Part 35 (1/2)

Like a black torrent we rushed down the hill, leaping over the dead and wounded The retreat becareat-eyed warriors the soft Easterns did not care to stand They fled screa,

”These are devils! These are devils!”

We were a with the short swords upon their heads and backs There was no need to aim the blow, they were so many Like a huddled mob of cattle they turned and fled down Nile But rowing crops on the narrow neck of swampy land between the hills and the Nile, met them with arrows as they came, also raked them from the steep cliff side Their chariot wheels sank into the mud till the horses were slain; their foothty wall of dead and dying And our centre and rearguard came up behind Oh! we slew and slew, till before the sun was an hour high over half the ar suffered but little loss, and drank of the water of the Nile

”All is not done,” I cried

For the Iathered inAlso there were many thousands of others between these and the walls of Amada, and to the south of the city yet a second army, that hich Bes had been left to deal, hat success I knew not

”Ethiopians,” I shouted, ”cease crying Victory, since the battle is about to begin Strike, and at once before the Easterns find their heart again”

So we advanced upon the Iuard had joined our strength

In long lines we advanced over that blood-soaked plain, and as we caainst us It availed hi, since the horses could not face our arrohereof, thanks be to the Gods! I had prepared so ample a store, carried in bundles by lads Scarce a chariot reached our lines, and those that did were destroyed, leaving us unbroken

The chariots were done with and their drivers dead, but there still frowned the squares of the Immortals We shot at thealled to ed We did not wait for the points of those long spears, but ran in beneath therim and desperate was that battle, since the Easterns were clad in mail and the Ethiopians had but short jerkins of bull's hide

Fight as ould ere driven back The fray turned against us and we fell by hundreds I bethought ht to the hills, since noere outnureat shouting rose froates poured forth all that rehteen or twenty thousand ain

”Stand firyptians were on therees the battle swayed towards the banks of Nile, we to the north, the Egyptians to the south and the Easterns between us They were trying to turn our flank; yes, and would have done it, had there not suddenly appeared upon the Nile a fleet of shi+ps At first I thought that ere lost, for these shi+ps were from Greece and Cyprus, till I saw the banner of the Grasshopper wave from a prow, and knew that they were one out to burn the fleet, and had saved these vessels They beached and from their crowded holds poured the five thousand, or those that were left of the themselves upon the bank, raised their war-shout and attacked the ends of the Easterns' lines

Noe charged for the last tied from the south Ha-ha! the ranks of the I them I saw Pharaoh, his _uraeus_ circlet on his helm He ounded and sore beset A tall Immortal rushed at him with a spear and drove it home

Pharaoh fell

I leapt over him and killed that Eastern with a blow upon the neck, but my sword shattered on his armour The tide of battle rolled up and swept us apart and I saw Pharaoh being carried away Look! yonder was the Great King hi in all his glory whom last I had seen far away in the East He knew ht yptian!”

His arrow pierced my helm but missed my head I strove to coan The Iroups fighting desperately and of these the thickest was around the Great King He whom I hated was about to escape ain his reserves and so away back to the East, where he would gather new and yet larger armies, since men in millions were at his coypt when perchance there were no Ethiopians to help her, and perhaps after all drag Ah and already I was far aith a wound inand a shattered sword

What could I do? My arroere spent and the bearers had none left to give me No, there was one still in the quiver I drew it out On its shaft were two black feathers and one white Who had spoken of that arrow? I res that he had said when I noted what it pierced I unslung

By now the Great King was far away, out of reach forahead auards and the nobles who attended on his sacred person, travelled over a little rise where doubtless once there had been a village, long since rotted down to its parent clay The sunlight glinted on his shi+ning armour and silken robe, whereof the back was toward me

I aimed, I drew, I loosed! Swift and far the shaft sped forward By Osiris! it struck his, the Monarch of the World, lurched forward, fell on to the rail of his chariot, and rolled to the ground Next instant there arose a roar of, ”The King is dead! The Great King is dead! _Fly, fly, fly!_”

So they fled and after the till they could lift their arh the men of Thebes and country folk murdered many of them and but a few ever won back to the East to tell the tale of the blotting out of the s and of the dooyptian

I stood there gasping, when suddenly I heard a voice at my side It said,

”You seem to have done very well, Brother, even better than we did yonder on the other side of the town, though so Also that last shot of yours orthy of a good archer, for I reat lord was laid low thereby Let us go and see who it was”

I threwon hi lay alone save for the fallen about him