It was now I learned how childish my revenge had been since Nefernefernefer returned unharmed from the House of Death richer than before and, as I believe, suffered no ill effects from her stay save the smell, which soaked into her body and for some time prevented her from plying her trade. My revenge had eaten at my own heart and left her unharmed. When I knew this, I knew also that revenge brings no satisfaction. Its sweetness is brief and it turns against the avenger, to eat at his heart like fire.
BOOK 11
Merit
1
Everyone has seen water running from a water clock. So also does human life trickle away, though it is measured not by water but by events. This is a profound truth, to be grasped only in old age when a man’s time runs away to nothing, in monotony. A single day in an eventful period leaves its mark upon him and can seem longer than a year or so of monotonous labor that leaves his heart unchanged. I learned this truth in the city of Akhetaton, where my time flowed smoothly by like the current of the Nile and my life was a brief dream-a lovely, fading song. The ten years I spent in the shadow of Pharaoh Akhnaton in the golden palace of the new city were shorter than any one of the years of my youth: those years of travel and of change.
At Akhetaton I added nothing either to my wisdom or to my science; rather I drew on what I had gathered in so many countries, as a bee survives the winter on the honey it has stored up in the comb. Yet, as running water alters the shape of a stone, so time may have changed my heart; though of this I remained unaware. I was less lonely than before. I may have grown quieter, less puffed up over myself and my talents, though I can claim no credit for this; it was because Kaptah no longer lived with me, but was far away in Thebes, where he managed my property and the Crocodile’s Tail.
The city of Akhetaton shut itself away within the dreams and visions of Pharaoh and was unconcerned with the outside world. All that happened beyond Aton’s boundary stones was as remote and unreal as moonlight upon water. The only reality was what took place within the city of Akhetaton. Yet in looking back upon it now one sees that the opposite may have been true: Akhetaton and its doings were but shadow and illusion, while reality lay in the hunger, suffering, and death beyond its borders. For all that was unpleasing to Akhnaton was hidden from him, and when any matter arose in which a decision from him was necessary, it was presented to him as it were, veiled and sweetened, and with gentleness, lest the sickness in his head return.
During this time Eie the priest ruled in Thebes as bearer of the crook on the King’s right hand. Pharaoh had left behind him all such administrative duties as were tedious or unpleasant, placing full trust in Eie, who was his father-in-law-and a man of great ambitions. Eie was the true ruler of the Two Kingdoms, since all that touched on the life of the common people, whether farmers or townsmen, lay in his hands. Once Ammon had been overthrown, no power was left to rival that of Pharaoh-which was Eie’s-and Eie hoped that the disturbances would soon subside. Nothing could have been more to his mind than the city of Akhetaton, which kept Pharaoh far away from Thebes. He did what he could to collect funds for the building of it and for its adornment and was continually sending lavish gifts to render Akhetaton still more acceptable to Pharaoh. Peace might have come again and all have been as before-save for Ammon only-but for the fact that Pharaoh was a stumbling block to Eie.
Eie’s government was shared by Horemheb in Memphis, who was answerable for security and good order throughout the country. His ultimately was the power behind the rods of the tax gatherers and behind the hammers that hewed away the name of Ammon from all images and inscriptions and penetrated the very tombs for this purpose. Pharaoh Akhnaton permitted the tomb of his own father to be opened so that the name of Ammon might be effaced from its inscription. Nor did Eie oppose him so long as he remained content with such innocent pastimes. He preferred the thoughts of Pharaoh to be engaged in religious matters which did not affect the everyday life of the people.
For some time after the days of terror in Thebes, Egypt lay calm as a summer lake. Eie delegated the collection of revenues to his chief officers, which saved him much trouble. These leased taxation rights to the tax gatherers of cities and villages and substantially enriched themselves. If the poor bewailed their lot and bestrewed their heads with ashes when the tax gatherers visited them, it was no more than they had done in every age.
In Akhetaton the birth of a fourth daughter was a greater misfortune than the fall of Smyrna. Queen Nefertiti began to suspect that she was the victim of witchcraft and went to Thebes to seek help from her mother’s Negro sorcerers. It was indeed strange for a woman to give birth to four girls and not a single boy. Nevertheless it was her fate to give Pharaoh Akhnaton six daughters in all and no son-and her fate was bound with his.
As time went on, the tidings from Syria grew ever more alarming. Whenever a courier ship berthed, I went to the King’s archives to study the latest tablets with their renewed appeals for help. As I read them, I seemed to hear the singing of arrows past my ears and smell the smoke of burning houses. Through the respectful phrases I could hear the shrieks of the dying and of mutilated children. The men of Amurru were brutal, and they had been schooled in the arts of war by Hittite officers. Not one single garrison in Syria was able to withstand them. I read messages from the King of Byblos and the Prince of Jerusalem. They pleaded their age and their fidelity; they invoked the memory of the late Pharaoh and their friendship for Akhetaton in their appeals for help, until Pharaoh was weary of their supplications and sent their letters to the archives unread.
When Jerusalem had fallen, the last of the faithful cities capitulated, Joppa also, and formed alliances with King Aziru. Then Horemheb journeyed from Memphis to have audience of Pharaoh and to demand from him an army with which to organize resistance in Syria. Hitherto he had but carried on a secret war with letters and money, in order to save at least one outpost in that country.
He said to Pharaoh Akhnaton, “Let me hire at least one hundred times one hundred spearmen and archers, and a hundred chariots, and I will win back Syria for you. Now that even Joppa has yielded, Egyptian power in Syria is lost.”
Pharaoh Akhnaton was greatly cast down when he heard that Jerusalem had been destroyed, for he had already taken steps to make it a city of Aton, to pacify Syria. He said, “This old man in Jerusalem-I cannot just now recall his name-was a friend of my father’s. When I was a boy, I saw him in the golden house at Thebes, and he had a long beard. By way of compensation I will pension him out of Egyptian funds although the revenues have notably diminished since trade with Syria ceased.”
“He is hardly in a condition to enjoy a pension,” returned Horemheb dryly. “An exquisite bowl ornamented with gold has been fashioned of his skull, at Aziru’s command and sent by him as a gift to King Shubbiluliuma in Hattushash-unless my spies are very much in error.”
Pharaoh’s countenance went gray, and his eyes were bloodshot, but mastering his agony, he said quietly, “I find it hard to believe such a thing of King Aziru, whom I considered my friend and who so willingly received the cross of life at my hands. But perhaps I have been mistaken in him and his heart is blacker than I supposed. But, Horemheb, you desire of me an impossibility in asking for spears and chariots, for already the people are complaining at the taxes and the harvest has been less abundant than I hoped.”