The Crocodile’s Tail stood in flames and with it burned Thoth’s little body, and Merit’s in its loveliness. Their bodies burned among those of butchered slaves so that I could not even preserve them to eternal life. Thoth was my son, and if what I believed was true, the holy blood of the Pharaohs had run in his veins as it ran in mine. If
I had known this, everything would have been different since a man may do for his son what he would not do for himself alone. But now it was too late. I sat in the dust of the street amid the smoke and flying sparks, and the flames from their bodies scorched my face.
Kaptah carried me to Eie and Pepitamon, for the fighting was over. The poor quarter was still in flames, but they sat in judgment on golden thrones on the stone quay, while soldiers and horns led forward prisoners for trial. Everyone caught with a weapon in his hand was hung head downward from the wall, and everyone caught with stolen goods on him was cast into the river to feed the crocodiles. Everyone found wearing the cross of Aton was flogged and sent to forced labor. The women were handed over for the pleasure of the soldiers, and the children were given to Ammon to be brought up in the temples. So death raged by the waterside in Thebes, and Eie showed no mercy for he desired to win the favor of the priests. He said, “I cleanse the evil blood from the land of Egypt!”
Pepitamon was exceedingly wroth because slaves had plundered his house and opened the doors of the cats’ cages. They had taken the cats’ milk and cream home to their children so that the beasts had starved and run wild. He also was merciless, and within two days the walls of the city were crammed with the bodies of men hung by the heels.
In jubilation the priests re-erected the image of Ammon in his temple and made very great sacrifice to him.
Eie appointed Pepitamon governor of Thebes and hastened to Akhetaton to compel Pharaoh Akhnaton to abdicate. He said to me, “Come with me, Sinuhe, for I may need the help of a physician to bow Pharaoh to my will.”
And I answered, “Certainly I will come, Eie, for I desire my pleasure to be full.”
But he did not understand what I meant.
5
Thus I sailed back to Akhetaton with Eie. Away in Tanis Horemheb had also heard of these events, and he made speed to man the warships and hasten up the river to Akhetaton. All was quiet in the cities and villages as he came; the temples were open once more, and the images of the gods had been restored to their places. He hastened to reach Akhetaton at the same time as Eie, to compete with him for power, so he pardoned all slaves who laid down their arms and punished no one who of his own free will exchanged the cross of Aton for Ammon’s horn. The people praised him for his clemency, although it did not come from his heart but rather from his desire to save fit men for the fighting.
Akhetaton was a domain accursed; priests and horns guarded all the roads leading thither and slew every fugitive from it who refused to make sacrifice to Ammon. They had also barred the river with copper chains that none might make his escape that way. I did not recognize the city when I saw it again, for a deathly silence reigned in the streets, the flowers in the parks had withered, and the green grass had turned yellow now that no one watered the gardens. No birds sang in the sun- shriveled trees, and all over the city hung the hideous odor of death. The families of high rank abandoned their houses, and their servants had been the first to flee, leaving all behind them, for no one dared to carry anything with him from the accursed city. The dogs had perished in their kennels, and the horses had starved in their stalls because the fugitive grooms had hamstrung them where they stood. Akhetaton the fair was already a dead city, breathing corruption, when I came.
But Pharaoh Akhnaton and his family lingered in the golden house. The most faithful among his servants had remained with him and also the elder members of the court, who could not conceive of a life elsewhere than with Pharaoh. They knew nothing of what had passed in Thebes because no courier had arrived in Akhetaton for a month. Provisions were running out, and by the will of Pharaoh their only food was the hard bread and the gruel of the poor. The more enterprising speared fish in the river or killed birds with their throwing sticks and ate this food in secret.
Eie the priest sent me first into the presence of Pharaoh, to tell him of all that had happened, because I was Pharaoh’s trusted friend. So I went, but all within me was frozen. I felt neither joy nor sorrow, and even to Akhnaton my heart was closed. He raised his gray, haggard face with its dead eyes and said, ‘Sinuhe, are you the only one to return? Where are all who were faithful to me? Where are those who loved me and whom I loved?”
I said to him, “The old gods rule again in Egypt, and in Thebes the priests make sacrifice to Ammon amid the rejoicing of the people. They have cursed you, Pharaoh Akhnaton, and they have cursed your city. They have cursed your name to all eternity and are already chipping it away from the inscriptions.”
He moved his hand impatiently, and suffering was kindled again in his face as he persisted, “I do not ask what has happened in Thebes. Where are my faithful ones and all whom I loved?”
I answered, “You still have your fair wife Nefertiti. Your children also are with you. Young Sekenre is spearing fish in the river, and Tut is playing at funerals with his dolls as usual. What do you care for any others?”
He answered, “Where is my friend Thothmes, who was your friend also and whom I loved? Where is he, the artist, by whose hand the very stones were imbued with eternal life?”
“He died for your sake, Pharaoh Akhnaton,” I answered. “Negroes transfixed him with a spear and cast his body into the river to be devoured by crocodiles because he was faithful to you. Though he spat on your couch, do not think of that now that the jackal howls in his empty workshop.”
Pharaoh Akhnaton raised his hand as if to brush a spider’s web from his face; then he recited the names of those he had loved. Of some I said, “He died for your sake, Pharaoh Akhnaton.” And at length, “The power of Aton has been crushed. The kingdom of Aton on earth is no more, and Ammon rules again.”
He stared before him, and with an impatient movement of his bloodless hands he said, “Yes, yes. I know. My visions have told me of it all. The eternal kingdom cannot be contained within earthly boundaries. All shall be as before, and fear, hatred, and wrong shall rule the world. Better would it have been if I had died, and best of all if I had never been born to see all the evil that is done on earth.”
His blindness so enraged me that I retorted heatedly, “You have not seen so much as the least part of the evil that has come about for your sake, Pharaoh Akhnaton! You have not seen your son’s blood run over your hands, nor has your heart been frozen by the death cry of your beloved! Therefore your talk is empty, Pharaoh Akhnaton.”
He said wearily, “Go from me then, Sinuhe, since I am evil. Go from me, and suffer no more upon my account. Go from me, for I am weary of your face-I am weary of all men’s faces, for behind them all I see the faces of beasts.”
But I sat on the floor before him and said, “Not so, Pharaoh; I will not go from you, for I will have my full measure. Eie the priest is coming, and at the northern boundary of your city the horns of Horemheb have sounded, and the copper chains that bar the river have been severed that he may sail to you.”
He smiled slightly, threw out his hands, and said, “Eie and Horemheb, crime and violence: these then are my only followers now!”
Thereafter we said no more but listened to the gentle purring of the water clock until Eie the priest and Horemheb entered the presence of Pharaoh. They had disputed violently with one another, and their faces were dark with passion. They breathed heavily, and both talked at once without respect for Pharaoh.