is
march towards Khalupu. The enemy had considerable forces at their
disposal, and on the day of the engagement they placed 18,000 to 20,000
picked soldiers in the field.* Besides a well-disciplined infantry, they
possessed 2500 to 3000 chariots, containing, as was the Asiatic custom,
three men in each.**

* An army corps is reckoned as containing 9000 men on the
wall scenes at Luxor, and 8000 at the Eamesseum; the 3000
chariots were manned by 9000 men. In allowing four to five
thousand men for the rest of the soldiers engaged, we are
not likely to be far wrong, and shall thus obtain the modest
total mentioned in the text, contrary to the opinion current
among historians.

* The mercenaries are included in these figures, as is shown
by the reckoning of the Lycian, Dardanian, and Pedasian
chiefs who were in command of the chariots during the
charges against Ramses II.

The Egyptian camp was not entirely broken up, when the scouts brought
in two spies whom they had seized--Asiatics in long blue robes arranged
diagonally over one shoulder, leaving the other bare. The king, who was
seated on his throne delivering his final commands, ordered them to
be beaten till the truth should be extracted from them. They at last
confessed that they had been despatched to watch the departure of the
Egyptians, and admitted that the enemy was concealed in ambush behind
the town. Ramses hastily called a council of war and laid the situation
before his generals, not without severely reprimanding them for the
bad organisation of the intelligence department. The officers excused
themselves as best they could, and threw the blame on the provincial
governors, who had not been able to discover what was going on. The king
cut short these useless recriminations, sent swift messengers to recall
the divisions which had started early that morning, and gave orders
that all those remaining in camp should hold themselves in readiness to
attack. The council were still deliberating when news was brought that
the Hittites were in sight.

[Illustration: 195.jpg TWO HITTITE SPIES BEATEN BY THE EGYPTIAN
SOLDIERS]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the picture in the temple at
Abu Simbel.

Their first onslaught was so violent that they threw down one side of
the camp wall, and penetrated into the enclosure. Ramses charged them at
the head of his household troops. Eight times he engaged the cha