The man replied, “Indeed not, my lord.”
Ahmose spread open the message, which was sent by Tetisheri, and read:
My lord, aided in triumph by the spirit of the Lord Amun and His blessings, may the Lord grant that this letter of mine reach you to whom Thebes has opened its gates so that you might enter at the head of the Army of Deliverance to tend to its wounded and make happy the souls of Seqenenra and Kamose. For ourselves, we shall not leave Dabod. I have thought long about the matter and have found that the best way for us to share with our tormented people in their pain is to remain in our exile where we are now, living the agonies of separation and homesickness until such time as we smash the shackles that bind them and they are relieved of their trials, and we may enter Egypt in security and take part with them in their happiness and peace. Go on your way aided by the Lord's care, liberate the cities, suppress the fortresses, and cleanse the land of Egypt of its enemy, leaving it not one single foothold on its soil. Then summon us and we shall come in safety.
Ahmose raised his head and folded the message, saying discontentedly, “Tetisheri says that she will not enter Egypt until we expel from it the last Herdsman.”
Hur said, “Our Sacred Mother does not want us to cease fighting until we have liberated Egypt.”
The king nodded his head in agreement and Hur asked, “Will my lord not enter Thebes this evening?”
Ahmose said, “I will not, Hur. My army shall enter on its own. As for me, I shall enter it with my family when we have thrown out the Herdsmen. We shall enter it together as we left it, ten years ago.”
“Its people will suffer great disappointment!”
“Tell anyone who asks after me that I pursue the Herdsmen, to throw them beyond our sacred borders; and let those who love me follow me!”
14
The king returned to the royal tent. It had been his intention to issue an order to his commanders telling them to enter the city in their traditional fashion, to the tunes of the military band. However, an army officer came and said, “My Lord, a group of the leaders of the uprising have charged me to ask permission for them to appear before you and offer your High Person gifts chosen from the spoils they took during the uprising.”
Ahmose smiled and asked the officer, “Have you come from the city?”
“Indeed, sir.”
“Have the doors of Amun's temple been opened?”
“By the insurgents, my lord.”
“And why has the Chief Priest not come to greet me?”
“They say, my lord, that he has sworn that he will not leave his retreat so long as there is a single Herdsman in Egypt — who is not either a slave or a captive.”
The king smiled and said, “Good. Call my people.”
The man left the tent and went to the city. He returned followed by large numbers of people walking company by company, each pushing before it its gift. The officer asked permission for the first company to enter and a band of Egyptians, naked but for kilts around their waists, did so, their faces bespeaking hardship and poverty. They were pushing before them some Herdsmen with bared heads, matted beards, and brows stained with grime. The Egyptians prostrated themselves to the king until their foreheads touched the ground. When they raised their faces to him, he saw that their eyes were flooded with tears of happiness and joy. Their leader said, “Lord Ahmose, son of Kamose, son of Seqenenra, Pharaoh of Egypt, its liberator and protector, and the lofty branch ofthat towering tree whose roots were martyred for the sake of Thebes the Glorious, who came to bring us mercy and make amends for our past ill-treatment…”
Ahmose said, smiling, “Welcome, my noble people, whose hopes are my hopes, whose pains spring from the same source as mine, and the color of whose skin is as the color of my skin!”
The faces of the people lit up with a radiant light and their leader now addressed the Herdsmen, saying, “Prostrate yourselves to Pharaoh, you lowest of his slaves!”
The men prostrated themselves without uttering a word. The leader said, “My lord, these Herdsmen are among those who took over estates without right, as though they had inherited them from their forefathers generation after generation. They humiliated the Egyptians, treated them unjustly, and demanded of them the most onerous tasks for the most miserly pittance. They made them prey to poverty, hunger, sickness, and ignorance. When they called to them, they addressed them contemptuously as ‘peasants’ and they pretended that they were granting them a favor by letting them live. These are yesterday's tyrants and today's captives. We have driven them to your High Person as the most abject of your slaves.”
The king smiled and said, “I thank you, my people, for your gift, and I congratulate you on the recovery of your sovereignty and your liberty.”
The men prostrated themselves to their sovereign a second time and left the tent, the soldiers driving the Herdsmen to the captives’ enclosure. Then a second company entered, a man of huge stature with a brilliantly white complexion and torn clothes walking before them. Whips had left clear marks on his back and arms and he fell in exhaustion before the king, to the indifference of his tormentors, who prostrated themselves long before their sovereign. One of them said, “My lord, Pharaoh of Egypt, son of the Lord Amun! This evil man, dressed in the garments of abjection, was the chief of police of Thebes and used to flay our backs with his cruel whip for the most trivial of reasons. The Lord placed him in our possession and we flayed his back with our whips until his skin was in tatters. We have brought him to the king's camp that he be added to his slaves.”
The king dismissed the man, the soldiers took him away, and the king thanked his people for what they had done.
The king gave permission for the third company to enter. They approached him, driving before them a man whom the king recognized as soon as he set eyes upon him. It was Samnut, Judge of Thebes and brother of Khanzar. The king looked at him calmly, while Samnut looked at him in astonishment with anxious, startled, scarce-believing eyes. The men greeted the king and their spokesman said, “To you, Pharaoh, we bring him who yesterday was Judge of Thebes. He swore by justice but meted out only injustice. Now he has been made to drink of injustice, that he may taste that whereof he gave the innocent to drink.”
Ahmose said, addressing his words to the judge, “Samnut, all your life you sat in judgment over the Egyptians; now prepare yourself for them to sit in judgment over you.”
Then he handed him over to his soldiers and thanked his loyal men.
The last company came. It was very excited and boiling over with anger. In its midst was a person whom they had wrapped in a linen covering from head to foot. They saluted the king with cheers, and their spokesman said, “Pharaoh of Egypt and protector and avenger of the Egyptians, we are some of those whose — wives and children the Herdsmen took to use as shields in the battle for Thebes. The Lord wished to avenge us on the tyrant Apophis and we attacked his women's quarters during his retreat, and there we kidnapped one who is dearer to him than his own soul. We have brought her to you that you may revenge yourself on her for what was done to our women.”
The man approached the person hidden in the linen wrap and ripped the covering from her, revealing a woman, naked but for a diaphanous skirt around her waist. She was white, pure as light, and hair like threads of gold floated around her head, while exasperation, fury, and pride showed in her bewitching face. Ahmose turned pale. He gazed at her and she at him. Then confusion appeared on his face, and on hers an astonishment that wiped away the exasperation, fury, and pride. He murmured in an inaudible voice, still shocked, “Princess Amenridis!”
Hur took off his cloak, went up to the woman, and threw it over her. Ahmose shouted at his men, “Why have you maltreated this woman?”