itives meanwhile were able to enter the town. Either there was
insufficient provision for so many mouths, or the enemy had lost all
heart from the disaster; at any rate, further resistance appeared
useless. The next morning Khatusaru sent to propose a truce or peace to
the victorious Pharaoh. The Egyptians had probably suffered at least
as much as their adversaries, and perhaps regarded the eventuality of
a siege with no small distaste; Ramses, therefore, accepted the offers
made to him and prepared to return to Egypt. The fame of his exploits
had gone before him, and he himself was not a little proud of the energy
he had displayed on the day of battle. His predecessors had always shown
themselves to be skilful generals and brave soldiers, but none of them
had ever before borne, or all but borne, single-handed the brunt of an
attack. Ramses loaded his shield-bearer Manna with rewards for having
stood by him in the hour of danger, and ordered abundant provender and
sumptuous harness for the good horses--"Strength-in-Thebaid" and "Nurit
the satisfied"--who had drawn his chariot.*

* A gold ring in the Louvre bears in relief on its bezel two
little horses; which are probably "Strength-in-Thebaid"and
"Nurit satisfied."

He determined that the most characteristic episodes of the campaign--the
beating of the spies, the surprise of the camp, the king's repeated
charges, the arrival of his veterans, the flight of the Syrians, and the
surrender of Qodshu--should be represented on the walls and pylons of
the temples. A poem in rhymed strophes in every case accompanies
these records of his glory, whether at Luxor, at the Eamesseum, at the
Memnonium of Abydos, or in the heart of Nubia at Abu Simbel. The author
of the poem must have been present during the campaign, or must have had
the account of it from the lips of his sovereign, for his work bears no
traces of the coldness of official reports, and a warlike strain runs
through it from one end to the other, so as still to invest it with life
after a lapse of more than thirty centuries.*

* The author is unknown: Pentaur, or rather Pentauirit, to
whom E. de Rouge attributed the poem, is merely the
transcriber of the copy we possess on papyrus.

But little pains are bestowed on the introduction, and the poet does not
give free vent to his enthusiasm until the moment when he describes
his hero, left almost alone, charging the enemy in the sight of his