Prince Ahmose, his clothes covered with dust, his face smeared with grime, and his forehead dripping with sweat, said, “I am looking forward to plunging into battles more terrible than that.”
Kamose, throwing at his lovely face a look of admiration, said, “You will not have to wait long.”
The king then descended from his chariot, his men following, and took a few steps that brought him into the midst of the corpses of the Herdsmen. He looked at them and, seeing that the blood that had gushed from them had stained their white skin and that arrows and lances had lacerated it, he said, “Do not imagine that this blood is the blood of our enemies: it is the blood of our people whom they sucked dry and left to die of hunger.”
Kamose's face was drawn, hidden behind a dark mask of sorrow. Raising his head to the heavens, he murmured, “May your soul, my dear father, live in peace and felicity!”
Then he looked at those about him, and said in a voice bespeaking strength and courage, “Our strength will be tested in two fierce battles, at Thebes and at Avaris. If victory there be ours, we shall have cleansed the motherland of the Herdsmen forever and restored Egypt to the days of glorious Amen-hotep. When, then, shall we stand as we do now, on the corpses of the defenders of Avaris?”
The king turned to go back to his chariot and, at that very moment, one of the bodies sprang upright with the speed of lightning, aimed its bow at the king, and let fly. Nothing could prevent what was fated and none could strike the warrior before he released his arrow, which struck the king's chest. The men let out a yell of alarm and fired their arrows at the Hyksos warrior, then hurried to the king with hearts full of horror and pity as a deep sigh issued from Kamose's chest. Then he staggered like one intoxicated and fell in front of the crown prince, who cried, “Bring a litter and call the physician!”
He bent his head over his father and said in a trembling voice, “Father, Father, can you not speak to us?”
The physician came quickly and the litter with him, and they picked the king up and laid him on it with exquisite care. The physician knelt at his side and set to removing the king's armor and his upper garment, so as to reveal his chest. The entourage surrounded the litter in silence, their eyes darting from the wan face of the king to that of the physician. News spread through the field, and the noise died down. Then a heavy silence reigned, as though all that mighty army had been obliterated.
The physician tugged on the arrow and the blood immediately started gushing copiously from the wound. The king's face contracted with the pain and the eyes of the prince darkened in sorrow as he murmured to Hur, “Dear God, the king is in pain.”
The man washed the wound and placed herbs on it but the king showed no improvement and his limbs shook visibly. Then he sighed deeply and opened his eyes, with a dark, lifeless look. Ahmose's breast tightened still more and he said to himself in a plaintive voice, “How you have changed, Father!” The king's eyes moved until they fell on Ahmose, a smile appeared in them, and he said in a voice so weak as barely to be audible, “A moment ago I thought I was going on to Avaris but the Lord wishes my journey to end here, at the gates of Ombos.”
In a sorrowing voice, Ahmose cried out, “Let Him take my soul for yours, Father!”
The king returned in his weak voice, “Never! Take care of yourself, for you are much needed! Be more cautious than I and remember always that you must not give up the struggle until Avaris, the Herdsmen's last fortress, has fallen and the enemy has withdrawn from our lands to the last man!”
The physician feared for the king because of the effort that he was making in speaking and gestured at him to say no more, but the king was lost in a higher realm of experience, that which divides extinction from immortality, and he said in a voice whose accents had changed and which fell strangely on their ears, “Say to Tetisheri that I went to my father a brave man like him!”
He stretched out his hand to his son and the prince went down on his knees and held him to his breast, the king clinging to his shoulder for a while in farewell. Then his fingers relaxed and he surrendered his spirit.
4
The physician covered the body and the men prostrated themselves about it in a prayer of farewell, then rose as though drunk with sorrow. Chamberlain Hur sent out a call for the battalion commanders and upper officers and when they appeared addressed them as follows: “Comrades, it grieves me to announce to you the death of our brave sovereign, Kamose. He was martyred on the field of battle, fighting for Egypt, as was his father before him, and, snatched from our bosoms, has been transported to dwell next to Osiris. But first he left it as his testament to us that we cease not the struggle until Avaris has fallen and the enemy withdrawn from our lands. As chamberlain of this noble family, I offer you my condolences for this mighty loss and announce to you the succession of our new sovereign and glorious commander, Ahmose son of Kamose, son of Seqenenra, may the Lord preserve him and grant him clear victory!”
The commanders saluted the king's body and bowed to Ahmose, the new king, and the chamberlain gave them permission to go back to their troops and announce the death and succession.
Hur, consumed by grief, ordered the soldiers to raise the litter on their shoulders. Drying his eyes, he said, “May your sublime soul live in happiness and peace next to Osiris! You were on the verge of entering Ombos at the head of your victorious army but the Lord has decreed that you should enter it on your bier. However it be, you are the noblest among us.”
The army entered Ombos in its traditional order, the king's bier at its head. The grievous news had spread throughout the city and the rapture of victory and the anguish of death were drunk in a single draught. Multitudinous throngs came from every place to welcome the Army of Deliverance and bid farewell to their departed sovereign with hearts confused between joy and sorrow. When the people saw the new king, Ahmose, they prostrated themselves in silent submission but not a cheer went up that day. The priests of Ombos received the mighty body and Ahmose withdrew from public view and wrote a letter to Tetisheri as his father had bidden him and sent it with a messenger.
Dispatch riders brought news of the fleet that was both pleasing and sad. They said that the Egyptian fleet had defeated the Herdsmen's and taken some of its units captive; however, the commander, Qumkaf, had fallen and officer Ahmose, having taken the helm after the commander's death, had achieved total victory and killed the Herdsmen's commander with his own hand in a fierce battle. To reward Ahmose Ebana, the king issued an order giving him command of the fleet.
Following his father's wise policy, he made his friend Ham governor of Ombos and charged him to organize it and induct the able-bodied there into the army. The king said to Hur, “We shall advance quickly with our troops, for, if the Herdsmen tormented our people in time of peace, they will double their sufferings in time of war. We must make the period of suffering as short as we can.”
The king summoned Governor Ham and told him before his entourage and commanders, “Know that I promised myself from the day that I went to Egypt dressed as a trader that I would take Egypt for the Egyptians. Let that then be our motto in ruling this country; and let your guiding principle be to cleanse it of the whites, so that from this day on none but an Egyptian may rule here and none but an Egyptian may hold property, and that the land be Pharaoh's land and the peasants his deputies in its exploitation, the ones taking by right what they need to guarantee them a life of plenty, the other taking what is in excess of their needs to spend on the public good. All Egyptians are equal before the law and none of them shall be raised above his brother except by merit; and the only slaves in this country shall be the Herdsmen. Finally, I commend to you the body of my father, to perform for it its sacred rites.”