, and his tongue is wonderful and whistles like a nightingale, and he has promised me great wealth if I will feed him and keep him alive until the coming of Horemheb, and he has also promised to restore my sight, having been blind himself until a great physician healed his one eye, and he has promised to bring me to this great physician that my sight may also be restored and that I may live in the city amongst people and enjoy my wealth. He already owes me more than two million deben of gold for the bread and water I have given him, and I have not told him that the siege is over and that Horemheb has come to Gaza, that he may incur yet heavier debt for
666
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