3
Horemheb stayed at my house, sleepless and haggard. His eyes grew more somber every day, and he had no stomach for the food Muti repeatedly set before him. Muti, like many other women, was greatly taken with Horemheb and had more respect for him than for myself, who, learning or no learning, was nothing but a flabby- muscled man.
Horemheb said, “What do I care for either Ammon or Aton? But they have let my men run wild so that many backs must come under my lash and heads must fall before I can bring them to their senses. And this is a great pity, for they are good fighting men when disciplined.”
Kaptah grew richer every day, and his face shone with grease. He now spent his nights at the Crocodile’s Tail, for the officers and sergeants of the Shardanas paid for their drams with gold, and in the back rooms of the tavern lay ever growing heaps of stolen treasure, jewels and coffers and mats, which the customers gave in exchange for wine without asking about the price. No one attacked the house, and thieves walked wide of it, for it was guarded by Horemheb’s men.
By the third day my stock of medicines was exhausted, and it was impossible to buy more, even for gold. My arts were vain in the face of the disease that spread through the poor quarter from the corpses and foul water. I was tired, and my heart was like a wound in my breast, and my eyes were bloodshot from lack of sleep. I was sickened with everything-with the poor, with wounds, with Aton-and I went to the Crocodile’s Tail where I drank mixed wine until I fell alseep.
In the morning Merit roused me; I was lying on her mat with her beside me. Deeply ashamed I said to her, “Life is like a cold night, but truly it is sweet when two lonely mortals keep one another warm, though their hands and eyes tell lies for the sake of their friendship.”
She yawned sleepily.
“How do you know that my hands and eyes are lying? I am weary of smiting soldiers over the fingers and kicking their shins; here by your side, Sinuhe, is the only safe place in the city-a place where no one will lay a hand on me. Why this should be I cannot tell, and I am a little offended, for I am said to be beautiful nor is there anything amiss with my belly, though you have not deigned to look at it.”
I drank the beer she offered me, to clear my aching head, and found nothing to say. She looked into my eyes with a smile, though in the depths of her brown ones sorrow lay still, like the dark waters at the bottom of a well.
She said, “Sinuhe, I would help you if I could, and I know that in this city there is a woman who owes you an immeasurable debt. In these days roofs are floors, and doors open outward, and payment for many old debts is demanded in the streets. Perhaps it would do you good also to go adunning and so lose the belief that every woman is a wilderness.”
I said that I had never believed this of her, but I went and her words remained with me, for I was but human. My heart was swollen with the sight of carnage, and I had tasted the frenzy of hatred so that I was afraid for myself. I remembered the temple of the cat and the house beside it though time had drifted like sand over these memories. But during the days of terror the dead rose from their graves and I remembered my father Senmut in his tenderness and my good mother Kipa; there was a taste of blood in my mouth as I thought of them. At this time no 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.