by Georg Ebers
CHAPTER XXXVII.
Once or twice Pentaur and his companions had had to defend themselvesagainst hostile mountaineers, who rushed suddenly upon them out of thewoods. When they were about two days' journey still from the end oftheir march, they had a bloody skirmish with a roving band of men thatseemed to belong to a larger detachment of troops.
The nearer they got to Kadesh, the more familiar Kaschta showed himselfwith every stock and stone, and he went forward to obtain information;he returned somewhat anxious, for he had perceived the main body of theCheta army on the road which they must cross. How came the enemy here inthe rear of the Egyptian army? Could Rameses have sustained a defeat?
Only the day before they had met some Egyptian soldiers, who had toldthem that the king was staying in the camp, and a great battle wasimpending. This however could not have by this time been decided, andthey had met no flying Egyptians.
"If we can only get two miles farther without having to fight," saidUarda's father. "I know what to do. Down below, there is a ravine, andfrom it a path leads over hill and vale to the plain of Kadesh. No oneever knew it but the Mohar and his most confidential servants. Abouthalf-way there is a hidden cave, in which we have often stayed thewhole day long. The Cheta used to believe that the Mohar possessed magicpowers, and could make himself invisible, for when they lay in wait forus on the way we used suddenly to vanish; but certainly not into theclouds, only into the cave, which the Mohar used to call his Tuat. Ifyou are not afraid of a climb, and will lead your horse behind you for amile or two, I can show you the way, and to-morrow evening we will be atthe camp."
Pentaur let his guide lead the way; they came, without having occasionto fight, as far as the gorge between the hills, through which a fulland foaming mountain torrent rushed to the valley. Kaschta dropped fromhis horse, and the others did the same. After the horses had passedthrough the water, he carefully effaced their tracks as far as the road,then for about half a mile he ascended the valley against the stream.At last he stopped in front of a thick oleander-bush, looked carefullyabout, and lightly pushed it aside; when he had found an entrance,his companions and their weary scrambling beasts followed him withoutdifficulty, and they presently found themselves in a grove of loftycedars. Now they had to squeeze themselves between masses of rock, nowthey labored up and down over smooth pebbles, which offered scarcelyany footing to the horses' hoofs; now they had to push their waythrough thick brushwood, and now to cross little brooks swelled by thewinter-rains.
The road became more difficult at every step, then it began to growdark, and heavy drops of rain fell from the clouded sky.
"Make haste, and keep close to me," cried Kaschta. "Half an hour more,and we shall be under shelter, if I do not lose my way."
Then a horse broke down, and with great difficulty was got up again;the rain fell with increased violence, the night grew darker, and thesoldier often found himself brought to a stand-still, feeling for thepath with his hands; twice he thought he had lost it, but he would notgive in till he had recovered the track. At last he stood still, andcalled Pentaur to come to him.
"Hereabouts," said he, "the cave must be; keep close to me--it ispossible that we may come upon some of the pioneer's people. Provisionsand fuel were always kept here in his father's time. Can you see me?Hold on to my girdle, and bend your head low till I tell you you maystand upright again. Keep your axe ready, we may find some of the Chetaor bandits roosting there. You people must wait, we will soon call youto come under shelter."
Pentaur closely followed his guide, pushing his way through the drippingbrushwood, crawling through a low passage in the rock, and at lastemerging on a small rocky plateau.
"Take care where you are going!" cried Kaschta. "Keep to the left, tothe right there is a deep abyss. I smell smoke! Keep your hand on youraxe, there must be some one in the cave. Wait! I will fetch the men asfar as this."
The soldier went back, and Pentaur listened for any sounds that mightcome from the same direction as the smoke. He fancied he could perceivea small gleam of light, and he certainly heard quite plainly, firsta tone of complaint, then an angry voice; he went towards the light,feeling his way by the wall on his left; the light shone broader andbrighter, and seemed to issue from a crack in a door.
By this time the soldier had rejoined Pentaur, and both listened for afew minutes; then the poet whispered to his guide:
"They are speaking Egyptian, I caught a few words."
"All the better," said Kaschta. "Paaker or some of his people are inthere; the door is there still, and shut. If we give four hard andthree gentle knocks, it will be opened. Can you understand what they aresaying?"
"Some one is begging to be set free," replied Pentaur, "and speaks ofsome traitor. The other has a rough voice, and says he must follow hismaster's orders. Now the one who spoke before is crying; do you hear? Heis entreating him by the soul of his father to take his fetters off. Howdespairing his voice is! Knock, Kaschta--it strikes me we are come atthe right moment--knock, I say."
The soldier knocked first four times, then three times. A shriek rangthrough the cave, and they could hear a heavy, rusty bolt drawn back,the roughly hewn door was opened, and a hoarse voice asked:
"Is that Paaker?"
"No," answered the soldier, "I am Kaschta. Do not you know me again,Nubi?"
The man thus addressed, who was Paaker's Ethiopian slave, drew back insurprise.
"Are you still alive?" he exclaimed. "What brings you here?"
"My lord here will tell you," answered Kaschta as he made way forPentaur to enter the cave. The poet went up to the black man, and thelight of the fire which burned in the cave fell full on his face.
The old slave stared at him, and drew back in astonishment and terror.He threw himself on the earth, howled like a dog that fawns at the feetof his angry master, and cried out:
"He ordered it--Spirit of my master! he ordered it." Pentaur stoodstill, astounded and incapable of speech, till he perceived a young man,who crept up to him on his hands and feet, which were bound with thongs,and who cried to him in a tone, in which terror was mingled with atenderness which touched Pentaur's very soul.
"Save me--Spirit of the Mohar! save me, father!" Then the poet spoke.
"I am no spirit of the dead," said he. "I am the priest Pentaur; and Iknow you, boy; you are Horus, Paaker's brother, who was brought up withme in the temple of Seti."
The prisoner approached him trembling, looked at him enquiringly andexclaimed:
"Be you who you may, you are exactly like my father in person andin voice. Loosen my bonds, and listen to me, for the most hideous,atrocious, and accursed treachery threatens us the king and all."
Pentaur drew his sword, and cut the leather thongs which bound the youngman's hands and feet. He stretched his released limbs, uttering thanksto the Gods, then he cried:
"If you love Egypt and the king follow me; perhaps there is yet time tohinder the hideous deed, and to frustrate this treachery."
"The night is dark," said Kaschita, "and the road to the valley isdangerous."
"You must follow me if it is to your death!" cried the youth, and,seizing Pentaur's hand, he dragged him with him out of the cave.
As soon as the black slave had satisfied himself that Pentaur was thepriest whom he had seen fighting in front of the paraschites' hovel, andnot the ghost of his dead master, he endeavored to slip past Paaker'sbrother, but Horus observed the manoeuvre, and seized him by his woollyhair. The slave cried out loudly, and whimpered out:
"If thou dost escape, Paaker will kill me; he swore he would."
"Wait!" said the youth. He dragged the slave back, flung him into thecave, and blocked up the door with a huge log which lay near it for thatpurpose.
When the three men had crept back through the low passage in the rocks,and found themselves once more in the open air, they found a high windwas blowing.
"The storm will soon be over," said Horus. "See how the clouds aredriving! Let us have horses, Pentaur, f
or there is not a minute to belost."
The poet ordered Kaschta to summon the people to start but the soldieradvised differently.
"Men and horses are exhausted," he said, "and we shall get on veryslowly in the dark. Let the beasts feed for an hour, and the men getrested and warm; by that time the moon will be up, and we shall make upfor the delay by having fresh horses, and light enough to see the road."
"The man is right," said Horus; and he led Kaschta to a cave in therocks, where barley and dates for the horses, and a few jars of wine,had been preserved. They soon had lighted a fire, and while some of themen took care of the horses, and others cooked a warm mess of victuals,Horus and Pentaur walked up and down impatiently.
"Had you been long bound in those thongs when we came?" asked Pentaur.
"Yesterday my brother fell upon me," replied Horus. "He is by this timea long way ahead of us, and if he joins the Cheta, and we do not reachthe Egyptian camp before daybreak, all is lost."
"Paaker, then, is plotting treason?"
"Treason, the foulest, blackest treason!" exclaimed the young man. "Oh,my lost father!--"
"Confide in me," said Pentaur going up to the unhappy youth who hadhidden his face in his hands. "What is Paaker plotting? How is it thatyour brother is your enemy?"
"He is the elder of us two," said Horus with a trembling voice. "When myfather died I had only a short time before left the school of Seti, andwith his last words my father enjoined me to respect Paaker as the headof our family. He is domineering and violent, and will allow no one'swill to cross his; but I bore everything, and always obeyed him, oftenagainst my better judgment. I remained with him two years, then I wentto Thebes, and there I married, and my wife and child are now livingthere with my mother. About sixteen months afterwards I came back toSyria, and we travelled through the country together; but by this time Idid not choose to be the mere tool of my brother's will, for I had grownprouder, and it seemed to me that the father of my child ought not to besubservient, even to his own brother. We often quarrelled, and had abad time together, and life became quite unendurable, when--about eightweeks since--Paaker came back from Thebes, and the king gave him tounderstand that he approved more of my reports than of his. From mychildhood I have always been softhearted and patient; every one says Iam like my mother; but what Paaker made me suffer by words and deeds,that is--I could not--" His voice broke, and Pentaur felt how cruelly hehad suffered; then he went on again:
"What happened to my brother in Egypt, I do not know, for he is veryreserved, and asks for no sympathy, either in joy or in sorrow; but fromwords he has dropped now and then I gather that he not only bitterlyhates Mena, the charioteer--who certainly did him an injury--but hassome grudge against the king too. I spoke to him of it at once, but onlyonce, for his rage is unbounded when he is provoked, and after all he ismy elder brother.
"For some days they have been preparing in the camp for a decisivebattle, and it was our duty to ascertain the position and strength ofthe enemy; the king gave me, and not Paaker, the commission to preparethe report. Early yesterday morning I drew it out and wrote it; then mybrother said he would carry it to the camp, and I was to wait here. Ipositively refused, as Rameses had required the report at my hands,and not at his. Well, he raved like a madman, declared that I had takenadvantage of his absence to insinuate myself into the king's favor, andcommanded me to obey him as the head of the house, in the name of myfather.
"I was sitting irresolute, when he went out of the cavern to call hishorses; then my eyes fell on the things which the old black slavewas tying together to load on a pack-horse--among them was a rollof writing. I fancied it was my own, and took it up to look at it,when--what should I find? At the risk of my life I had gone among theCheta, and had found that the main body of their army is collected ina cross-valley of the Orontes, quite hidden in the mountains to thenorth-east of Kadesh; and in the roll it was stated, in Paaker's ownhand-writing, that that valley is clear, and the way through it open,and well suited for the passage of the Egyptian war-chariots; variousother false details were given, and when I looked further among histhings, I found between the arrows in his quiver, on which he hadwritten 'death to Mena,' another little roll of writing. I tore it open,and my blood ran cold when I saw to whom it was addressed."
"To the king of the Cheta?" cried Pentaur in excitement.
"To his chief officer, Titure," continued Horus. "I was holding boththe rolls in my hand, when Paaker came back into the cave. 'Traitor!'I cried out to him; but he flung the lasso, with which he had beencatching the stray horses, threw it round my neck, and as I fell chokingon the ground, he and the black man, who obeys him like a dog, boundme hand and foot; he left the old negro to keep guard over me, took therolls and rode away. Look, there are the stars, and the moon will soonbe up."
"Make haste, men!" cried Pentaur. "The three best horses for me, Horus,and Kaschta; the rest remain here."
As the red-bearded soldier led the horses forward, the moon shone forth,and within an hour the travellers had reached the plain; they sprang onto the beasts and rode madly on towards the lake, which, when the sunrose, gleamed before them in silvery green. As they drew near to it theycould discern, on its treeless western shore, black masses moving hitherand thither; clouds of dust rose up from the plain, pierced by flashesof light, like the rays of the sun reflected from a moving mirror.
"The battle is begun!" cried Horus; and he fell sobbing on his horse'sneck.
"But all is not lost yet!" exclaimed the poet, spurring his horse toa final effort of strength. His companions did the same, but firstKaschta's horse fell under him, then Horus's broke down.
"Help may be given by the left wing!" cried Horus. "I will run as fastas I can on foot, I know where to find them. You will easily find theking if you follow the stream to the stone bridge. In the cross-valleyabout a thousand paces farther north--to the northwest of ourstronghold--the surprise is to be effected. Try to get through, and warnRameses; the Egyptian pass-word is 'Bent-Anat,' the name of the king'sfavorite daughter. But even if you had wings, and could fly straight tohim, they would overpower him if I cannot succeed in turning the leftwing on the rear of the enemy."
Pentaur galloped onwards; but it was not long before his horse too gaveway, and he ran forward like a man who runs a race, and shouted thepass-word "Bent-Anat"--for the ring of her name seemed to give himvigor. Presently he came upon a mounted messenger of the enemy; hestruck him down from his horse, flung himself into the saddle, andrushed on towards the camp; as if he were riding to his wedding.