“How is it with the enemy?” asked Rameses.

“He is aware,” replied Paaker, “that a fight is impending, and is collecting numberless hosts in the camps to the south and east of the city.  If thou could’st succeed in falling on the rear from the north of Kadesh, while the foot soldiers seize the camp of the Asiatics from the south, the fortress will be thine before night.  The mountain path that thou must follow, so as not to be discovered, is not a bad one.”

“Are you ill as well as your brother, man?” asked the king.  “Your voice trembles.”

“I was never better,” answered the Mohar.

Lead the way,” commanded the king, and Paaker obeyed.  They went on in silence, followed by the vast troop of chariots through the dewy morning air, first across the plain, and then into the mountain range.  The corps of Ra, armed with bows and arrows, preceeded them to clear the way; they crossed the narrow bed of a dry torrent, and then a broad valley opened before them, extending to the right and left and enclosed by ranges of mountains.

“The road is good,” said Rameses, turning to Mena.  “The Mohar has learned his duties from his father, and his horses are capital.  Now he leads the way, and points it out to the guards, and then in a moment he is close to us again.”

“They are the golden-bays of my breed,” said Mena, and the veins started angrily in his forehead.  “My stud-master tells me that Katuti sent them to him before his departure.  They were intended for Nefert’s chariot, and he drives them to-day to defy and spite me.”

“You have the wife—­let the horses go,” said Rameses soothingly.

Suddenly a blast of trumpets rang through the morning air; whence it came could not be seen, and yet it sounded close at hand.

Rameses started up and took his battle-axe from his girdle, the horses pricked their ears, and Mena exclaimed: 

“Those are the trumpets of the Cheta!  I know the sound.”

A closed wagon with four wheels in which the king’s lions were conveyed, followed the royal chariot.  “Let loose the lions!” cried the king, who heard an echoing war cry, and soon after saw the vanguard which had preceded him, and which was broken up by the chariots of the enemy, flying towards him down the valley again.

The wild beasts shook their manes and sprang in front of their master’s chariot with loud roars.  Mena lashed his whip, the horses started forward and rushed with frantic plunges towards the fugitives, who however could not be brought to a standstill, or rallied by the king’s voice—­the enemy were close upon them, cutting them down.

“Where is Paaker?” asked the king.  But the pioneer had vanished as completely as if the earth had swallowed him and his chariot.

The flying Egyptians and the death-dealing chariots of the enemy came nearer and nearer, the ground trembled, the tramp of hoofs and the roar of wheels sounded louder and louder, like the roll of a rapidly approaching storm.