tightly held the reins, and with his right the shield which
was to protect his sovereign in the fight.

The king stood like a storm-proof oak, and Mena by his side like a
sapling ash.

The eastern horizon was rosy with the approaching sun-rise when they
quitted the precincts of the camp; at this moment the pioneer Paaker
advanced to meet the king, threw himself on the ground before him, kissed
the earth, and, in answer to the king's question as to why he had come
without his brother, told him that Horus was taken suddenly ill. The
shades of dawn concealed from the king the guilty color, which changed to
sallow paleness, on the face of the pioneer--unaccustomed hitherto to
lying and treason.

"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 an