violated, and of the small children with their hands and feet bound, wrung the hearts of all who beheld them and not just of those who were their husbands and sons. The men's hands fell to their sides, their sword arms paralyzed, and confusion spread through their hearts till the news reached the king, who received it as though it were a lightning bolt from the sky and cried out in anger, “What barbaric savagery! The cowards have taken refuge behind the bodies of women and children!”
Silence and despondency reigned among the king's entourage and commanders and no one uttered a word. As daylight grew and they saw the wall of Thebes in the distance protected by the bodies of the women and children, their skins crawled with dread, their faces turned pale with anger, their limbs shook, and their souls went out to the tormented captives and to their brave families who stood in the field before them helplessly, tormented and oppressed by their powerlessness. Hur cried out, his voice trembling, “Poor wretches! The exposure day and night will kill them, if the arrows do not shred their bodies.”
Confusion enveloped the king and he stared with horror-stricken, sorrowful eyes at the captives and their children who protected their enemy with their bodies. What could he do? The struggle of months was threatened with failure, and the hopes often years with disappointment and despair. What plan could he devise? Had he come to deliver his people or to torture them? Had he been sent as a mercy or as an affliction? He started to murmur in his sorrow “Amun, Amun, my Divine Lord, this struggle is for your sake and for the sake of those who believe in you. Tell me what I should do, before I am forced to find a way out for myself!” The rattling of a chariot coming from the direction of the Nile roused him from his prayer. He and those with him looked at its rider closely and saw that it was the commander of the fleet, Ahmose Ebana. The commander descended and greeted the king, then enquired, “My lord, why is our army not attacking the tottering Herdsmen? Were our troops not supposed to be on the wall of Thebes by now?”
In a sad voice and with heavy accents, gesturing in the direction of the wall, the king said, “Look and see for yourself, Commander!”
However, Ahmose Ebana did not look as they were expecting but said quietly, “My eyes have informed me of the vile, barbaric act, but how can we permit ourselves to be made accomplices with Apophis, when we know him so well? Are we to give up the struggle for Thebes and for Egypt out of concern for a few of our women and children?”
King Ahmose said bitterly, “Do you think I should give the order to shred the bodies of these wretched women and their children?”
The commander replied enthusiastically and confidently, “Yes, my lord! They are a sacrifice offered up to the struggle. They are just the same as our brave soldiers, who fall all the time. Indeed, they are just the same as our martyred sovereign Seqenenra, and the brave departed Kamose. Why should we care for their going so much that it incapacitates our struggle? My lord, my heart tells me that my mother Ebana is among those unfortunate captives. If my feelings speak truly, then I do not doubt that she is praying to the Lord that He put your love for Thebes above your pity for her and her unfortunate sisters. I am not the only one among our soldiers to bear this wound, so let each one of us place around his heart the armor of faith and resolution and let us attack!”
The king looked long at the commander of his fleet. Then, grim and pale, he turned his face toward his entourage, the commanders, and Chamberlain Hur and said in a quiet voice, “Mighty Ahmose Ebana has spoken the truth.”
A deep breath escaped from the men's bodies and they shouted with one voice, “Yes, yes! The commander of the fleet has spoken the truth. Let us attack!”
The king turned to the commanders and spoke decisively, “Commanders, go to your troops and tell them that their sovereign, who for Egypt lost grandfather and father, and who does not hesitate to give himself for its sake, commands you to attack the walls of Thebes that are shielded by our flesh and blood and to take them, at whatever cost.”
The commanders went quickly and sounded the bugles and the ranks of the troops advanced, bristling with weapons, their faces dark. The officers called out in resounding tones, “Live like Amenhotep or die like Seqenenra!” and immediately the most horrible battle into whose perils man had ever thrown himself commenced. The Herdsmen shot their arrows and the Egyptians returned the fire, their shafts immediately cleaving the breasts of their women and piercing the hearts of their children, so that the blood flowed unchecked. The women nodded their heads to the soldiers and called out in high, hoarse voices, “Strike us, may the Lord grant you victory, and take revenge for us!”
The Egyptians went berserk, attacking like ravening beasts whose hearts know no mercy and thirst for blood and their screams resounded against the sides of the valley like the pealing of thunder or the roaring of lions. They hurled themselves forward heedless of the death that poured down upon them, as though they had lost all sensation or comprehension and been turned into instruments of Hell. The fighting — was fierce, the exchange of blows intense, and the blood flowed like gushing springs from breasts and necks. Each attacker felt a crazed urge that would not slacken until he had buried his lance in a Herdsman's heart. Before noon, the right — wing had managed to silence a number of defensive positions and some men took the lead in erecting siege ladders, upon which they climbed with death-defying hearts, thus transferring the battle from the field to the top of the fortified wall, where some of them leapt onto the inner parapet, engaging the enemy with lance and sword. The attacks followed one another violently and courageously as the king observed the fight with watchful eyes and sent reinforcements to places where the enemy was attacking hard. After watching his soldiers ascend the wall in the middle and at two points on the right as the sun rose to the zenith of the sky, he said, “My troops are making the effort of giants, but I fear that darkness will overtake us before we take the whole wall and we shall have to start tomorrow from the beginning.”
The king issued orders to new contingents to attack and the pressure of his men on the defenders of the near-impregnable wall increased as they made themselves new paths to its summit. Despair seemed to start to overcome the Herdsmen after the Egyptians had inflicted terrible losses on them and they saw that the flow was never ending, the Egyptians climbing the siege ladders like ants marching up the trunks of trees. Defenses collapsed with a rapidity that no one had expected, and Ahmose's troops occupied whole sections of the wall, so that its fall became only a matter of time. Ahmose was continuing to send strong reinforcements, when an officer of a force of scouts that had penetrated into the fields surrounding Thebes came to him in the camp, his face beaming with joy. He bowed to the king and said, “Wonderful news, my lord! Apophis and his army are leaving the northern gates of Thebes like fugitives.”
The king, amazed, asked the officer, “Are you sure of what you say?”
The man said confidently, “I saw the cavalcade of the Herdsmen's king and his guards — with my own eyes, followed by companies of the army, armed to the teeth.”
Ahmose Ebana said, “Apophis must have realized the pointlessness of defending the wall of Thebes after witnessing our troops’ attacks, while his army inside the city could not properly defend itself, so he fled.”
Hur said, “Now no doubt he knows that taking shelter behind the women and children of the fighters was a calamitous act of wickedness.”
Hur had scarcely finished speaking before a new messenger from the fleet came. He saluted the king and said, “My lord, an uprising is spreading like wildfire in Thebes. From the fleet, we saw a fierce battle taking place between the peasants and the Nubians on one side and the owners of the palaces and the guards of the shore on the other.”
Ahmose Ebana appeared anxious and asked the officer, “Did the fleet do its duty?”
“Indeed, sir. Our ships drew in close to the shore and fired numerous arrows at the guards, so that they could not free themselves to fight the insurgents.”
The commander's face relaxed and he asked permission of the king to return to his fleet to carry out an attack on the shore, which the king granted, saying to Hur in delight, “The estate owners will not escape this time with their wealth.”
Hur replied in a voice trembling with joy, “Indeed, my lord, and soon Thebes the Glorious will open its gates to you.”
“But Apophis has taken his army with him.”
“We will not stop struggling until Avaris has fallen and the last Herdsman has withdrawn from Egypt.”
The king resumed his observation of the fighting and found his troops doing battle on the siege ladders and on top of the wall, pressing on the Herdsmen, who retreated before them. Contingents of bow- and lance-carrying troops climbed up in great numbers and scaled the wall on every side, surrounding the Herdsmen and setting about
