one in Thebes was too rich or too eminent to be in danger when he walked abroad, and I need only have hired a few soldiers to carry out my purpose. But as yet I did not know what my purpose was.
On the fifth day there was an uneasiness even among the officers under Pepitaton’s command, for the soldiers ceased to obey the notes of the horn and insulted their leaders in the streets, snatching the golden whips from them and snapping them across their knees. The officers went to Pepitaton who was growing weary of a warrior’s life and missed his cats, and they persuaded him to seek audience of Pharaoh, tell him the truth, and relinquish his collar of office. And so on the fifth day Pharaoh’s messengers came to my house to summon Horemheb before Pharaoh. Horemheb rose like a lion from his couch, washed and dressed, and went back with the men, growling to himself at the thought of all he would say to Pharaoh. Now even Pharaoh’s authority was tottering, and no one knew what tomorrow might bring.
When he stood before him, he said, “Akhnaton, there is not a moment to be lost, and I have no time to remind you of all I counseled you to do. If you desire all to be as it was, give me your authority for three days, and on the third day I will restore it to you. You need never know of what has passed.”
Pharaoh said to him, “Will you overthrow Ammon?”
Horemheb answered, “Truly you are a man possessed! Yet after what has happened Ammon must fall if Pharaoh’s majesty is to survive. Therefore, I will overthrow him-but do not ask how it will be done.”
Pharaoh said, “You shall not harm his priests, for they know not what they do.”
Horemheb answered him and said, “In truth your skull should be opened, for it is plain that nothing else will cure you. Nevertheless I will obey your command for the sake of that hour when I covered your weakness with my shoulder cloth.”
Then Pharaoh wept and handed him his whip and his crook for three days. How this matter came about I know only from what Horemheb told me, and after the manner of warriors he was given to fanciful embellishment. Be that as it may, he returned to the city in Pharaoh’s gilded carriage and drove through street after street calling the soldiers by name. He took the trustiest among them with him and caused horns to be sounded, mustering the men under their standards: their falcons and lions’ tails. The search went on all night. Yells and howls were heard from the men’s sleeping quarters, and canes by the score were worn to shreds in the hands of the castigators, whose arms grew weary and who groaned that never before had they known such toil. Horemheb sent his best men on patrol through the streets to grab every man who did not obey the horns and lead him to be flogged; many whose hands and garments were bloody had their heads cut off in the sight of their fellows. When morning dawned, the riffraff of Thebes had scuttled back to their holes like rats, for everyone caught thieving or house breaking was speared on the spot.
Horemheb also summoned together all the builders in the city and bade them tear down the houses of the wealthy and break up ships for their Umber, and he set laborers to building battering rams and siege towers, so that the noise of hammering filled the night. But above all other noises rose the yells of Nubians and Shardanas under the lash, an agreeable sound to the citizens of Thebes.
Horemheb wasted no time in vain negotiation with the priests, but as soon as it grew light he gave his officers their orders. Siege towers “were placed at five points about the temple walls while at the same time battering rams began to thunder against the gates. No one was wounded, for the soldiers made roofs of their shields. The priests and temple guards could make no stand against so determined and well concerted an attack. They dispersed their forces and ran hither and thither in panic about the walls, while from the courts below came the cries of terrified people who were sheltering there. When the chief priests saw that the gates were giving way and that Negroes were gaining the walls, they caused horns to be sounded for a truce that the lives of the people might be saved. They were of the opinion that Ammon had had sacrifice enough and they desired to spare the remainder of the faithful for service in the future. The gates were therefore opened and the soldiers allowed the packed masses to escape as Horemheb had commanded. The people fled, calling upon Ammon, and were content to hasten home, for the uproar had abated and they were weary indeed of standing so long in the courtyards beneath the burning sun.
Thus Horemheb took possession of the forecourts, stores, stables, and workshops of the temple without severe casualties. The Houses of Life and Death also were brought under his control, and he sent physicians from the House of Life into the city to heal the sick, but he did not meddle with the House of Death, for those who dwell there are apart and in sanctuary whatever may befall in the outside world. The priests and guards made a last stand in the great temple to protect the holy of holies; the priests laid spells on the guards and drugged them that they might fight to the death without feeling pain.
The battle in the great temple went on until nightfall, but by then the bewitched guards had all been slain with such priests as had made armed resistance, and there remained only the priests of the highest grade who had gathered about their god in the sanctuary. Horemheb gave order for the fighting to cease and at once sent men to gather up the dead and throw them into the river.
Then, approaching the priests of Ammon, he said, “I wage no war against Ammon, for I serve Horus, my falcon. Nevertheless I must obey the command of Pharaoh and depose your god. Would it not be more agreeable for both yourselves and me if no image were found in the holy of holies for the soldiers to desecrate? For I do not wish to commit sacrilege, though because of my oath I must serve Pharaoh. Reflect upon my words; to that end I will allow you a water measure’s time. Thereafter you may depart in peace, and none shall raise his hand against you since I do not seek your lives.”
These words were agreeable to the priests, who had braced themselves to die for the sake of Ammon. They remained in the sanctuary until a measure of water had run from the water clock. Then Horemheb with his own hand tore down the veil of the sanctuary and let the priests depart. When they had gone, the sanctuary was empty and no image of Ammon was to be seen. The priests had made haste to demolish it, and they bore away the pieces under their cloaks, that later they might proclaim a miracle and affirm that Ammon still lived, Horemheb caused seals to be set on all stores, and he sealed the cellars where the gold and silver was hidden with his own hand. That evening, by the light of torches, stone masons set to work to efface the name of Ammon from every statue and inscription. During the night Horemheb had the square cleared of bodies and fragments of bodies and sent men to quench the fires that still raged in some parts of the city.
When the wealthier and more aristocratic Thebans learned that Ammon had been deposed and that peace and good order had been restored, they arrayed themselves in their finest clothes, lit lamps before their houses, and went out into the streets to celebrate Aton’s victory. Members of the court, who had taken refuge in Pharaoh’s golden house, were now ferried back across the river to the city. Soon the sky over Thebes glowed red from the festival torches and lamps, and people strewed flowers in the streets and shouted and laughed and embraced one another. Horemheb could not prevent them plying the Shardanas with wine nor hinder noble ladies from embracing Nubians who carried impaled upon the points of spears the shaven heads of the priests they had slain. Thebes rejoiced that night in the name of Aton. In the name of Aton all was permitted and there was no difference between Egyptian and Negro. In testimony of this the court ladies admitted Nubians to their houses, shook out their new summer dresses, and enjoyed the virility of the black men and the sour, blood smell of their bodies. And when a wounded temple guard crawled out into the open from the shadow of the wall, calling on Ammon in his delirium, they smashed his head against the stones of the street, and the ladies danced in jubilation round the body.
These things I saw with my own eyes, and having seen them, clutched my head in my hands, indifferent now to all that happened. I reflected that no god can cure man of his madness. I ran to the Crocodile’s Tail, and with Merit’s words blazing up in my heart, I called the soldiers who were on guard there. They obeyed me, having seen me in company with Horemheb, and I led them through that night of delirium, past revelers dancing in the streets, to the house of Nefernefernefer. There also torches and lamps were burning and from the house, which had suffered no pillage, the noise of drunken revelry rang out into the street. When I had come thus far, my knees began to quake, and my stomach sank.
I said to the soldiers, “These are the orders of Horemheb, my friend and the King’s commander-in-chief. Go into the house where you will find a woman who carries her head haughtily and whose eyes are like green stones. Bring her here to me, and should she resist, smite her over the head with the butt of a spear but do her no other harm.”
The soldiers strode in cheerfully. Soon the startled guests came reeling out, and servants called for the guards. My men soon returned with fruit and honey bread and jars of wine in their hands, and with them they carried Nefernefernefer. She had struggled, and they had struck her with a spear so that her smooth head was bloody and her wig had slipped off. I laid my hand on her breast, and her skin was smooth as warm glass, but to me
