ite power, but was
at this time in the possession of the Rutennu (Syrians). They were
strongly posted at the mouth of a narrow pass, behind the ridge of hills
which connects Carmel with the Samaritan upland, and Thothmes was
advised by his captains to avoid a direct attack, and march against them
by a circuitous route, which was undefended. But the intrepid warrior
scorned this prudent counsel. "His generals," he said, "might take the
roundabout road, if they liked; _he_ would follow the straight one." The
event justified his determination. Megiddo was reached in a week without
loss or difficulty, and a great battle was fought in the fertile plain
to the north-west of the fortress, in which the Egyptian king was
completely victorious, and his enemies were scattered like chaff before
him. The Syrians must have fled precipitately at the first attack; for
they lost in killed no more than eighty-three, and in prisoners no more
than two hundred and forty, or according to another account three
hundred and forty, while the chariots taken were nine hundred and
twenty-four, and the captured horses 2,132. Megiddo was near at hand,
and the bulk of the fugitives would reach easily the shelter of its
walls. Others may have dispersed themselves among the mountains. The
Syrian camp was, however, taken, together with vast treasures in silver
and gold, lapis lazuli, turquoise, and alabaster; and the son of the
king of Kadesh fell into Thothmes' hands. Megiddo itself, soon
afterwards, surrendered, as did the towns of Inunam, Anaugas, and
Hurankal or Herinokol. An immense booty in corn and cattle was also
carried off. Thothmes returned to Egypt in triumph, and held a prolonged
festival to Ammon-Ra in Thebes, accompanied by numerous sacrifices and
offerings. Among the last we find included three of the cities taken
from the Rutennu, which were assigned to the god in order that they
might "supply a yearly contribution to his sacred food."

It is a familiar saying, that "increase of appetite doth grow by what it
feeds on." Thothmes certainly found his appetite for conquest whetted,
not satiated, by his Syrian campaign. If we may trust M. Lenormant, he
took the field in the very year that followed his victory of Megiddo,
and after traversing the whole of Syria, and ravaging the country about
Aleppo, proceeded to Carchemish, the great Hittite town on the Upper
Euphrates, and there crossed the river into Naharain, or Mesopotamia,
whence he carr