Seeing the masses of footsoldiers, the spears stacked like wheat in a broad field, the herds of horses and donkeys, and the seemingly endless ranks of chariots, Moses tried to comprehend the great campaigns he had read about, where a hundred and fifty thousand men had comprised the army. It was difficult to believe that any army could be larger than this. The river trip, so slow and changeless, disappeared into his past; and once the chariots and horses had been landed at Abydos, Seti-Keph made it plain that he would brook no further delay. He forced a march for a day and a half to the assembly area, where footsoldiers and supplies had been marshalled for months now; and then, in an angry scene with his captains, denied them the right to a day’s pleasure in Karnak. He knew full well that such a day, after the boredom of the long, river journey, could end only in violence between the men of the Delta and the half-hostile nobles of Karnak, and he had no desire to turn his campaign into fratricide before it had even begun.
