ins; the charioteers, selected from among the most rapid
warriors, had for their captains only officers confident in themselves;
the horses quivered in all their limbs, and were burning to trample the
nations underfoot. As for me, I was like the warlike Montu: I stood up
before them and they saw the vigour of my arms. I, King Ramses, I was as
a hero who is conscious of his valour, and who stretches his hands over
the people in the day of battle. Those who have violated my frontier
will never more garner harvests from this earth: the period of their
soul has been fixed for ever. My forces were drawn up before them on
the 'Very Green,' a devouring flame approached them at the river mouth,
annihilation embraced them on every side. Those who were on the strand
I laid low on the seashore, slaughtered like victims of the butcher.
I made their vessels to capsize, and their riches fell into the sea."
Those who had not fallen in the fight were caught, as it were, in
the cast of a net. A rapid cruiser of the fleet carried the Egyptian
standard along the coast as far as the regions of the Orontes and
Saros. The land troops, on the other hand, following on the heels of the
defeated enemy, pushed through Coele-Syria, and in their first burst of
zeal succeeded in reaching the plains of the Euphrates. A century had
elapsed since a Pharaoh had planted his standard in this region, and the
country must have seemed as novel to the soldiers of Ramses III. as to
those of his predecessor Thutmosis.

[Illustration: 308.jpg THE DEFEAT OF THE PEOPLES OF THE SEA]

The Khati were still its masters; and all enfeebled as they were by
the ravages of the invading barbarians, were nevertheless not slow in
preparing to resist their ancient enemies. The majority of the citadels
shut their gates in the face of Ramses, who, wishing to lose no time,
did not attempt to besiege them: he treated their territory with the
usual severity, devastating their open towns, destroying their harvests,
breaking down their fruit trees, and cutting away their forests. He was
able, moreover, without arresting his march, to carry by assault several
of their fortified towns, Alaza among the number, the destruction of
which is represented in the scenes of his victories. The spoils were
considerable, and came very opportunely to reward the soldiers or to
provide funds for the erection of monuments. The last battalion of
troops, however, had hardly recrossed the isthmus when Lo