The Pharaoh And The Priest Part 99

"Victory! May our chief live forever!" cried Pentuer.

It was only two hours after midday.

The Asiatic cavalry sing loudly, and send arrows into the air in honor of Rameses. The staff officers dismount, and rush to kiss the hands and feet of the viceroy; at last they take him from the saddle, raise him in the air, shouting,--

"Here is a mighty leader! He has trampled the enemies of Egypt! Amon is on his right, and on his left, who can oppose him?"

Meanwhile the Libyans, pushing back all the time, had ascended the sandy hills on the south, and after them Egyptians. From out the cloud came hors.e.m.e.n every minute and rushed to Rameses.

"Mentezufis has taken them in the rear!" cried one.

"Two hundred have surrendered!" cried another.

"Patrokles has taken them in the rear!"

"Three Libyan standards are captured: the ram, the lion, and the sparrow-hawk!"

More and more men gathered round the staff: it was surrounded by warriors who were b.l.o.o.d.y and dust-covered.

"May he live through eternity! May he live through eternity, our leader!"

The prince was so excited, that he laughed and cried in turn and said to his retinue,--

"The G.o.ds have been compa.s.sionate. I feared that we had lost. Evil is the plight of a leader; without drawing a sword and even without seeing, he must answer for everything!"

"Live thou, O conquering commander, live through eternity!" cried the warriors.

"A fine victory for me!" laughed Rameses. "I do not know even how they won it."

"He wins a victory, and wonders how it came!" cried some one in the retinue.

"I say that I saw not the face of the battle," explained the prince.

"Be at rest, our commander," said Pentuer. "Thou didst dispose the army so wisely that the enemy had to be beaten. And in what way? Just as if that did not belong to thee, but the regiments."

"I did not even draw a sword. I do not see one Libyan," complained the prince.

On the southern heights there was a struggling and a seething, but in the valley the dust had begun to settle here and there, and a crowd of Egyptian soldiers were visible as through a mist, their spears pointed upward.

Rameses turned his horse in that direction and rode out to the deserted field of battle, where just recently had been, the struggle of the central column. It was a place some hundreds of yards in width, with deep furrows filled with bodies of the dead and wounded. On the side along which the prince was approaching, Egyptians and Libyans lay intermixed, in a long line, still farther on there were almost none except Libyans.

In places bodies lay close to bodies; sometimes on one spot three or four were piled one on another. The sand was stained with brownish blood patches; the wounds were ghastly. Both hands were cut from one man, another had his head split to the body, from a third man, the entrails were dropping. Some were howling in convulsions, and from their mouths, filled with sand, came forth curses, or prayers imploring some one to slay them.

Rameses pa.s.sed along hastily, not looking around, though some of the wounded men shouted feebly in his honor.

Not far from that place he met the first crowd of prisoners. They fell on their faces before him and begged for compa.s.sion.

"Proclaim pardon to the conquered and the obedient," said he to his staff.

A number of hors.e.m.e.n rushed off in various directions. Soon a trumpet was heard, and after it a piercing voice,--

"By the order of his worthiness the prince in command, prisoners and wounded are not to be slain!"

In answer came wild shouts, evidently from prisoners.

"At command of the prince," a second voice cried in singing tones in another direction, "prisoners and wounded are not to be slain!"

Meanwhile on the southern heights the battle ceased and two of the largest Libyan divisions laid down their arms before the Greek regiments.

The valiant Patrokles, in consequence of the heat, as he said himself--of ardent drink, as thought others--barely held himself in the saddle. He rubbed his tearful eyes, and turned to the prisoners.

"Mangy dogs!" cried he, "who raise sinful hands on the army of his holiness (may the worms devour you)! Ye will perish like lice under the nail of a pious Egyptian, if ye do not tell this minute where your leader is,--may leprosy eat off his nose and drink his blear eyes out!"

At that moment the prince appeared. The general greeted him with respect, but did not stop his investigation.

"I will have belts cut from your bodies! I will impale you on stakes, if I do not learn this minute where that poisonous reptile is, that son of a wild boar."

"Ei! where our leader is?" cried one of the Libyans, pointing to a little crowd on horseback which was advancing slowly in the depth of the desert.

"What is that?" inquired the prince.

"The wretch Musawasa is fleeing!" said Patrokles, and he almost fell to the ground.

The blood rushed to Rameses' head.

Then Musawasa was here and escaped?

"Hei! whoso has the best horse, follow me!"

"Well," said Patrokles, laughing, "that sheep-stealer himself will bleat now!"

Pentuer stopped the way to the prince.

"It is not for thee to hunt fugitives, worthiness."

"What?" cried the heir. "During this whole battle I did not raise a hand on any man, and now I am to give up the Libyan leader? What would be said by the warriors whom I have sent out under spears and axes?"

"The army cannot remain without a leader."

"But are not Patrokles, Tutmosis, and finally Mentezufis, here? For what purpose am I commander if I cannot hunt the enemy? They are a few hundred yards from us and have tired horses."

"We will come back in an hour with him. He is only an arm's length from us!" whispered some Asiatic.

"Patrokles, Tutmosis, I leave the army to you!" cried the heir. "Rest.

I will come back immediately."

He put spurs to his horse and advanced at a trot, sinking in the sand, and behind him about twenty hors.e.m.e.n, with Pentuer.