The Egyptian (67 page)

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 covcr 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 Haremheb, 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.