nch the Hittites were forced back
upon the river. Their King stood ingloriously on the opposite bank,
unable to do anything. It was too late for him to try to move his
spearmen across--they would only have been trampled down by the
retreating chariots. At last a great shout from the rear announced the
arrival of the third Egyptian brigade, and, the little knot of brave men
who had saved the day still leading, the army swept the broken Hittites
down the bank of the Orontes into the river.

Great was the confusion and the slaughter. As the chariots struggled
through the ford, the Egyptian bowmen, spread out along the bank, picked
off the chiefs. The two brothers of the Hittite King, the chief of his
bodyguard, his shield-bearer, and his chief scribe, were all killed. The
King of Aleppo missed the ford, and was swept down the river; but some
of his soldiers dashed into the water, rescued him, and, in rough first
aid, held the half-drowned leader up by the heels, to let the water
drain out of him. The Hittite King picked up his broken fugitives,
covered them with his mass of spearmen, and moved reluctantly off the
field where so splendid a chance of victory had been missed, and turned
into defeat. The Egyptians were too few and too weary to attempt to
cross the river in pursuit, and they retired to the camp of the first
brigade.

Then Pharaoh called his Captains before him. The troops stood around,
leaning on their spears, ashamed of their conduct in the earlier part of
the day, and wondering at the grim signs of conflict that lay on every
side. King Ramses called Menna to him, and, handing the reins to a
groom, the young charioteer came bowing before his master. Pharaoh
stripped from his own royal neck a collar of gold, and fastened it round
the neck of his faithful squire; and, while the Generals and Captains
hung their heads for shame, the King told them how shamefully they had
left him to fight his battle alone, and how none had stood by him but
the young charioteer. "As for my two horses," he said, "they shall be
fed before me every day in the royal palace."

[Illustration: PLATE 5.
ZAZAMANKH AND THE LOST CORONET.]

Both armies had suffered too much loss for any further strife to be
possible, and a truce was agreed upon. The Hittites drew off to the
north, and the Egyptians marched back again to Egypt, well aware that
they had gained little or nothing by all their efforts, but thankful
that they had been saved fro