Pharaoh. Уилбур Смит

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СКАЧАТЬ Hui’s galleys where the slave chains were buckled snugly on to their ankles. Their womenfolk were hustled away by Hurotas’ men; however, I made no enquiry as to what became of them. War is a brutal business, and they had come into our land without invitation, and seized the fields from our peasants and treated them worse than slaves. They could not expect to be treated any better by us.

      When all was secure the three of us sat under the sycamore trees on the river-bank, while the cooks served us a breakfast of roasted sausage and crisp brown bread hot from the clay ovens, which we washed down with jugs of freshly brewed beer; and which I for one would not have exchanged for a banquet at Pharaoh’s board.

      We went on board again as soon as the sun had passed its zenith and continued our northwards voyage towards Memphis. But there was still almost two days of sailing ahead of us, and this was the first time since Hurotas and Hui had returned so unexpectedly that I had been given the opportunity to speak to them about the life we had known together so many years ago. In particular I was anxious to learn about what had become of the two young princesses whom they had taken into exile with them when they fled from the wrath of the princesses’ brother, Pharaoh Tamose.

      The three of us were seated on the poop deck of the flagship, and we were alone and well beyond earshot of any members of the crew. I addressed myself to both of them.

      ‘I have questions for both of you which I am sure you would rather avoid. You will remember that I had a special affection for the two beautiful young virgins that you coarse ruffians had the gall to steal away from me, their protector, and Pharaoh Tamose, their loving brother.’

      ‘Let me put your mind at rest, for I know just how it works, that lascivious Taita mind.’ Hurotas cut me off before I was able to put to him my first question. ‘They are no longer either young or virgin.’

      Hui chuckled his agreement. ‘However, we love them more with every year that passes for they have proved themselves incomparably loyal, true and prolific. My Bekatha has given me four fine sons.’

      ‘And Tehuti has born me a single daughter who is lovely beyond the telling of it,’ Hurotas boasted, but I was sceptical of such claims because I am well aware that all parents have an inflated opinion of their own offspring. It was not until much later, when I laid eyes for the first time on Hurotas’ and Tehuti’s only daughter, that I realized that he had done her a serious injustice.

      ‘I do not expect that either Tehuti or Bekatha gave you messages to pass on to me.’ I tried not to sound wistful. ‘The chances of us meeting again were remote, and surely their memory of me has faded over the years …’ They would not let me complete my modest disclaimer before both of them burst out laughing.

      ‘Forget you?’ Hurotas demanded through his laughter. ‘It was only with the greatest difficulty that I convinced my wife to remain in Lacedaemon rather than to return to Egypt with us to find her darling Tata.’ It made my heart lurch to hear him mimic her exact rendition of my pet name. ‘She did not even trust me to memorize her messages to you, so she insisted on writing them down on a papyrus scroll for me to deliver to you in person.’

      ‘A papyrus!’ I exclaimed with delight. ‘Where is it? Give it to me at once.’

      ‘Please forgive me, Taita.’ Hurotas looked abashed. ‘But it was really too bulky to carry with me. I had to consider leaving it in Lacedaemon.’ I stared at him in dismay, trying to find the words to castigate him as severely as he deserved. He let me suffer only a little longer, and then he could contain himself no longer and he grinned. ‘I knew what you would think of that idea, Taita! So I have it in my saddlebags, which are in my cabin below.’

      I punched his shoulder harder than was truly necessary. ‘Fetch it at once, you rogue, or else I shall never forgive you.’ Hurotas went below and returned almost immediately carrying a bulky scroll of papyrus. I snatched it out of his hands and carried it to the foredeck where I could be alone and uninterrupted. Gently and almost reverently I broke the seal and unrolled the first leaf so I could read the salutation.

      Nobody that I know of can paint a hieroglyph as artistically as my beloved Tehuti. She had rendered ‘The Falcon With a Broken Wing’, which is my hieroglyph, so that it seemed to be endowed with a life of its own and fly from the painted sheet of papyrus through the mist of tears that filled my eyes, and go straight to my heart.

      The words she wrote touched me so intimately that I cannot bring myself to repeat them to another living soul.

      On the third morning after leaving our moorings below the city of Luxor our flotilla had reached a point only twenty leagues upstream of the Hyksos stronghold of Memphis, which stood on both banks of the Nile. There we beached our galleys, and we unloaded the chariots. The grooms drove up the horses and sorted them into their teams, and the charioteers buckled them into the traces.

      The three of us held a final war council aboard the flagship of the Lacedaemon fleet, during which we once again ran over our plans in minute detail, covering every possible contingency that we might encounter during the assault on Memphis, then I embraced both Hui and Hurotas quickly but fervently and called down the blessing and favours of all the gods upon each of them before we parted company. I set off with my team of chariots for the head of the Red Sea to block the Hyksos escape route from Egypt, while the others continued their voyage northwards until they were in a position to launch their final assault on the stronghold of the Hyksos chieftain, Khamudi.

      When Hurotas and Hui reached the harbour below the city of Memphis they found that Khamudi had already abandoned it and set fire to the shipping moored within its stone jetties. The pall of black smoke from the burning vessels was visible even to me and my charioteers waiting on the border of Egypt at Suez many leagues distant. However, Hurotas and Hui arrived in time to save nearly thirty of the Hyksos galleys from the flames, but of course we had not enough crews to man these valuable ships.

      This is where my squadron of chariots came into play. Within only hours of taking up our stations along the border of Egypt with Suez and the Sinai we were hard at work rounding up the hundreds of refugees who were fleeing from the doomed city of Memphis. Of course each one of them was laden down with their valuables.

      These captives were sorted carefully. The elderly and infirm were first relieved of all their possessions and then allowed to wander away into the Sinai Desert, after being charged never again to return to Egypt. The young and strong were roped together in gangs of ten, and then I started them back towards Memphis and the Nile still carrying their possessions and those of their compatriots who had been allowed to proceed. In the case of the men these captives, no matter how illustrious their rank, were destined to a short life chained on the rowing benches of our galleys, or labouring like beasts of burden in the fields on the banks of the Nile; whereas the younger women – those who were not too grotesquely ugly – would be sent to do service in the public brothels, and the rest of them would find employment in the kitchens or the dungeons of the great mansions of our very Egypt. The roles had been completely reversed, and they would receive the same treatment as they had dealt out to us Egyptians when they had us in their power.

      When we reached the city of Memphis with these doleful lines of captives marching ahead of our chariots we found it under siege by Hurotas’ legions. However, chariots are not the most effective means of siege-breaking, so my dashing charioteers were dismounted and set to tunnelling beneath the walls to excavate a series of breaches to enable us to winkle out Khamudi and his rogues from their sullen lurking within the city.

      Like all sieges this was a dreary and time-consuming exercise. Our army was forced to encamp outside the walls of Memphis for almost six months before, with a rumble and a roar, and a column of dust that was visible for many leagues around, the entire ramparts of the eastern section of the city collapsed upon themselves СКАЧАТЬ